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Post by Somak Meitei on Jun 25, 2014 20:01:40 GMT 5.5
Let me type a few affirmative sentences so that I can make some wh-questions out of them.
'The gluttonous boy was choking on a piece of bread.He never does any thing calmly.He has a habit of doing everything in haste.It is sure that he stumbles on a pebble whenever he goes on a pebbly beach.'
Here,I want to know if I can make these two questions: What did the boy choke on a piece of bread/ stumble on a pebble for?, Why did the boy choke on a piece of bread/ stumble on a pebble?
Is the first question consistent with the second one?
Thanks
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Post by Thoithoi O'Cottage on Jun 26, 2014 11:04:26 GMT 5.5
1. What did the boy (a) choke on a piece of bread for?
(b) stumble on a pebble for? 2. Why did the boy (a) choke on a piece of bread?
(b) stumble on a pebble? If the boy's habit of doing everything in haste is the answer, (2) is fine, (1) is not. What...for or what for means for what purpose or reason, and it is frequently used as the colloquial equivalent of why, but they are not always interchangeable. We ask 3. What is this tool for? not 4. Why is this tool? to mean 5. What do you do with this tool? ('সিগি খূতলাইসি করি তৌনবনো?) (4) is correct, but the sense is different from (3), though it can elicit an answer somewhat similar as one to (5), say 6 (a) For opening bottles.
(b) To open bottles. Depending on the context (4) may question your bringing or holding a/that tool perhaps because they don't expect you to hold anything that can be used as a weapon, or it may question you choice of that particular tool rather than any other. What for focuses on a noun or noun equivalent, while why aims at the adverbial sense of the answer. 7 (a)A: I need to see a doctor.
(b) B: What for?
(c) A: Severe headache. Instead of 7b, you can ask "Why?", but with "What for" B wants to know exactly what makes A need a doctor, though this is the reason for A's needing or having to see a doctor. You cannot answer a what for question with a because answer, but why demands a because answer though "because" is usually omitted from the answer. 8. What is this medicine for?
9. (This medicine is) (for) stomach ache. (9) cannot answer: 10. Why is this medicine? And you cannot say (10) when you want an answer in the sense or form of (9). |
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Post by Thoithoi O'Cottage on Jun 26, 2014 14:12:13 GMT 5.5
That said, I would rather put the question as 11. How ((i) did the boy choke on a piece of bread? (ii) did the boy stumble on a pebble)? because that is more surprising than there being a reason. That's why shortening the question to just How? matters. With how you can elicit the same answer as with why, but the difference is how emphasizes your wonder while why focuses more on the reasons/causes. Yes, "the habit of doing everything in haste" is the cause of the boy's chocking on a piece of bread and stumbling on a pebble, and you may want to know the reason asking a question with why. However, quite incidentally, stumbling on a pebble (though a hyperbole) is quite surprising to the extent of one's literally wondering "How?". (This does not mean that we express our surprises with Why?. However, surprises with why foreground the reasons.) Yes, how sometimes can ask reasons. 12 (a) Your mother--she's been hospitalized.
12 (b) How? What happened? |
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Post by Thoithoi O'Cottage on Jun 26, 2014 16:03:20 GMT 5.5
Another difference is that what...for can express a sense of outrage or annoyance, which is absent in why? 13. Why did you do that? just asks the reason or an explanation while 14. What did you do that for? expresses displeasure with or annoyance at what has been done, without even asking the reason. It is not to say that you cannot express your exasperation with "why". You definitely can, but in doing so, you may (in speech) need to add some appropriate intonational information to what you say or make what you say accompanied by appropriate non-verbal signals, if the context does not make it clear (which is essential in writing). In Manipuri also we ask 15. নঙ অদুই ৱাদু কৈদৌন' হাইরুরিনো(বা ) (মঙোন্দা/মীদা )? just to imply that we are annoyed, without us asking for an explanation. |
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