VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI
UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
FACULTY OF POSTGRADUATE STUDIES


NGUYỄN VĂN CƯƠNG A STUDY ON STRUCTURAL AND SEMANTIC PATTERNS
OF WH-QUESTIONS IN ENGLISH

NGHIÊN CỨU VỀ MÔ HÌNH CẤU TRÚC VÀ NGỮ NGHĨA CỦA CÂU HỎI
CÓ TỪ HỎI TRONG TIẾNG ANH

M.A MINOR THESIS

Field: English Linguistics
Code: 60 22 15
HANOI, 2011

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ABSTRACT
The thesis entitled “A Study on structural and semantic patterns of Wh-
questions in English” is to analyze and illustrate the types of wh-questions and their
semantic features. This one is also to investigate the students' categories of mistakes when
using wh-questions, find out the causes, suggest some possible solutions to these matters,
and propose several pedagogical implications for the teachers at the research site. This
study is divided into three major sections. The first one sets out the rationale of the study as
well as the aims, the methodology and the design of the study. The second section contains
three chapters. Chapter 1 offers the most relevant factors involving a wh-question such as
notions of wh-questions, wh-rhetorical questions, operators, wh-words and their semantic
features relating information structure, presupposition and theme and rheme. Chapter 2 is
to describe the types of wh-questions based on structures and discourse and the types of
presuppositions in wh-questions. Chapter 3 is the study about the mistakes that the students
in Kinh Mon high school often make in using a wh-question. The data were collected
among 100 eleven grade students in Kinh Mon high school by means of questionnaires.
The findings highlighted students’ categories of mistakes including wrong use of wh-
words, wrong use of operators, non-inversion failure and some other subtypes. Through the
findings, the author also assumes some causes of the mistakes and suggests some possible
solutions in order to help students avoid committing these types of mistakes.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS Page
Retention i
Acknowledgements ii
Abstract iii

1.5 Theme- Rheme Structure in wh-questions 14
1.6. Presupposition 15
Chapter 2 : The structural and semantic patterns
of English wh-questions 16
2.1. STRUCTURAL PATTERNS OF ENGLISH WH-QUESTIONS 16
2.1.1. Wh-words as subjects of the wh-questions 16
2.1.2. Non-subject wh-questions 18
2.1.3. Verb-oriented questions 19
2.1.4. Wh-questions with prepositions 20
2.1.5. Emphatic wh-questions. 21
2.1.6. Negative structures in Wh- questions 21
2.1.7. Response questions 21
2.1.7.1. Short response questions 21
2.1.7.2. Wh-echo questions 22
2.1.8. Multiple wh-element Questions 23
2.1.9. Wh-rhetorical questions 24
2.1.10. Formulaic wh-questions 26
2.2. SEMANTIC PATTERNS OF ENGLISH WH-QUESTIONS 28
Chapter 3: Errors made by eleventh grade students
in using wh-questions. 31
3.1. Introduction 31
3.2.Setting 31
3.2.1. Setting of the study 31
3.2.2 Participants 31
3.3. Research instrument - Questionnaire 32
3.2.1. Objectives of the survey questionaire 32
3.2.2. The Survey questionnaire 32
3.4. Procedures 33
3.5. Findings 33
3.5.1. Wrong use of wh-word 35

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Part 1: Introduction
1. Rationale
It is undeniable that English has been an essential means of communication and more
and more Vietnamese students are aware of the importance of English to their study and their
future. The ability to communicate clearly and efficiently in English contributes to the success
of the learners at school and later in every phase of life. However, the sad fact is that students‟
English proficiency especially their ability to communicate in English orally does not really
meet employers‟ demand.
At Kinh Mon High School, English is a compulsory subject in the curriculum and it is
considered as a major subject for the high school examination. It is taught with the purpose
that students have some basic knowledge of English in order to communicate and to use it as a
key to science and technology. However, there still exist many difficulties facing the students.
They often keep quiet during speaking lessons; they mind speaking English. There are many
students who have good knowledge of grammar, can do reading and writing exercises
wonderfully but they cannot express themselves in English and find it hard to make questions
to discuss during the speaking lessons. They often make mistakes in using the correct question
words and in giving the right form of a wh-question.
Besides making the discussion during a speaking lesson successful, questions also play
an important role in our daily life. We are not able to keep communicating going on well
without asking questions. We ask in order to exchange information, ideas, feeling and
knowledge. On the other hand, we sometimes ask questions not for the above purposes but for
confirmation, refusal irony or reply avoidance. It is undeniable that questions can not be
missed in communication.
English wh-questions have long been the subject of the study of many researchers and
linguists. Each of them investigates some aspects of this type of questions. Their study on
English wh-questions have provided a great help for Vietnamese learners of English. There are
some MA thesis that pay attention to English Wh-questions. Hoa N.T.X (1996) studies
English questions in terms of S-P inversion. Meanwhile, Ms Nguyet D.T.M (1996) pays her
attention to the aspect of English questions concerning teachers' questions and politeness

The objectives of the study can be realized through the research questions:
1. What are the structural and semantic patterns of English wh-questions?

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2. What categories of mistakes do the students in Kinh Mon High school often make in
using English wh-questions?
3. What should be done to improve the students' skill in using English wh-questions?
It is hoped that the findings from this study will be of some benefits to teachers and
students at Kinh Mon high school.

4. Scope of the study
The study on structural and semantic patterns of Wh-questions in English focuses on
English wh-questions from the perspectives of structural and semantic features. There are two
types of wh-questions will be focused: wh-information questions and wh-rhetorical questions.
The author also conducted a questionnaire to find out the mistakes made by Vietnamese
students, and from these mistakes, some possible solutions to the problems identified.

5. Methods of the study
A combination of different methods of analysis will be used in this study. Firstly, the
author applies the descriptive method to find out the structural and semantic patterns of the
English wh-questions. The study is conducted by carefully collecting materials from various
sources to have full-blown information of English wh-questions. Secondly, the author designs
a questionaire in order to find out what categories of mistakes the studetnts often make when
using wh-questions. The students' errors and mistakes will be analized. All comments,
remarks, recommendations and conclusion are based on the data analysis.
The sheets of questionaire will be collected randomly so that this research will help to
gain reliable data and a close investigation into the problems that the students are encountering

6. Design of the study
This study is divided into three main parts:


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Part 2: Development
Chapter 1 : Literature review
This chapter deals with the relevant matters in wh-questions to help language learners
understand how to use English wh-questions effectively. The relevant matters are:
- The operators and their functions
- Question words and how they are used
- Given and new information
- Theme and rheme in wh-questions
- Presuppositions

1.1. English questions.
1.1.1 Definition of questions
There exist a lot of definitions of a question. The most common one is that questions
are sentences which seek information of some kind. They are followed by a question mark (?).
According to the Longman Dictionary of English language a question is a " command or an
interrogative expression used to elicit information or a respond, or to test knowledge". Lynch
( 1991) characterizes a question as an utterance with a particular illucutionary forces. Quirk et
al ( 1970 and 1985) defines a question as a semantic class used to seek information on a
specific subject.
And another linguist, Givón (1990), observes that languages employ at least three, non-
exclusive, devices to signal a question:
(i) intonation;

answer), this information replaces the interrogative pronoun and becomes the object:
I am studying English.
Because all you are asking for is the 'what', you can also give a very short answer:
What are you studying? English.

1.1.2.1 Wh-information questions
A wh-question is an open question ( i.e it can have any number of answers). In a wh-
question, a search for a missing piece of information, the element that functions as theme
called wh-element requests this information. This element expresses the nature of missing
piece; " who, what, when, how, etc." So in a wh-interrogative, the wh-element is put first no
matter what functions it has in the mood structure of the clause like: subject, adjunct, conjunct
or complement, etc. The meaning is I want to tell you the person, thing, time, manner,etc.

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Unlike yes/no questions, wh-information questions always contain a presupposition.
For instance, when we ask the question " What did John do?" we presume that John did in fact
do something.
Questions
Presumed information
2a. How did they do it?
They did it somehow
2b. Where did John go?
John went somewhere
2c. Whose book was stolen?
Someone's book was stolen
2d. What has he done?
He has done something
2e. Who is doing it?
Someone is doing it


Question words are often introduced by wh-form. A question word is used to ask for a
supply to the missing information. They are called wh- question words because they generally
begin with wh-, with an exception being How. The wh-word may be a pronoun, an adverb, or a
determiner ( i.e. it introduces a noun phrase). The question words are who, whom, whose,
which, what, where, when, why, and how.

1.3.1. Wh-word functions
1.3.1.1. Wh-words as interrogative pronouns.
Wh-words in questions can be called interrogative pronouns because these two kinds
of pronouns share some charactiristics. According to Quirk ( 1978), both of them are used to
replace nouns, rather whole noun phrases, since they can not generally occur with determiners
such as the definite article or premodification. He also states that there are five wh-words can
be used as pronouns such as who, whom, whose, what, and which.
Who, whom and whose are subjective, objective, and genitive case forms respectively,
and have personal gender. However, what and which do not have gender or case distinction.
They can be used to ask questions about not only persons but about things.
As a pronoun, the interrogative pronouns can be used as the subjects, objects of the
questions.
Most of the interrogative pronouns can act as the subjects of the wh-questions except
whom, even whose can also appear alone as an anaphoric noun phrase:
E.g. 1. Who taught you some Italian?
2. Which is his father's car?

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3. What happened?
4. Whose won?
Who, whom, which, and what can be used as an object of a verb or a prepositional
complement.
E.g. 5. Who(m) did you meet at the party last night?
6. Which do you want to buy, this one or that one?

interrogatives. Who and which can be used to refer to persons while what and which are used
to refer to things.
E.g 18. Who is the most famous footballer in your country?
19. Which is the most famous footballer, Hong Son, Huynh Duc or Cong Minh?
20. What is your favourite book?
21. Which do you prefer, this book or that one?
In the example 18, who is used as an indefinite interrogative pronoun which refers to person.
In this question, the addresser does not refer to any footballer in particular. He asks a general
question. Which in question 19 refers to person and which in question 21 refers to things.
However, both of them refer to limited choice. Which here implies limited number of
footballers or books. And what in question 20 is used in general, too.
1.3.1.2. Wh-words as determiners
According to Quirk ( 1978), the three question words whose, what and which can be used as a
determiner. Therefore, they can introduce a personal as well as a non-personal noun phrase:
E.g. 1. Whose house is that?
2. What colour is your car?
3. Which coat is yours, this one or that one?
Like the interrogative pronouns (which and what), what is used as an indefinite determiner and
which serves as a definite determiner. These two determiners have both personal and non-
personal reference.
Interrogative determiners with personal nouns:
E.g. 4a. What pop singer do you like best?
4b. Which pop singer do you like best, My Linh or Hong Nhung?
Interrogative determiners with non-personal nouns:
E.g. 5a. What kind of mobile phone are you using?
5b. Which kind of mobile phone are you using, Nokia or Samsung?

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In the pairs above, which implies that the choice is made from a limited number of alternatives
which exist in the context of discussion. The alternatives are often made explicit.

1.4. Given-New Information Structure
1.4.1. Given information
Given information is a linguistic term that Halliday (1976) uses to define the
information that " expresses what the speaker is presenting as information that is recoverable
from some source or other in the environment - the situation or the preceding text." Moreover,
according to Kuno (1972), " given information is an element in a sentence that represents old,
predictable information." A given piece of information is common knowledge, a part of the
extralinguistic context or something that is previously established in the discourse.
Given information can also be identified in term of intonation. It is also spoken with
little stress and it is often reduced, abbreviated or ellipsed. Most kinds of discourse have
implicit speakers and addressees, interactors always take first and second speaker pronouns to
be given information.

1.4.2 New information
Halliday (1976) defines new information according to recoverability. He predicts that
"what is labeled new is information that the speaker presents as not being recoverable from the
preceding discourse." And Kuno also identifies new information basing on its predictability.
He states that " new information is something that can not be predicted." Therefore, we can
say that new information is information that is assumed by the addresser NOT.
- to be known to/assumed by the addressee
- previously established in the discourse
New information is usually stressed and expressed in more elaborate fashions.

1.4.3 Information structure
The ability to understand a sentence or a text depends on the order of the information.
In both spoken and written language, given or old information should put in front of new
information or we can say the given information is placed in the left side of the sentence or in
the theme position and new information follows the given, or known information.
The information structure should obey the following rules


an old man and his wife
lived on the shore of the blue
sea
Adjunct
Subject
Predicate
Theme
Rheme

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source : www.sjsu.edu/writingcenter/docs/handouts/Old_before_New.pdf

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Therefore, we can see that the Theme does not always correspond to the grammatical subject of
the sentence.
What we have said so far helps us to identify the Theme. We have now to define it. Once
again Halliday can help us. Here is his definition of both the Theme and the Rheme.

The Theme is the element which serves as the point of
departure of the message; it is that with which the clause is
concerned. The rest of the message, the part in which the
Theme is developed is called the Rheme.
(Halliday 1995: 37)
3

Summing up, we can say that English sentences start with a Theme, the first element in the
sentence, which normally contains information which we somehow know about and that they
continue with a Rheme, which normally tells us something new about the Theme.

1.5.2. Theme and Rheme in wh-questions

well as comprehend a speech act. There have been a large number of definitions of
presuppositions which present different views of scholars towards the concept.
Common views consider presupposition to be a background belief, relating to an utterance. It
is what both the addresser and addressee already know and assume so that the utterance will
be appropriate in context. It will generally remain a necessary assumption whether the
utterance is placed in the form of an assertion, denial, or question, and can be associated with
a specific lexical item or grammatical feature in the utterance.
4There have existed many definitions by various linguists.
According to Hudson (2000) " a presupposition is something assumed ( presupposed) to be
true in a sentence which asserts other information". And Brown and Yule (1983) defines that
"Presupposition is the assumption the speaker makes about what the hearer is likely to accept
without challenge". On the other hand, Levison (1997) states that one of the properties of the
presupposition is that they are liable to evaporate in certain context, either immediate
linguistic or the less immediate discourse context, or in circumstance where contrary
assumptions are made.
5

In short, presupposition occurs when the utterance tells the hearer that what the speaker
is talking is quite clear, whether in positive or negative form. 4
http://www.sil.org/linguistics/GlossaryOfLinguisticTerms/WhatIsAPresupposition.
5
www.uobabylon.edu.iq/ /articles/Entailment%20&%20Presupposition.pdf

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wh- word what into the subject position. No other changes are needed to make
a question-other than the question mark, of course.
6A subject wh-question is an open question, it means that this kind of question can have any
number of answers. It asks about missing information the speaker needs about the subject of
the sentence (performer of the action). A question element needs to precede the subject in
order to form this question. The “question element” is formed according to the following rule.
To form a subject Wh-question in English, replace the subject with a question word,
using who (for people) or what (for non-person). The word order is that of a positive sentence.
There is no auxiliary verb in subject wh-questions in the Present Simple and Past Simple
tenses. The question word simply replaces the subject. The formular for this type of question
is
Subject/Wh + finite verb
However, do can be used after a subject question word for emphasis, to insist on an
answer.
5. Well tell us - what did happen when your father found you?
6. So who did marry the Princess at the end?
When who, what and which serve as the subjects of the wh-questions, They can be
considered either singular or plural form. The following pairs of examples illustrate this:
7a. Who is in favour of the proposal?
7b. Who are in favour of the proposal?
8a. Which member of the carbinet leaked the information to the press ?
8b. Which members of the carbinet leaked the information to the press?
Whether the wh-word is singular or plural depends on the situation and the presupposition of
the speaker.
Let's consider the first pair 7a and 7b. This pair of examples is given by a chairman as
part of a voting procedure.


yesterday? Then invert who to the front of the question: Who you met at the
reunion party? Finally, add the operator (did) in front of the subject and turn