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Which book is his?---The black one is/It is the black one.

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fw

Joined: 12 Oct 2005
Posts: 361

Posted: Fri Sep 25, 2009 2:30 pm Post subject: Which book is his?---The black one is/It is the black one.

Which is more appropriate for the blank, #1 or #2 below? 1. The black one is 2. It is the black one A: Which book is his? B: ( ). I first thought #1 is more appropriate, but now I�m wondering if it depends on the context? What do you think?

dragn

Joined: 17 Feb 2009
Posts: 450

Posted: Fri Sep 25, 2009 9:05 pm Post subject:

Quote:

Which is more appropriate for the blank, #1 or #2 below?
1. The black one is
2. It is the black one

A: Which book is his?
B: ( ).

I first thought #1 is more appropriate, but now I�m wondering if it depends on the context? What do you think?

This is a bit slippery, because both responses answer the question in an acceptable manner, and either one might be used in conversation by native speakers. If this were on a test, I'd have to call it a bad question. Having said that, however, if I were actually faced with this question on a test, I'd choose 1. The reason is that 1. more closely resembles the structure of the question, and we do have a tendency to shape our answers in the form of the question. In a sense, the structure of a question whistles the tune, and the answer dances to it.

A: Which book is his (book)?
B. The black one is (his book).

Hope this helps.

Greg

fw

Joined: 12 Oct 2005
Posts: 361

Posted: Wed Sep 30, 2009 4:11 pm Post subject:

Thank you for your reply, dragn

[quote="dragn"]

Quote:

1 more closely resembles the structure of the question, and we do have a tendency to shape our answers in the form of the question. In a sense, the structure of a question whistles the tune, and the answer dances to it.

A: Which book is his (book)?
B. The black one is (his book).

Very interesting.
Does the tendency apply to the following B's resonse to A?

A: What is his name?
B: ( )

If it does, then the response should be like:
1. Mike is his name.

My natural response in this case, however, would be like:
2. His name is Mike.

Any suggestion?

dragn

Joined: 17 Feb 2009
Posts: 450

Posted: Wed Sep 30, 2009 8:37 pm Post subject:

Quote:

I get the sneaky feeling you're trying to turn what I said into yet another "rule." Surprised

Don't. It isn't.

Both are correct. The second is more natural. Nobody said this stuff was black and white...at least I sure didn't. Wink

My real point is that if I were faced with a bad question on a test, that is, a question with more than one acceptable answer or one where the most natural answer didn't even appear, I would default to that principle: the principle that answers in English often mirror the structure of the question. Note the presence of the word often in the preceding sentence. It didn't crash the party; it was invited. It means "THIS IS NOT A RULE." I mean that following that principle would probably be the "safe" choice in the absence of a more natural answer. I know for a fact that in many English classes in Taiwan, success is often not a question of survival of the fittest; it's survival of the safest.

The problem is that students in various countries are often faced with questions on tests that force them to make unrealistic choices, usually because the teachers who write the tests are nonnative speakers who don't always understand what the most natural answer is. I know that test questions are sometimes crudely designed to test (trick?) students on one particular point of grammar that the teachers themselves may not fully understand. It's just a fact of life.

I'm not expounding more "rulez" here. There are already far too many. Sad

Greg

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