Korean Job Discussion Forums

[raewon]

Sorry, I don't think my subject heading is very good for this question. I
wasn't sure what to write.

My question is on these sentences:
(a) Who do you think the best candidate is?
(b) Who do you think is the best candidate?

I think both sentences are OK. If I'm wrong, could you please correct me and let me know why. But if they are both OK, I'm not sure why. What is the reason? Right or wrong, could someone please fill me in on the why part.

And... does "Who" play different functions in those sentences?

Thanks a lot.

[Rockhard]

They are both right. My best guess is this is just another relic leftover from English's Germanic origins where verbs came at the end. The Anglo-Saxons were Germans after all so our basic vocabulary and grammar comes from them. It's why we have two future tenses, two past tenses, and at least three different ways to ask questions.

[raewon]

Thanks for confirming they are both OK. But I wonder about the grammatical explanation as to why both can be used.

[YTMND]

[raewon]

Thanks for the replies.

To me, YTMND's example looks like inversion (fronting?), which is used to place an emphasis. But isn't that only for declarative sentences? I'm still looking for a grammatical term (explanation?) that allows both question structures in my first post. I'm not sure how to do a grammatical analysis of those two questions, as maybe that would help.

[Rockhard]

1. Where the Wild Things Are
2. Where are the wild things?

2 is a question, while 1 is a noun. There is no way to misinterpret 1 as being a sentence. It is clearly a noun phrase beginning with "where" and ending with a verb. And I think that's as close as you'll get. There are many styles of noun phrases and "where/who/what/when/how/why + noun + verb" is one of them.