ABSTRACT
When a question is reported the interrogatory intonation, which is very often the chief indication that a question is meant, is necessarily lost or weakened, but there is some compensation, partly in the introductory (or inserted) formula, in which the verb ask is used instead of say, partly in the use of an interrogative conjunction where there is no interrogative pronoun. The conjunction often originates in a pronoun meaning • which of two' : E. whether, Icel. hvart, Lat. utrum, but in other cases the origin is different, and we frequently find the use of a conditional conjunction: E. if, Fr. si, Dan. om, of. G. ob. Very frequently the difference between a direct and an indirect question is marked by a different word-order: 1 Who is she 1-He asked who she was I How can I bear to look any of them in the face 1-. . . how he could bear to look . . . I Hasn't he a right to spend his money t-. . . whether he had not. . . . In the sa.me way in other languages, e.g. Danish: Hvem er hun 1-Han spurgte, hvem hun var I Hvor kan jeg holde det ud 1-... hvor jeg kunde holde det ud I Har han ikke ret 1-... om han ikke havde ret. French: Qui est-elle 1 (Qui est-ce 1)-ll a demande qui elle etait (qui c'etait) I Comment peut-on Ie souffrir 1-... comment on pouvait Ie souffrir I N'a-t-il pas raison 1-... s'il n'avait pas raison. In Danish there is the further difference that an interrogative pronoun as the subject of the sentence requires the addition of der in an indirect question: Hvem har ret 1-Han spurgte (om) hvem der havde ret 1 I Hvad er grunden 1-... hvad der var grunden (but if grunden is here treated as the subject, which is also pOBBible
Instead of the form peculiar to dependent indirect questions it has become more and more frequent in English to use the form also fOlmd in represented discourse, with no introductory if or whether, and with inverted word-order. Thus: I know not yet, was it a dream or no (Shelley) I he said was I coming back, and I said yes; and he said did I know you, and I said yes; and he said if that was the case, would I say to you what I have said, and as soon as I ever saw you, would I ask you to step round the corner (Dickens). In recent writers this is very frequent indeed; it is mixed up with the dependent form in: they asked where she was going, and would she come along with them 1 (Carlyle). In German the same form is found, though rarely, e.g. "man weiss nicht recht, ist er junggeselle, witwer oder gar geschieden" (G. Hermann).
