Indirect Question Statement

An Indirect Question Statement is a linguistic question that has no linguistic inversion, uses no interrogative words, uses no special intonation, and ends in a period.

• Context:
  • It can range from being a Closed Indirect Question (such as a yes-no indirect question) to being an Open Indirect Question).
• Example(s):
  • “I was wondering if you are going to Canada.”
  • “He asked if you are going Canada.”
  • “He asked where you are going.”
  • “"Incredibly, he asked me whether I thought I could manage the horses on my own for the time being.” (John Boyne, The Thief of Time. St. Martin's Press, 2000).
  • …
• Counter-Example(s):
  • A Direct Question, such as: “Are you going to Canada?”
• See: Wh-Question, Question Passage, Inversion (Linguistics), Indirect Speech, Interrogative Mood.

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References

2017

• (Wikipedia, 2017) ⇒ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Content_clause#Interrogative_content_clauses Retrieved:2017-6-19.
  • Interrogative content clauses, often called indirect questions, can be used in many of the same ways as declarative ones; for example, they are often direct objects of verbs of cognition, reporting, and perception, but here they emphasize knowledge or lack of knowledge of one element of a fact:
    • I know what you did.
    • I can't guess how he managed it.
    • I wonder whether I looked that bad.
    • She asked where the files were.
  • Such clauses correspond to direct questions, which are questions actually asked. The direct questions corresponding to the examples above are What did you do? How did he manage it? Did I look that bad? Where are the files? Notice how, in English (and in some other languages), different syntax is used in direct and indirect questions: direct questions normally use subject-verb inversion, while indirect questions do not. Reported questions (as in the last of the examples) are also subject to the tense and other changes that apply generally in indirect speech. For more information see interrogative mood and English grammar.

    Indirect questions can serve as adjective and noun complements. Here, in English, they are generally introduced by a preposition, especially of:

    • … the question (of) who was responsible …
    • … his curiosity over how it happened …
    • … sure of what he had seen …
  • Like declarative content clauses, they are often postponed to the end of their main clause, with an expletive it standing in their original place, when they serve as the subject of a verb, or as the direct object of a verb that links them to a predicative:
    • It is not known where they came from.
    • I find it encouraging how many young women are pursuing careers in science.

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