What is there...?

Metamorfose · Post by **Metamorfose** » Fri Aug 17, 2007 7:21 pm

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

fluffyhamster · Post by **fluffyhamster** » Sat Aug 18, 2007 3:35 am

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.

sbourque · Post by **sbourque** » Sat Aug 18, 2007 3:37 am

Could you just say "What's in your bag?"

fluffyhamster · Post by **fluffyhamster** » Sat Aug 18, 2007 3:53 am

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.