Interrogatives
Kathryn Wood
Student, University of North Carolina at Pembroke
Introduction
According to The Oxford
Companion to the English Language, interrogatives
are "the grammatical structure through which questions are asked".
In other words, interrogatives are a way of obtaining information.
The term interrogative comes from the Latin term interrogatives.
While the term has changed over time, the concept has remained the same.
Many scholars claim the term interrogative refers to the function
of the sentence while question refers
to the classification of the sentence, but for this paper, the two terms
will be used interchangeably. Interrogatives can be formed in many
ways by manipulating the order of words in a sentence. Depending
on the desired response, the same questions can be formulated in different
ways.
Explanations and Examples
Yes-No
Questions
Questions to which a yes-no response is expected are formed by reversing
the order of the subject and the verb of the sentence. The verb is
usually one of the following: be, have, or do, or a
modal verb.
“To be” verbs If
the statement contains a “to be” verb—be, is, are, am, was, were, been,
being-- shift the verb to the beginning of the sentence.For
example:You are a student.Are
you a student?
Modal verbsIn
the case of modal verbs (auxiliaries)—can, could, will, would, shall, should,
may, might, must, ought to—do the same as with the “to be” verbs.
For example:I
could go to the library.
Could
I go to the library?
“To have” verbs
With “to have” verbs the same
rule applies except a “dummy do” is also required because the basic sentence
had neither a “to be” verb nor a modal verb.
For example:The
girl had a ball.
Does
the girl have a ball?
Dummy
“do”
Before a sentence can be transformed
in a question it must have either an auxiliary or a form of “to be”.Without
one of these elements, a “do” auxiliary must be added.
For example:She
does have a ball.
Does
she have a ball?
Wh-Word
Questions
Wh-words refers to the interrogative pronouns: how, who (ever),
whom, whose, what (ever), which, when, where (ever), and why (ever).
These questions expect a more detailed response than the yes/no questions.
To transform a sentence into a wh-word question first identify the wh-element
then, (1) if the wh-element is the subject, make no change in the statement
order. For example
Someone (has) borrowed my pencil.
Who has borrowed by pencil?
or (2) if the wh-element is some other element, for example- an adverb-
place it before the verb between the wh-element and the subject. For
example:You came inside when
it started to rain.When
did you come inside?
Notice when the main verb is not a “to be” verb or a “have” verb, the
“dummy do is introduced.
Unconscious Effort
Perhaps you did not realize you were capable of such a complex manipulation
of a statement. The fact is, you have been doing these very things
for a long time. We learned how to ask a question at a very young
age and without even realizing it, we started to implement the rules for
forming question. Anyone who has heard a child learning to speak
can remember when the question was one word: "Why?" or "Where?"‘
An outsider may not have understood the question, but people familiar with
the child realized that "Why?" and "Where?" were understood within
the context they were spoken. Slowly, "Why?" transformed into "Why
rain?" and eventually into "Why is it raining?” "Where?"
became "Where Daddy?” and eventually "Where is Daddy?” Because these
transformations occurred at a young age, they became unconscious, as we
grew older.
Interrogatives and Literature
Interrogatives are not widely used as a basis in literature;
however, a question may occasionally surface to induce thought. One
exception to this generality is William Butler Yeat's Leda and the Swan.
Yeats uses interrogatives in this poem because of the closeness to the
language of exclamation. For example
when he writes, "Did she put on his knowledge with his power / Before the
indifferent beak could let her drop?" he uses interrogatives to emphasize
the point.
In Walt Whitman's Crossing Brooklyn Ferry interrogatives are
used not to draw answers or to induce thought, but to imply a fact.
When he writes, "Ah, what can ever be more stately and admirable to me
than mast-hemm'd Manhattan?" he is stating, rather than questioning, his
admiration for Manhattan.
Interrogatives
and Rhetoric
The uses of interrogatives in the works of Yeats and Whitman
also exemplify the rhetorical use of interrogatives. Interrogatives
encourage the reader to distinguish the main point of the author, and to
either accept it or reject it, but in either case the interrogative implies
that the reader is unable to argue the facts presented. For example
in the above quote from Crossing Brooklyn Ferry, the reader cannot
refute Whitman's admiration of the "mast-hemm'd Manhattan".
Works Cited
Bloom, Harold, ed. William Butler Yeats. New York: Chelsea
House Publishers, 1986.
Kolln, Martha, and Robert Funk. Understanding English Grammar
. Massachusetts:Allyn & Bacon,1998
Oxford University Press. The Oxford Companion to the English
Language. Oxford: Oxford University Press,1992.
Quirk, Randolph, and et.al. A Comprehensive Grammar of the English
Language.New York: Longman Group, Limited, 1985.
Whately, Richard. Elements of Rhetoric. Carbondale: Southern
Illinois University Press, 1963.
Whitman, Walt. Leaves of Grass. Garden City:
Doubleday & Company: 1926.
EXERCISE
Use the following exercises to test your understanding of interrogatives.
Change the following statements into yes-no interrogatives:
1. I have a red wagon.
2. She is a student.
3. The trees are green.
Change the same sentences into wh-questions.
Change the same sentences into dummy-do questions.
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