Page 275 - English - Teaching Academic Esl Writing

SUBORDINATE CLAUSES 261
Wh- Questions as Noun Clauses. Wh- noun clauses that represent embed- ded wh-questions also serve to delay the most important and new informa- tion to the secondary clause position and provide a lead to the topic the writer intends to introduce and address (Francis, 1994). This function of wh-clauses is particularly important in developing cohesive ties from the old-to-the-new information structure (see also chap. 11).
In many cases with nouns clauses, it is the constructions with wh-questions, marked by wh-subordinators such as what, where, and who, that cause the greatest number of L2 errors.
In direct questions, subjects and verbs are inverted, and an auxiliary verb is added in almost all cases (with the exceptions of who and what questions to sentence subjects). For example:
What are some problems with Bentham's utilitarian theory?
How does the need for political theory arise ?
What does Aquinas mean by "motion" and why cannot something be both
"moved" and "mover"?
To convert direct wh-questions to noun clauses (and make them indi- rect questions), the questions need to be turned into statements—with the subject (first)—verb (second) word order as is required in all state- ments in English.
Also when wh- questions are converted to indirect questions in noun clauses, all wh- words must be retained. For example, when paraphrasing direct wh- questions, most of the work takes place inside the noun clause:
Main Clause
The author asks
The article discusses
Philosophers continue to debate
Noun Clause—Embedded Question
what [are] some problems are with Bentham's utilitarian theory.
how [doeS] the need for political theory ariseS.
what [doeS]Aquinas meanS by "motion" and why [cannot] something cannot be both "moved" and "mover."
It seems clear from the examples that be- and modal verbs (e.g., can, may] are moved to follow the subject slot. With other types of verbs, auxil- iary verb information such as tense, person, and number (e.g., does, do, did) is merged with the main verb (e.g., doeS ... mean -> meanS, did ... mean -> meanT, ariseS -» arose).
TLFeBOOK