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Here's a direct question.

Where does he live?

And here's an indirect one.

Do you know where he lives?

I wonder how you would analyze the following structure. Can we call it "a split indirect question/noun clause"?

Where do you think he lives?

Mori
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  • Please define what you mean by indirect question. – Lambie Mar 12 '24 at 22:31
  • @Lambie: an embedded question – Mori Mar 13 '24 at 04:16
  • Right, Thanks. For me, "Do you know where he lives?" is not an embedded ot indirect question. The question is composed of the question element: "Do you know" followed by dependent clause with the word where introducing it. – – Lambie Mar 13 '24 at 14:19
  • @Lambie: "We can ask a question indirectly by putting it into a sub-clause beginning with a question word or with if/whether. This makes the question sound less abrupt. We need to know what the rules are. Could you tell me where Queen Street is, please? Do you know when the train gets in?" John Eastwood, Oxford Learner's Grammar, p. 26 "We can ask an indirect question by putting it into a subordinate CLAUSE beginning with a WH-WORD or with if or whether (e.g. Can you tell me where you live?)." Martin Hewings, Advanced Grammar in Use, p. 215 – Mori Mar 13 '24 at 16:33
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    As I said, there is nothing indirect in "Do you know [etc.]. The fact the sub-clause has other information does not make it indirect, regardless of what Brainly says. *Can you tell me where you live? It is interrogative because of "Can you tell me [etc.]" not because of "where you live". – Lambie Mar 13 '24 at 18:06
  • However, I said to him , "do you know where he lives" change into indirect speech.​ (from Brainly) becomes in indirect speech: Do you know where he lives? That is called indirect speech or reported speech. – Lambie Mar 13 '24 at 18:09
  • Can you please respond to my last two comments? Thanks. – Lambie Mar 13 '24 at 21:22
  • @Lambie: "The example comes from Brainly, I think." They're my own examples and explanations. More reference works where such questions are classified as indirect questions: "Can you tell me whether or not you’re interested in the job?" If and whether: indirect questions - Cambridge Dictionary "All the wh- words (including whether) can introduce INDIRECT QUESTIONS. Can you tell me what the time is, please?" Geoffrey Leech, An A-Z of English Grammar & Usage, p. 578 – Mori Mar 14 '24 at 04:51
  • Your link says this: We can use if or whether to report indirect yes-no questions and questions with or. If is more common than whether. That is neither of yours. It would have to be: Do you know if/whether he lives here? For example. – Lambie Mar 14 '24 at 14:06
  • 'Where do you think he lives?' is semantically equivalent to 'Where does he live, in your opinion?' It's (as Lambie says) a direct question (soliciting a response from the addressee); it's complicated by a modal-licensing hedge (where 'modal' here means 'pertaining to / using a qualification regarding speaker uncertainty'). – Edwin Ashworth Mar 15 '24 at 22:44

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In Do you know where he lives?, the subclause where he lives? is called an indirect question because (a) it is an interrogative clause but (b) it is not directly put to someone. So, just to be clear, it is not the question Do you know where he lives? that is the indirect question, it is specifically the subclause.

Where do you think he lives? is a direct question (in the sense that it is directly put to someone) which happens to be complex syntactically (i.e., consist of a matrix clause with predicate think and a subordinate clause with predicate live). The Wh-element has been moved from the subordinate to the matrix clause, but this is entirely separate from the direct–indirect question type.

Keelan
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  • I'd say: Where does he live? is a direct question... so is your example but why complicate it? Because to make yours indirect, you have to say: Where did he say he thought he lived? – Lambie Mar 12 '24 at 19:44
  • @Lambie all examples I'm using are taken directly from the question. The specific question Mori asked was how to classify Where do you think he lives? -- that's why I "used that example". –  Mar 12 '24 at 20:08
  • I just don't see it as indirect. Do you know where he lives? can be addressed to someone directly. – Lambie Mar 12 '24 at 22:29
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    @Lambie indeed. As I wrote, it is the subordinate clause that is an indirect question. –  Mar 13 '24 at 07:19
  • I think this OP is confusing direct and indirect speech. Not questions. The example comes from Brainly, I think. – Lambie Mar 13 '24 at 18:47
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    @Lambie if you want to know what the OP means, better take it up with them than with me. –  Mar 13 '24 at 19:54
  • Thanks for the answer! Is the following a similar case, and basically a grammatical structure? Where, I wonder, he lives. – Mori Mar 14 '24 at 07:49
  • @Mori I'm not a native speaker, but Where, I wonder, he lives does not look like a grammatical main clause to me. You can get Where, I wonder, does he live? (cf. Where, I wonder, should I have been ...?). This is a direct question with a parenthetical (I wonder), hence the structure should be that of a direct question with do-support (Where does he live? rather than Where he lives?). –  Mar 14 '24 at 09:56