Wh-Questions

The teaching and learning process is structured around asking and answering questions. In the delivery of instruction, teachers ask questions which students are expected to answer, and students ask teachers questions in seeking clarification and elaboration and in satisfying curiosity. Textbooks and other course materials include numerous questions, either as part of the presentation of content or as a guide for study and review. Furthermore, the assessment of student progress includes tests and quizzes consisting of questions of various types. Therefore, the ability to understand, to ask, and to answer questions in English is vital to educational success and later to success on the job.

An English "wh-question" begins with a simple wh-word (for example, who, what, when, where, why, or how) or a complex wh-phrase consisting of a wh-word plus other words (for example, whose accountant, what business plan, from which sales strategy, etc.). The following wh-question begins with the wh-word what.

What is your company’s sales strategy?

The purpose of such a wh-question is to seek content information that the asker does not yet know or has perhaps forgotten. A response to this question might be something like the following, where the highlighted portion was the content previously unknown to the asker:

My company’s sales strategy is to place sales representatives in four regions of the country.

Such wh-questions are different from "yes/no questions," whose purpose is not to seek content information but to verify facts or to get a response to a request through a simple "yes" or "no" (or something in between, as with a "maybe" response). The following sentence is a yes/no question.

Does your company have a sales strategy?

Subject of Main Verb

As noted, a wh-question begins with a wh-word or phrase. If the wh-word or phrase is the subject of the main verb in the question, then the question has the same word order as an ordinary statement. An ordinary statement has the following word order for its three major grammatical structures:

SUBJECT VERB OBJECT

In the following question (Q) and answer (A) pair, who is the subject in the question, and the management team is the subject in the answer. In both the question and the answer, the subject is followed by the verb developed, which is followed by the object phrase the company’s positioning statement.

Q: Who developed the company’s positioning statement?
A: The management team developed the company’s positioning statement.

Other Positions

If the questioned position is any other position than subject of the main verb, then the word order of the wh-question will be different from a typical statement. A wh-word or phrase appears at the beginning of the question to the left of the subject, followed by a "helping verb."

The helping verb will be some form of "auxiliary verb" (AUX) such as do (does, did, etc.), be (is, are, was, etc.), or have (has, had, etc.). Or it will be some form of "modal verb" (MODAL) such as will, can, might, should, etc. The subject of the question will then follow these elements.

The wh-question word order can be represented as below, where "WH" stands for a wh-word or phrase and the dots (…) stand for whatever elements follow the verb.

WH AUX/MODAL SUBJECT VERB …

This word order is illustrated in the question of the following question/answer pair:

Q: What did the management team develop?
A: The management team developed the company’s positioning statement.

In this example, what represents the object of the verb develop. It is as if the word order of this question is OBJECT AUX SUBJECT VERB, which is very different from the word order of a statement. The answer to the question reflects the normal SUBJECT VERB OBJECT word order.

Other examples of wh-question word order are seen in the following questions:

When will the management team develop the company’s positioning statement?

Why has the management team developed the company’s positioning statement?

What kind of positioning statement should the management team develop?

For whom do you believe the management team developed a positioning statement?

Who did the management team say developed the company’s positioning statement?

The complexity of wh-question word order can be observed in these examples. In the last question, who actually represents the subject of the verb developed. An answer to this question illustrates this fact:

The management team said that the new employee developed the company’s positioning statement.

It will be seen that the different word order observed in English wh-questions, along with the use of various kinds of helping verbs, creates a special challenge for many deaf students.

A wh-question is used for seeking content information relating to persons, things, facts, time, place, reason, manner, etc. Wh-questions differ depending on the kind of content information sought. Content information associated with persons, things, and facts is generally sought with one set of wh-words, and content information associated with time, place, reason, and manner is sought with another set of wh-words.

Persons, things, facts: who, what, whose, which

Time, place, reason, and manner: when, where, why, how

Questioning Subject and Object Positions

With respect to sentence structure, content information associated with persons, things, and facts occurs in various subject and object positions within a sentence. Consider the question below and its possible answer.

Q: Who manages your company’s payroll system.
A: A local payroll firm manages our company’s payroll system.

This question with who refers to the content information in the highlighted subject position of the answer. In this case, the subject is the noun phrase, a local payroll firm.

In the next set, what refers to the content information in the highlighted object (or "complement") position in the answer after the verb said. In this case, the object is an entire clause, that a good accounting system is vital to a company’s success.

Q: What did the accountant say?
A: The accountant said that a good accounting system is vital to a company’s success.

In the next set, which marketing plan refers to the highlighted object of preposition position after the preposition about in the answer. In this case, the object of the preposition is a complex noun phrase, the marketing plan that was recently implemented.

Q: Which marketing plan were you talking about?
A: They were talking about the marketing plan that was recently implemented.

These examples illustrate that the information associated with persons, things, and facts is generally represented in sentence structure by noun phrases and clauses in various subject and object positions. In linguistic theory, these are known as "argument positions."

Questioning Other Sentence Positions

With respect to sentence structure, content information associated with time, place, reason, and manner does NOT occur in subject and object positions within a sentence. Consider the question below and its possible answer.

Q: When does your company begin its fiscal year?
A: My company begins its fiscal year on July 1.

This question with when refers to the content information in the highlighted portion of the answer. The phrase on July 1 pertains to time and is not a subject or an object.

In the next set, the question with why refers to the content information highlighted in the answer in the clause beginning with because. The clause, which expresses a reason, is not a subject or an object of the main clause, The accountant debited the account.

Q: Why did the accountant debit that customer’s account?
A: The accountant debited the account because the customer’s check bounced.

In linguistic theory, these positions associated with time, place, reason, and manner are known as "adjunct positions."

There is a fundamental difference between argument and adjunct positions. Argument positions (subjects, objects) are required in a sentence structure; adjunct positions are optional. This difference can be seen if the targeted arguments and adjuncts are removed from the answers to the above questions:

ARGUMENTS:

*… oversees our company’s payroll system
*The accountant said …

ADJUNCTS:

My company begins its fiscal year …
The accountant debited the account …

The * means that the sentences with missing arguments are ungrammatical. The sentences with missing adjuncts contain less information, but they are nevertheless well-formed, grammatical sentences. This difference has a bearing on wh-question formation.

Wh-questions that target argument positions (various subject and object positions) contain "gaps." A gap is a position within a sentence structure where something appears to be missing in comparison with most other typical sentence structures. In an ordinary English sentence, the major grammatical phrases generally appear in the order:

SUBJECT VERB OBJECT

In contrast, in a wh-question there will be a gap when the targeted grammatical phrase would appear in any position other than the subject position of the main clause. The reason there is a gap is because wh-words and phrases must move to the beginning of a wh-question in English. When the questioned position follows the main verb of the sentence, the moved wh-word or phrase leaves a gap.

Subject Position

First consider wh-questions that target the subject position:

Who developed your company’s inventory control system?

In this sentence, who appears in the subject position before the verb developed, so there is no gap.

Object Position

However, in the next question, who represents the object position after consult, so there is a gap in that position (represented for the sake of illustration by a "bullet").

Who did you consult • regarding the inventory control system?

A possible response to this question might be:

I consulted my business partner regarding the inventory control system.

In this response, which is a statement rather than a question, the noun phrase my business partner appears in the normal object position after the verb consulted.

Object of Preposition Position

In the next question, the gap appears after the preposition with. That is, the gap occupies the object of preposition position.

Who did the company reach an agreement with • ?

A possible response would have a noun phrase in the position of the gap, for example,

The company reached an agreement with the debtor.

A more formal option is to move the entire wh-phrase with whom to the beginning of the question. In this case, the formal whom is used after the preposition. The gap here represents the entire moved prepositional phrase.

With whom did the company reach an agreement •?

Wh-Questions with Whose

In the question below, the gap occurs after lose and represents the entire wh-phrase whose invoice, which has "moved up" to the front of question.

Whose invoice did the bookkeeper lose • ?

Compare a possible answer,

The bookkeeper lost the customer’s invoice.

A wh-phrase with whose is a "possessive" wh-phrase, so the answer to a wh-question containing whose will include a possessive phrase such as the customer’s, the partners’, your, their, etc.

Gap Can Be Far Away

In more complex sentences that contain embedded clauses, the gap can be very far away from the wh-word or phrase. Note the position of the gap in the following question.

What types of inventory did you say that their company uses • in their production process?

The wh-phrase is what types of inventory, which moves to the beginning of the question from its logical position after uses, leaving a gap. That gap is in an embedded clause (that their company uses • in their production process) after the verb say. A response to this question will contain a noun phrase in the object position after uses in the embedded clause, as in the following sentence:

I said that their company uses a variety of metals and plastics in their production process.

In the next question, the gap is within a clause embedded within another embedded clause. This gap represents the subject of the verb phrase should oversee.

Who did you say the company’s lawyer thinks • should oversee accounts receivable?

A possible answer to this question illustrates the levels of embedding in this question:

I said that the company’s lawyer thinks the current payroll manager should oversee accounts receivable.

In order to interpret and respond to wh-questions, a user of English must be able to mentally associate a wh-phrase with its gap.

Embedded Wh-Questions

In addition to "direct" wh-questions that begin with a wh-word or wh-phrase, there are other wh-structures that can be embedded inside English sentences. The highlighted structures in the following sentences are "indirect" or embedded wh-questions:

Tell us who manages your company’s payroll system.

The supervisor doesn’t know what the accountant said.

The bookkeeper was curious about which marketing plan you were talking about.

The investors weren’t sure when your business begins its fiscal year.

The manager explained why the accountant debited that customer’s account.

These embedded questions differ from direct wh-questions in that the entire clause occupies an argument position. In the above sentences, the embedded questions occupy various object positions.

Embedded wh-questions also differ from direct wh-questions in word order. Although an embedded question begins with a wh-word or phrase, there is no helping verb between the wh-word or phrase and the subject of the embedded question. Compare the presence of does in the direct question,

When does your business begin its fiscal year?

with the following embedded question, which contains no helping verb before the subject your business:

Tell me when your business begins its fiscal year.

Relative Clauses

Wh-words and phrases can also introduce "relative clauses." In the following sentences, the highlighted relative clauses describe or limit the meanings of the noun phrases that they follow:

The bookkeeper was curious about the marketing plan which you were talking about.

The owner hired an accountant who will manage the company’s payroll system.

1. English wh-questions are difficult structures for many deaf students.

2. Deaf students are most successful on wh-questions in which the wh-word is the subject of the main clause (e.g., Who wrote the report?).

3. Deaf students are less successful on wh-questions in which the wh-word is the object of the verb (e.g., Who did they hire?) or object of a preposition (e.g., Who did they prepare the report for?).

4. Deaf students are still less successful on wh-questions in which the wh-word represents a position in a lower clause within the sentence (e.g., Who did the manager say we should hire?).

5. Deaf students are least successful on wh-questions in which the wh-word represents the subject position within an embedded clause (e.g., Who did the manager say accepted the position?).

6. Deaf students are generally more successful on wh-questions containing who than those containing whose.

7. Deaf students generally know the right kind of wh-question for a given situation.

8. But deaf students often omit helping verbs (e.g., do, did, is, will) or make errors in verb formation (e.g., do for does).

1. Wh-questions play a central role in English discourse for requesting content information relating to persons, things, events, time, place, reason, manner, etc.

2. Knowledge of English wh-questions is critical for learning, exchanging information, and seeking clarification in personal, educational, and work environments.

3. The use of English wh-questions in instructional materials should be monitored for difficulty levels.

4. Course materials and classroom interactions can be structured to enhance students’ knowledge of English wh-questions.

1. In course materials and activities, provide models of wh-question types using the course content.

2. Allow students to formulate and respond to who, what, when, where, why, and how questions that are tied specifically to course content.

3. On quizzes and examinations where comprehension is critical, avoid using the more difficult wh-question structures. Choose alternative, simpler wh-questions.

4. Take the time to correct student assignments not only with respect to content knowledge, but also with respect to English skills. Rather than focusing on all of a student’s errors, focus on one particular skill such as wh-question formulation and responses to specific wh-question types.

5. Devise your own methods for getting a rough assessment of your students’ wh-question knowledge in order to anticipate the degree to which this knowledge might affect successful learning.