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What is there...?
Posted: Fri Aug 17, 2007 7:21 pm
by Metamorfose
When asking about existence, what do you say about this sentence?
(1) What is there in your bag?
I googled it and only got 3 hits, but anyway, do you think it is plain wrong or is there any possibilily in using it to ask about existence?
Thanks
José
Posted: Sat Aug 18, 2007 3:35 am
by fluffyhamster
What is (there that's) absolute in language? Not a lot, once you get beyond two or so words; but if I were to present such examples to students, I'd be sure to use brackets to make clear what's more essential to the perceived function of the utterance.
Posted: Sat Aug 18, 2007 3:37 am
by sbourque
Could you just say "What's in your bag?"
Posted: Sat Aug 18, 2007 3:53 am
by fluffyhamster
Ooh, a post made while I was expanding on things.
Yes, it's easiest to just ask "What's in your bag" (the extra stuff makes it become unnatural-sounding), but it can be valuable to ponder wierd examples, in coming up with better, then indicate the "second thoughts" in all this by, as I mentioned, the use of brackets; maybe these examples could be footnotes to question and/or existential units.