WH-question

English

Noun

WH-question (plural WH-questions)

1. Alternative letter-case form of wh-question
   • 1985, James W. Gair, “Focused Sentences: Naturalization of a Calque”, in Barbara C. Lust, editor, Studies in South Asian Linguistics: Sinhala and Other South Asian Languages, New York, N.Y.: Oxford University Press, published 1998, →ISBN, part IV (Change, Grammaticization, and Linguistic Area), page 168:

     Note that one cannot describe such basic processes as yes–no question and WH-question formation, negation, or the use of emphatic particles in Sinhala without involving focusing, [...]

   • 1988, James D[avid] McCawley, “Interrogative Clauses”, in The Syntactic Phenomena of English, volume 2, Chicago, Ill., London: University of Chicago Press, →ISBN, page 464:

     In the preceding chapters, I have tentatively adopted an analysis for yes-no and WH-questions (aside from multiple WH-questions, as in (1b′), which have not been taken up yet) on the following lines: [...] [T]he S of that structure has the same form as the deep structure of a corresponding declarative sentence, except that the structure underlying a WH-question such as (1b) has a WH-expression in place of one of the constituents that could occur in a corresponding declarative; [...]