What kind of househave they bought? ('какой') What sort
of propositiondo you want to discuss with me?
('какое предложение'; 'что за предложение')
What preceding a noun may also be used at the head of an exclamatory
sentence. (This what is sometimes called the exclamatory
what.)
e.g. What a stupid thinghe has said!
What splendid picturesthey have in their collection!
What marvellous newshe brought! What fun wehad
yesterday!
§ 39. The pronoun which is used as a noun pronoun and as an
adjective pronoun. It is used of persons and things and is invariable
in form. It can have the function of the subject, an object
and an attribute in the sentence.
The use of which is more restricted than that of what because
which is selective — it selects one or more out of a definite number
of persons or things.
e.g. Whichwill you have, tea or coffee? Whichway shall we go?
Whichpen does the cap belong to? Whichauthor are you
more interested in? Whichstudents have answered all the
questions correctly?As a result of its selective meaning, which is often followed by
an o/-phrase.
e.g. Which of your friends will you invite to the party?
Which of them said that? Which of his books are
you reading now?
Compare the use of what and which in the following sentences:
e.g. What TV programmes do you usually watch? Which of them
is your favorite one? What examinations are you going to
take this term? Which
of them do you find most difficult? What
car have you? Which car is yours?
§ 40. The pronouns how much and how many are used as noun
pronouns and as adjective pronouns.
How much asks about the amount of something and is used of
or with only uncountable nouns.
e.g. How much did you find out?
How much money do you need?
How many asks about the number of persons and things and is
used of or with only countable nouns.
e.g. "There are several people sitting at the fireplace." "How many
can you count?"
How many people took part in the experiment?
How many invitations have been sent out?
§ 41. The interrogative pronouns who, what and which may be
made emphatic by adding ever. Ever here means something like
'on earth', 'in the world'. Depending on the situation, questions
introduced by the emphatic forms in -ever express different emotions,
such as surprise, anger, despair, indignation, etc. The use
of the form in -ever is distinctly colloquial.
e.g. Whoever (who ever) can be calling at this time of the night?
Whoever (who ever) heard of such a silly idea? Whatever
(what ever) were you thinking of to suggest such a
plan? He gets up at five o'clock every morning. What
ever for?Conjunctive Pronouns
§42. The pronouns who (whom), whose, what, which, how
much, how many and that are used to connect subordinate clauses
with the principal clause. Owing to their auxiliary function they
are called conjunctive pronouns. At the same time they all have
an independent syntactic function in the subordinate clause.
e.g. Do you know who has bought the house? (subject) He always said
exactly what he thought, (object) * I'm surprised to see how
much he had done in so short a
time, (object) I walked past a row of houses whose front doors
opened onto
the pavement, (attribute)
You'll never guess what present I want him to give me. (attribute)
I had to find out what he was. (predicative)
When conjunctive pronouns are used in the function of a
prepositional object, the preposition is generally placed at the end .
of the clause.
e.g. The man who(m) I spoke to is my neighbour.
You are the very person that I have been looking for.
Who it was done by is for us to find out.
Conjunctive pronouns may be used to introduce different
kinds of clauses, except adverbial clauses and appositive clauses,
which are introduced only by conjunctions.
e.g. What was done cannot be undone, (subject clause)
The question is which of them is going to be appointed president
of the firm, (predicative clause)
Life in the country isn't what it used to be, you know, (predicative
clause)
I don't know whose handwriting it is. (object clause) I'll
surprise you by what I'll do. (prepositional object clause) He
is one of the men whom I can trust, (attributive clause)
§ 43. It is noteworthy that not all the conjunctive pronouns can
be used with all kinds of clauses mentioned above. Thus, subject,
predicative and object clauses can be introduced by the conjunctivepronouns who (whom), whose, which and how much, how many.
The use of these conjunctive pronouns does not differ from that
of the corresponding interrogative pronouns (see §§ 36-40 above).
That is no longer a conjunctive pronoun when it introduces one of
these clauses, but a mere conjunction because it has no syntactic
function in the subordinate clause.
e.g. Thathe is going to resign is no secret.
My guess is thathe is in love. I know
thathe is no fool.
§ 44. Attributive clauses can be introduced by who (whom),
whose, which and that. The conjunctive pronouns in this case always
refer to some noun (or noun equivalent) in the principal
clause. That is why they are also called relative pronouns.The
noun they refer to is called their antecedent
The relative pronoun who (whom) is used only of persons.
e.g. They were worried about their nephews whowere taking part
in the war. He interviewed several men and engaged one
who had been
discharged from the army. He was a man whomeant what
he said. I wish I knew the man who owns that farm. The
hostess continued the introduction, "Here is Mr Swift, a
tutor, and my nephew Maurice, whomhe's tutoring." Meg
loved her little brother to whomshe had been a second
mother.
The relative pronoun whose may be used of both persons and
things.
e.g. We went one day to the picture-dealer in whoseshop my
brother thought he could buy a picture or two.
When it came to literature, young Maurice was the one
whosereading in any way compared with Swift's.
There are newspapers in Great Britain whosepages are largely
filled with news of sport and with stories of film-stars,
or accounts of crime and of law-court trials.
The relative pronoun which is used of things.e.g. She sat down behind the tea tray whichthe servant had just
brought in.
As I walked up the endless stairs of the house in which
Strickland lived, I confess I was a little excited.
She obtained some opinions whichlater I realized were entirely
sensible.
She had never owned a dress whichher girlfriends would consider
expensive.
Qlote. With a collective noun used as the antecedent the relative who is used
when the individuals forming the group are meant, and the relative which when the
group as whole is meant.
e.g. He wanted to interview someone from the team whowere now resting.
He wanted to interview someone from the team whichwas winning.
Which is also used if the antecedent of the attributive clause
is the whole of the principal clause.
e.g. That day she took her share of the meal, whichnowadays she
rarely did.
He invited us to dinner, whichwas very kind of him. The
decision was postponed, whichwas exactly what he wanted.
The attributive clauses of the above type are always separated
from their principal clause by a comma (see the examples above).
The relative pronoun which in this type of attributive clauses is
rendered in Russian as что.
Which preceded by the preposition of is parallel in meaning to
whose when the latter is used of things.
Cf. We crossed the river the current of whichwas very rapid.
We crossed the river whosecurrent was very rapid.
That is used of both persons and things, singular and plural.
e.g. You are the very people thatI've been meaning to speak to.
He is not a man thatcan understand such things.
That was all the education thatshe had had during her girlhood.
She had a wit thatwas irresistible.
The actress told him of the plays thatshe had been in and
what parts she had had.That (not who or which or what) is used:
a) after most indefinite pronouns,
e.g. Have you got all thatyou need?
Sylvia had always had everything thatshe wanted.
There is not much thatcan be done.
Fred looked about the room, trying to discover something
thatmight remind him of Sally. He never says
anything thatis worth listening to.
b) after nouns modified by an adjective in the superlative de
gree as well as by first or last.
e.g. Yesterday was one of the coldestdays thatI've ever known.
He has written the bestbook thatI've ever read on the subject.
It was the first time thathe heard of the episode.
c) after a noun modified by same,
e.g. She wore the samedress thatI had seen her in at her sister's
wedding.
d) when the antecedent is both a person and a thing,
e.g. He talked of the people and the places thathe had visited.
Unlike who and which, that cannot be preceded by a preposition.
Cf. This is the letter about whichI told you.
This is the letter thatI told you about.
Note. When a relative pronoun serves as a prepositional object, the following
sentence patterns are possible.
e.g. This is the story of whichI spoke.
This is the story whichI spoke of.
This is the story thatI spoke of.
This is the story I spoke of.
Attributive clauses fall into two groups — non-defining and
defining clauses(see "Articles", § 15). That as a relative pronoun
is possible only with defining clauses, i.e. attributive clauses that
cannot be removed from the sentence without destroying its
meaning. Note, however, that who and which can be used with
both kinds of attributive clauses — defining and non-defining.
e.g. At the time I was reading a book that (which)I had heard so
much about. At the time I was reading an interesting book
whichlater on
I gave as a present to my niece.
I'd like you to meet the girl that (whom)I'm going to marry.
She is both charming and clever. I'd like you to meet the
girl, who(m) you are sure to fall for.
Relative pronouns are often dropped in spoken English unless
they perform the function of the subject of the sentence or introduce
non-defining attributive clauses.
e.g. At the party I saw some people___ I knew personally.
The man ___I gave up my seat to was very grateful.
Is it the paper ___ you wanted to see?
He went back the way ___ he had come.