Clause derivations

There are a number of ways in which the basic structure of a clause in English can be transformed. Only some of the more notable processes are outlined here.

Questions

To form a polar question (one expecting ‘yes’ or ‘no’ as answer), the first auxiliary verb (or copula be), which bears a tense inflection, is moved to the front of the clause. Corresponding to John was eating the halva we get Was John eating the halva? and alongside John had been eating the halva there is Had John been eating the halva? There must be at least one verb in the auxiliary for question formation—if the VP contains none of have, be or a modal then do must be included to take the tense inflection; thus, corresponding to the statement John ate the halva, we get the question Did John eat the halva? The possessor verb have can behave like an auxiliary or like a lexical verb; some people say Have you any children? while others prefer Do you have any children? Note that an auxiliary cannot be moved over a complement clause, in subject slot; to form a question the complement clause must be extraposed and replaced by it. That is, we must say Is it surprising that we lost?, rather than *Is that we lost surprising?, corresponding to That we lost is surprising.

There are two modes of behavior for the negator not in a polar question. If it is reduced to be an enclitic =nt on an auxiliary, then the auxiliary-plus-=nt will be fronted in a question, as in Shouldn’t you go? However, if not retains its stressed form, as an independent word, then it is not fronted; one says Did he not go? rather than? *Did not he go? and Should you not go? in preference to? *Should not you go?

A content question (expecting a phrase or clause as answer), often called a wh- question for English, involves the same fronting, and in addition a wh- word (who, whom, whose, what, which, how, why, where or when), which refers to some constituent of the main clause, must precede the preposed auxiliary word. Compare John was hitting Mary with Who was hitting Mary?; Mary arrived yesterday with When did Mary arrive?; and John ate the halva with What did John eat? If the constituent being questioned had a preposition associated with it, then this may either be moved to initial position, before the wh- word, or left in its underlying position in the clause. Thus, corresponding to He owes his success to hard work we can have either What does he owe his success to? or To what does he owe his success?

There is an important difference between a straightforward question and a WH- complement clause; the latter involves an initial wh- element, but no fronting of the first auxiliary word. Thus Has he come? and She asked whether he had come; and Where did she hide the money? alongside He enquired where she had hidden the money. Note also that WH- complement clauses occur with many verbs that do not introduce direct speech questions, e.g. I know who did it, She remembered why he had built the boat.