An interrogative word or question word is a
function word
In linguistics, function words (also called functors) are words that have little lexical meaning or have ambiguous meaning and express grammatical relationships among other words within a sentence, or specify the attitude or mood of the speaker. ...
used to ask a
question
A question is an utterance which serves as a request for information. Questions are sometimes distinguished from interrogatives, which are the grammar, grammatical forms typically used to express them. Rhetorical questions, for instance, are inte ...
, such as ''what, which'', ''when'', ''where'', ''
who
Who or WHO may refer to:
* Who (pronoun), an interrogative or relative pronoun
* Who?, one of the Five Ws in journalism
* World Health Organization
Arts and entertainment Fictional characters
* Who, a creature in the Dr. Seuss book '' Horton He ...
, whom, whose'', ''why'', ''whether'' and ''how''. They are sometimes called wh-words, because in
English
English usually refers to:
* English language
* English people
English may also refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England
** English national ide ...
most of them start with ''
wh-'' (compare
Five Ws
The Five Ws (sometimes referred to as Five Ws and How, 5W1H, or Six Ws) are questions whose answers are considered basic in information gathering or problem solving. They are often mentioned in journalism (''cf.'' news style), research, and poli ...
). They may be used in both direct questions (''Where is he going?'') and in
indirect question In grammar, a content clause is a dependent clause that provides content implied or commented upon by an independent clause. The term was coined by Danish linguist Otto Jespersen. They are also known as noun clauses.
English
In English, there are ...
s (''I wonder where he is going''). In English and various other languages the same forms are also used as
relative pronoun
A relative pronoun is a pronoun that marks a relative clause. It serves the purpose of conjoining modifying information about an antecedent referent.
An example is the word ''which'' in the sentence "This is the house which Jack built." Here the ...
s in certain
relative clause
A relative clause is a clause that modifies a noun or noun phraseRodney D. Huddleston, Geoffrey K. Pullum, ''A Student's Introduction to English Grammar'', CUP 2005, p. 183ff. and uses some grammatical device to indicate that one of the arguments ...
s (''The country where he was born'') and certain
adverb clauses (''I go where he goes''). It can also be used as a modal, since question words are more likely to appear in modal sentences, like (''Why was he walking?'')
A particular type of interrogative word is the interrogative particle, which serves to convert a statement into a
yes–no question
In linguistics, a yes–no question, also known as a binary question, a polar question, or a general question is a question whose expected answer is one of two choices, one that provides an affirmative answer to the question versus one that provid ...
, without having any other meaning. Examples include ''est-ce que'' in
French, ли ''li'' in
Russian
Russian(s) refers to anything related to Russia, including:
*Russians (, ''russkiye''), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries
*Rossiyane (), Russian language term for all citizens and peo ...
, ''czy'' in
Polish
Polish may refer to:
* Anything from or related to Poland, a country in Europe
* Polish language
* Poles
Poles,, ; singular masculine: ''Polak'', singular feminine: ''Polka'' or Polish people, are a West Slavic nation and ethnic group, w ...
, чи ''chy in''
Ukrainian
Ukrainian may refer to:
* Something of, from, or related to Ukraine
* Something relating to Ukrainians, an East Slavic people from Eastern Europe
* Something relating to demographics of Ukraine in terms of demography and population of Ukraine
* So ...
, ''ĉu'' in
Esperanto
Esperanto ( or ) is the world's most widely spoken constructed international auxiliary language. Created by the Warsaw-based ophthalmologist L. L. Zamenhof in 1887, it was intended to be a universal second language for international communi ...
, ''āyā'' آیا in
Persian
Persian may refer to:
* People and things from Iran, historically called ''Persia'' in the English language
** Persians, the majority ethnic group in Iran, not to be conflated with the Iranic peoples
** Persian language, an Iranian language of the ...
, কি ''ki'' in
Bengali
Bengali or Bengalee, or Bengalese may refer to:
*something of, from, or related to Bengal, a large region in South Asia
* Bengalis, an ethnic and linguistic group of the region
* Bengali language, the language they speak
** Bengali alphabet, the w ...
, / ''ma'' in
Mandarin Chinese
Mandarin (; ) is a group of Chinese (Sinitic) dialects that are natively spoken across most of northern and southwestern China. The group includes the Beijing dialect, the basis of the phonology of Standard Chinese, the official language of ...
, '/' in
Turkish, ''pa'' in
Ladin
Ladin may refer to:
* Ladin language, a language in northern Italy, often classified as a Rhaeto-Romance language
*Ladin people, the inhabitants of the Dolomite Alps region of northern Italy
See also
*Laden (disambiguation)
* Ladino (disambigua ...
, ''ka'' in
Japanese
Japanese may refer to:
* Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia
* Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan
* Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture
** Japanese diaspor ...
, ''kka'' in
Korean
Korean may refer to:
People and culture
* Koreans, ethnic group originating in the Korean Peninsula
* Korean cuisine
* Korean culture
* Korean language
**Korean alphabet, known as Hangul or Chosŏn'gŭl
**Korean dialects and the Jeju language
** ...
, ''ko/kö'' in Finnish and (да) ли ''(da) li'' in
Serbo-Croatian
Serbo-Croatian () – also called Serbo-Croat (), Serbo-Croat-Bosnian (SCB), Bosnian-Croatian-Serbian (BCS), and Bosnian-Croatian-Montenegrin-Serbian (BCMS) – is a South Slavic language and the primary language of Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia and ...
. ''"Is it true that..."'' would be a similar construct in English. Such
particle
In the Outline of physical science, physical sciences, a particle (or corpuscule in older texts) is a small wikt:local, localized physical body, object which can be described by several physical property, physical or chemical property, chemical ...
s contrast with other interrogative words, which form what are called
''wh''-questions rather than yes–no questions.
For more information about the grammatical rules for forming questions in various languages, see
Interrogative
An interrogative clause is a clause whose form is typically associated with question-like meanings. For instance, the English sentence "Is Hannah sick?" has interrogative syntax which distinguishes it from its declarative counterpart "Hannah is ...
.
In English
Interrogative words in English can serve as interrogative determiners, interrogative pronouns, or interrogative adverbs. Certain
pronominal adverb
A pronominal adverb is a type of adverb occurring in a number of Germanic languages, formed in replacement of a preposition and a pronoun by turning the former into a prepositional adverb and the latter into a locative adverb, and finally joining ...
s may also be used as interrogative words, such as ''whereby'' or ''wherefore''.
Interrogative determiner
The interrogative words ''which, what,'' and ''whose'' are
interrogative determiners when used to prompt the specification of a presented
noun
A noun () is a word that generally functions as the name of a specific object or set of objects, such as living creatures, places, actions, qualities, states of existence, or ideas.Example nouns for:
* Living creatures (including people, alive, d ...
or
noun phrase
In linguistics, a noun phrase, or nominal (phrase), is a phrase that has a noun or pronoun as its head or performs the same grammatical function as a noun. Noun phrases are very common cross-linguistically, and they may be the most frequently oc ...
such as in the question ''
Which farm is the largest?'' where the interrogative determiner ''which'' prompts specification of the noun ''farm''. In the question ''
Whose gorgeous, pink painting is that?'', ''whose'' is the
interrogative
An interrogative clause is a clause whose form is typically associated with question-like meanings. For instance, the English sentence "Is Hannah sick?" has interrogative syntax which distinguishes it from its declarative counterpart "Hannah is ...
,
personal
Personal may refer to:
Aspects of persons' respective individualities
* Privacy
* Personality
* Personal, personal advertisement, variety of classified advertisement used to find romance or friendship
Companies
* Personal, Inc., a Washington, ...
,
possessive determiner Possessive determiners (from la, possessivus, translit=; grc, κτητικός / ktētikós - en. ktetic
Lallu) are determiners which express possession. Some traditional grammars of English refer to them as possessive adjectives, though they do ...
prompting a specification for the possessor of the noun phrase ''gorgeous pink painting''.
Interrogative pronoun
The interrogative words ''who, whom, whose, what,'' and ''which'' are interrogative pronouns when used in the place of a
noun
A noun () is a word that generally functions as the name of a specific object or set of objects, such as living creatures, places, actions, qualities, states of existence, or ideas.Example nouns for:
* Living creatures (including people, alive, d ...
or
noun phrase
In linguistics, a noun phrase, or nominal (phrase), is a phrase that has a noun or pronoun as its head or performs the same grammatical function as a noun. Noun phrases are very common cross-linguistically, and they may be the most frequently oc ...
. In the question ''
Who is the leader?,'' the interrogative word ''who'' is a interrogative
pronoun
In linguistics and grammar, a pronoun (abbreviated ) is a word or a group of words that one may substitute for a noun or noun phrase.
Pronouns have traditionally been regarded as one of the parts of speech, but some modern theorists would not co ...
because it stands in the place of the noun or noun phrase the question prompts (e.g. ''the king'' or ''the woman with the crown''). Similarly, in the question ''
Which leads to the city center?'' the interrogative word ''which'' is an interrogative pronoun because it stands in the place of a noun or noun phrase (e.g. ''the road to the north'' or ''the river to your east''). Note, ''which'' is an interrogative
pronoun
In linguistics and grammar, a pronoun (abbreviated ) is a word or a group of words that one may substitute for a noun or noun phrase.
Pronouns have traditionally been regarded as one of the parts of speech, but some modern theorists would not co ...
, not an interrogative
determiner
A determiner, also called determinative (abbreviated ), is a word, phrase, or affix that occurs together with a noun or noun phrase and generally serves to express the reference of that noun or noun phrase in the context. That is, a determiner m ...
, because there is no noun or noun phrase present to serve as a
determiner
A determiner, also called determinative (abbreviated ), is a word, phrase, or affix that occurs together with a noun or noun phrase and generally serves to express the reference of that noun or noun phrase in the context. That is, a determiner m ...
for. Consequently, in the question ''Which leads to the city center?'' the word ''which'' is an interrogative pronoun; when in the question ''Which road leads to the city center?'' the word ''which'' is an interrogative determiner for the noun ''road''.
Interrogative adverb
The interrogative words ''where, when, how, why, whether, whatsoever'', and the more archaic ''
whither
A locative adverb is a type of adverb that refers to a location or to a combination of a location and a relation to that location. Generally, a locative adverb is semantically equivalent to a prepositional phrase involving a locative or directiona ...
'' and ''
whence
A locative adverb is a type of adverb that refers to a location or to a combination of a location and a relation to that location. Generally, a locative adverb is semantically equivalent to a prepositional phrase involving a locative or directiona ...
'' are interrogative
adverbs An adverb is a word or an expression that generally modifies a verb, adjective, another adverb, determiner, clause, preposition, or sentence. Adverbs typically express manner, place, time, frequency, degree, level of certainty, etc., answering que ...
when they modify a verb. In the question ''
How did you announce the deal?'' the interrogative word ''how'' is an interrogative adverb because it modifies the verb ''did'' (past tense of ''to do''). In the question ''
Why should I read that book?'' the interrogative word ''why'' is an interrogative adverb because it describes the verb ''should''.
Note, interrogative adverbs always describe
auxiliary verbs
An auxiliary verb (abbreviated ) is a verb that adds functional or grammatical meaning to the clause in which it occurs, so as to express tense, aspect, modality, voice, emphasis, etc. Auxiliary verbs usually accompany an infinitive verb or a p ...
such as ''did, do, should, will, must,'' or ''might''.
Yes-no questions
Yes-no questions can begin with an interrogative particle, such as:
* A conjugation of
be (e.g. "Are you hungry?")
* A conjugation of
do (e.g. "Do you want fries?") - see
* A conjugation of another
auxiliary verb
An auxiliary verb (abbreviated ) is a verb that adds functional or grammatical meaning to the clause in which it occurs, so as to express tense, aspect, modality, voice, emphasis, etc. Auxiliary verbs usually accompany an infinitive verb or a p ...
, including contractions (e.g. "Can't you move any faster?")
English questions can also be formed without an interrogative word as the first word, by changing the intonation or punctuation of a statement. For example: "You're done eating?"
Etymology
Ultimately, the English interrogative pronouns (those beginning with ''
wh'' in addition to the word ''how''), derive from the
Proto-Indo-European
Proto-Indo-European (PIE) is the reconstructed common ancestor of the Indo-European language family. Its proposed features have been derived by linguistic reconstruction from documented Indo-European languages. No direct record of Proto-Indo-E ...
root
''kwo-'' or ''kwi'', the former of which was reflected in
Proto-Germanic
Proto-Germanic (abbreviated PGmc; also called Common Germanic) is the reconstructed proto-language of the Germanic branch of the Indo-European languages.
Proto-Germanic eventually developed from pre-Proto-Germanic into three Germanic branc ...
as ''χ
wa-'' or ''kh
wa-'', due to
Grimm's law
Grimm's law (also known as the First Germanic Sound Shift) is a set of sound laws describing the Proto-Indo-European (PIE) stop consonants as they developed in Proto-Germanic in the 1st millennium BC. First systematically put forward by Jacob Gr ...
.
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
Grimm's law (also known as the First Germanic Sound Shift) is a set of sound laws describing the Proto-Indo-European (PIE) stop consonants as they developed in Proto-Germanic in the 1st millennium BC. First systematically put forward by Jacob Gr ...
) during the development of
Germanic languages
The Germanic languages are a branch of the Indo-European language family spoken natively by a population of about 515 million people mainly in Europe, North America, Oceania and Southern Africa. The most widely spoken Germanic language, Engli ...
is responsible for "wh-" of interrogatives. Although some varieties of
American English
American English, sometimes called United States English or U.S. English, is the set of variety (linguistics), varieties of the English language native to the United States. English is the Languages of the United States, most widely spoken lan ...
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
Old English (, ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the early Middle Ages. It was brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain, Anglo ...
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
Ike or IKE may refer to:
People
* Ike (given name), a list of people with the name or nickname
* Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890–1969), Supreme Commander of the Allied forces in Europe during World War II and President of the United States Surname
...
, or other words from the same root (''how'' deriving from ''hū'').
The Proto-Indo-European root also directly originated the
Latin
Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...
and
Romance
Romance (from Vulgar Latin , "in the Roman language", i.e., "Latin") may refer to:
Common meanings
* Romance (love), emotional attraction towards another person and the courtship behaviors undertaken to express the feelings
* Romance languages, ...
form ''qu-'' in words such as Latin ''quī'' ("which") and ''quando'' ("when"); it has also undergone sound and spelling changes, as in French ''
qui'' "which", with initial /k/, and Spanish ''
cuando,'' with initial /kw/.
Forms with ''-ever''
Most English interrogative words can take the
suffix
In linguistics, a suffix is an affix which is placed after the stem of a word. Common examples are case endings, which indicate the grammatical case of nouns, adjectives, and verb endings, which form the conjugation of verbs. Suffixes can carry ...
''-ever'', to form words such as ''whatever'' and ''wherever''. (Older forms of the suffix are ''-so'' and ''-soever'', as in ''whoso'' and ''whomsoever''.) These words have the following main meanings:
*As more emphatic interrogative words, often expressing disbelief or puzzlement in mainly
rhetorical question
A rhetorical question is one for which the questioner does not expect a direct answer: in many cases it may be intended to start a discourse, or as a means of displaying or emphasize the speaker's or author's opinion on a topic.
A common example ...
s: ''Whoever could have done such a thing? Wherever has he gone?''
*To form
free relative clause
A relative clause is a clause that modifies a noun or noun phraseRodney D. Huddleston, Geoffrey K. Pullum, ''A Student's Introduction to English Grammar'', CUP 2005, p. 183ff. and uses some grammatical device to indicate that one of the arguments ...
s, as in ''I'll do whatever you do'', ''Whoever challenges us shall be punished'', ''Go to wherever they go''. In this use, the nominal ''-ever'' words (''who(m)ever'', ''whatever'', ''whichever'') can be regarded as
indefinite pronoun
An indefinite pronoun is a pronoun which does not have a specific familiar referent. Indefinite pronouns are in contrast to definite pronouns.
Indefinite pronouns can represent either count nouns or noncount nouns. They often have related for ...
s or as
relative pronouns
A relative pronoun is a pronoun that marks a relative clause. It serves the purpose of conjoining modifying information about an antecedent referent.
An example is the word ''which'' in the sentence "This is the house which Jack built." Here the ...
.
*To form
adverbial clause
An adverbial clause is a dependent clause that functions as an adverb. That is, the entire clause modifies a separate element within a sentence. As with all clauses, it contains a subject and predicate, though the subject as well as the (predicat ...
s with the meaning "no matter where/who/etc.": ''Wherever they hide, I will find them''.
Some of these words have also developed independent meanings, such as ''however'' as an
adverb An adverb is a word or an expression that generally modifies a verb, adjective, another adverb, determiner, clause, preposition, or sentence. Adverbs typically express manner, place, time, frequency, degree, level of certainty, etc., answering ...
meaning "nonetheless"; ''whatsoever'' as an emphatic adverb used with ''no'', ''none'', ''any'', ''nothing'', etc. (''I did nothing wrong whatsoever''); and ''
whatever'' in its slang usage.
Other languages
A frequent class of interrogative words in several other languages is the interrogative verb:
*
Korean
Korean may refer to:
People and culture
* Koreans, ethnic group originating in the Korean Peninsula
* Korean cuisine
* Korean culture
* Korean language
**Korean alphabet, known as Hangul or Chosŏn'gŭl
**Korean dialects and the Jeju language
** ...
:
*
Mongolian:
Australian Aboriginal languages
Interrogative
pronoun
In linguistics and grammar, a pronoun (abbreviated ) is a word or a group of words that one may substitute for a noun or noun phrase.
Pronouns have traditionally been regarded as one of the parts of speech, but some modern theorists would not co ...
s in
Australian Aboriginal languages
The Indigenous languages of Australia number in the hundreds, the precise number being quite uncertain, although there is a range of estimates from a minimum of around 250 (using the technical definition of 'language' as non-mutually intellig ...
are a diverse set of lexical items with functions extending far beyond simply the formation of questions (though this is one of their uses). These pronominal
stems are sometimes called ignoratives or epistememes because their broader function is to convey differing degrees of perceptual or
epistemic
Epistemology (; ), or the theory of knowledge, is the branch of philosophy concerned with knowledge. Epistemology is considered a major subfield of philosophy, along with other major subfields such as ethics, logic, and metaphysics.
Episte ...
certainty. Often, a singular ignorative stem may serve a variety of interrogative functions that would be expressed by different lexical items in, say, English through contextual variation and interaction with other
morphology
Morphology, from the Greek and meaning "study of shape", may refer to:
Disciplines
* Morphology (archaeology), study of the shapes or forms of artifacts
* Morphology (astronomy), study of the shape of astronomical objects such as nebulae, galaxies ...
such as
case-marking. In
Jingulu, for example, the single stem ''nyamba'' may come to mean 'what,' 'where,' 'why,' or 'how' through combination with
locative
In grammar, the locative case (abbreviated ) is a grammatical case which indicates a location. It corresponds vaguely to the English prepositions "in", "on", "at", and "by". The locative case belongs to the general local cases, together with the ...
,
dative
In grammar, the dative case (abbreviated , or sometimes when it is a core argument) is a grammatical case used in some languages to indicate the recipient or beneficiary of an action, as in "Maria Jacobo potum dedit", Latin for "Maria gave Jacob a ...
,
ablative
In grammar, the ablative case (pronounced ; sometimes abbreviated ) is a grammatical case for nouns, pronouns, and adjectives in the grammars of various languages; it is sometimes used to express motion away from something, among other uses. T ...
, and
instrumental
An instrumental is a recording normally without any vocals, although it might include some inarticulate vocals, such as shouted backup vocals in a big band setting. Through semantic widening, a broader sense of the word song may refer to instru ...
case suffixes:
(Adapted from Pensalfini)
Other closely related languages, however, have less interrelated ways of forming wh-questions with separate
lexeme
A lexeme () is a unit of lexical meaning that underlies a set of words that are related through inflection. It is a basic abstract unit of meaning, a unit of morphological analysis in linguistics that roughly corresponds to a set of forms taken ...
s for each of these wh-pronouns. This includes
Wardaman, which has a collection of entirely unrelated interrogative stems: ''yinggiya'' ‘who,’ ''ngamanda'' ‘what,’ ''guda'' ‘where,’ ''nyangurlang'' ‘when,’ ''gun.garr-ma'' ‘how many/what kind.’
Mushin (1995) and Verstraete (2018)
provide detailed overviews of the broader functions of ignoratives in an array of languages. The latter focuses on the lexeme ''ngaani'' in many
Paman Languages
The Paman languages are an Australian language family spoken on Cape York Peninsula, Queensland. First noted by Kenneth Hale, Paman is noteworthy for the profound phonological changes which have affected some of its descendants.
Classifica ...
which can have a
Wh-like interrogative function but can also have a sense of epistemic indefiniteness or uncertainty like 'some' or 'perhaps;' see the following examples from
Umpithamu:
Wh-question
Adnominal
In linguistics, an adjunct is an optional, or ''structurally dispensable'', part of a sentence, clause, or phrase that, if removed or discarded, will not structurally affect the remainder of the sentence. Example: In the sentence ''John helped Bill ...
/
Determiner
A determiner, also called determinative (abbreviated ), is a word, phrase, or affix that occurs together with a noun or noun phrase and generally serves to express the reference of that noun or noun phrase in the context. That is, a determiner m ...
Adverbial
In English grammar, an adverbial (abbreviated ) is a word (an adverb) or a group of words (an adverbial clause or adverbial phrase) that modifies or more closely defines the sentence or the verb. (The word ''adverbial'' itself is also used as a ...
(Verstraete 2018)
See also
*
Five Ws
The Five Ws (sometimes referred to as Five Ws and How, 5W1H, or Six Ws) are questions whose answers are considered basic in information gathering or problem solving. They are often mentioned in journalism (''cf.'' news style), research, and poli ...
*
Indeterminate pronoun An indeterminate pronoun is a pronoun which can show a variety of readings depending on the type of sentence it occurs in. The term "indeterminate pronoun" originates in Kuroda's (1965) thesis and is typically used in reference to ''wh-''indetermina ...
*
Sentence function
In linguistics, a sentence function refers to a speaker's purpose in uttering a specific sentence, phrase, or clause. Whether a listener is present or not is sometimes irrelevant. It answers the question: "Why has this been said?" The four basic se ...
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Interrogative Word
Interrogative words and phrases