Whether

In English, the interrogative words (sometimes known as "''wh'' words") may be divided into those associated with asking open-ended questions (''how'', ''what'', ''when'', ''where'', ''which'', ''who'', ''whom'', ''whose'', and ''why'', all of which also have ''-ever'' forms, e.g., ''whatever'') and those associated with asking closed-ended questions (''whether'' and ''if'').

The main role of these words is to mark a clause as interrogative. For example, ''How did you do it?'' is marked as an interrogative clause by the presence of ''how'', and in ''I wonder whether it's true'', ''whether'' marks the subordinate clause ''whether it's true'' as interrogative.

Extended membership

Along with the words listed above, the members include some older or archaic words, including ''whence'', ''whither'', and other compound prepositions such as ''whereby'', ''wherein'', formed from one of the central interrogative words plus a preposition.

Semantics

Semantically speaking, when used in a main clause, the interrogative words do not refer but rather question. For example, ''who'' in ''Who likes sewage?'' does not pick out a specific individual in the world, but rather asks about the identity of such an individual, should they exist. In a subordinate clause, though, this may be different. For example, ''how'' in ''I know how to do it'', denotes a particular way of doing it rather than asking about a way.

Individual words

* ''What'' is used to ask about or denote the identity of almost anything including situations (''What's happening''), objects (''What is that thing?''), and places (''What city?''). It cannot typically be used for persons, especially on its own. For example, ''What is behind that door?'' cannot be used to ask about a person unless it is not clear that it is a person. However, it may be used for a person's role (''What is he?''), and it can be combined with a noun denoting a person (''What person would do that?'' or ''What child doesn't love their parents?'').
* ''Who'' (with its other forms ''whom'' and ''whose'') is limited to asking about the identity of persons or denoting them.
* ''Which'' is used to ask about or denote one or more members from a set.
* ''Where'' is used to ask about or denote locations.
* ''When'' is used to ask about or denote times.
* ''How'' is used to ask about or denote manner, dispositions, and evaluations.
* ''Why'' is used to ask about or denote reasons, causes, and explanations.
* ''Whence'' and ''whither'' (both distinctly archaic) refer to a place (broadly conceived) with respectively a "from" and a "to" meaning.
All of the words above may be used to ask for any number of answers. For example, ''Who comes on Thursday?'' can be asked whether the expected response is singular or plural. (For agreement purposes, though, interrogative words are singular.)

In contrast, ''whether'' and ''if'', like other subordinators, have no semantic value, and simply mark the clause as interrogative.

Lexical categories and syntactic functions

Although the main role of interrogative words is to mark a clause as interrogative, each also has a syntactic function when used in a phrase with one or more dependents, just as any word would. For example, in ''What time works for you?'', ''what'' functions as a determiner within the noun phrase (and interrogative phrase) ''what time''; while in ''Who arrived?'', ''who'' (itself a noun phrase and interrogative phrase, although it lacks dependents) functions as the subject.

Different words have different functions depending on their lexical category. For example, while a pronoun like ''who'' may typically function as a subject, a preposition like ''when'' rarely does so. Moreover, the form of the word may constrain its function. ''Whose'' (the genitive form of ''who''), for instance, can function as a determiner, while ''who'' and ''whom'' cannot.

Individual words

* ''Who'' (together with its forms ''whom'' and ''whose'') is a pronoun.
* ''What'' is a pronoun or determiner.
* ''Which'' is a pronoun or determiner.
* ''Where'' is a preposition.
* ''When'' is a preposition.
* ''How'' is usually an adverb (e.g., ''How rusty is it?'') but sometimes an adjective (e.g., ''How was the movie?'').
* ''Why'' is an adverb.
* ''Whether'' and ''if'' are subordinators.

Syntax

Interrogative words typically appear initially in interrogative clauses. It is possible, however, for adjuncts to be moved in front (''Tomorrow where are you going?'') and interrogative words may even appear elsewhere, as in ''You did what?'' or ''And you put this where?'' When there are two or more interrogative phrases in a single clause, only one may move to the front of the clause, as in ''Who said to do what?'' or ''What did who say to do?'' (and neither *''Who what said to do?'' nor *''What who said to do?'').

Interrogative words may also be used on their own. ''What?'' for example, is often used to signal that the speaker didn't hear or understand what was said.

Etymology

Ultimately, the English interrogative words (those beginning with '' wh'' in addition to the word ''how''), derive from the Proto-Indo-European root ''k^wo-'' or ''k^wi'', the former of which was reflected in Proto-Germanic as ''χ^wa-'' or ''kh^wa-'', due to Grimm's law.

These underwent further sound changes and spelling changes, notably ''wh''-cluster reductions, resulting in the initial sound being either /w/ (in most dialects) or /h/ (''how, who'') and the initial spelling being either ''wh'' or ''h'' (''how''). This was the result of two sound changes – /hw/ > /h/ before /uː/ (''how, who'') and /hw/ > /w/ otherwise – and the spelling change from ''hw'' to ''wh'' in Middle English. The unusual pronunciation versus spelling of ''who'' is because the vowel was formerly /aː/, and thus it did not undergo the sound change in Old English, but in Middle English (following spelling change) the vowel changed to /uː/ and it followed the same sound change as ''how'' before it, but with the Middle English spelling unchanged.

In ''how'' (Old English ''hū'', from Proto-Germanic ''χ^wō''), the ''w'' merged into the lave of the word, as it did in Old Frisian ''hū, hō'' (Dutch ''hoe'' "how"), but it can still be seen in Old Saxon ''hwō'', Old High German ''hwuo'' (German ''wie'' "how"). In English, the gradual change of voiceless stops into voiceless fricatives (phase 1 of Grimm's law) during the development of Germanic languages is responsible for "wh-" of interrogatives. Although some varieties of American English and various Scottish dialects still preserve the original sound (i.e. �rather than , most have only the

The words ''who'', ''whom'', ''whose'', ''what'' and ''why'', can all be considered to come from a single Old English word ''hwā'', reflecting its masculine and feminine nominative (''hwā''), dative (''hwām''), genitive (''hwæs''), neuter nominative and accusative (''hwæt''), and instrumental (masculine and neuter singular) (''hwȳ'', later ''hwī'') respectively. Other interrogative words, such as ''which'', ''how'', ''where'', ''whence'', or ''whither'', derive either from compounds (''which'' coming from a compound of ''hwā'' hat, whoand ''līc'' ike, or other words from the same root (''how'' deriving from ''hū'').

Interrogative vs relative words

There is significant overlap between the English interrogative words and the English relative words, but the relative words ''that'' and ''while'' are not interrogative words, and, in Standard English, ''what'' and ''how'' are mostly excluded from the relative words. Most or all of the archaic interrogative words are also relative words.

Although as an interrogative word, ''whose'' is limited to denoting persons, relative ''whose'' may denote non-persons, as in ''a book whose cover is missing''.

Interrogative versus echo-question words

An inaudible, incomprehensible, or implausible word can be questioned with either of the echo-question words, ''what'' or ''who'':
*''We'll have to extrapolate for the next three years.'' / ''We'll have to what for the next three years?''
*''Previous attachés included Robin Vane-Tempest-Stewart.'' / ''Robin vain who?''
Echo-question words are not interrogative words. In the first example, ''what'' is a verb; in the second, ''who'' is not phrase-initial. Neither is possible for interrogative ''what'' or ''who''.

Interrogative versus exclamative words

There are only two English exclamative words, ''what'' and ''how''.

* ''What a lovely day!''
* ''How much snow has fallen!''
* ''How nice it is to finally meet you!''

They are not interrogative words. They appear in exclamative phrases on their own or in exclamative clauses, and, as with interrogatives, participate in unbounded dependency constructions.

Notes

References

{{Reflist

English words
English grammar
Syntax
Semantics