More on Indirect Questions

The nonstandard variety merely uses the direct-question order in the slot where standard English uses if, whether, or a question word, followed by the declarative order. However, the situation is much more complex than this simple dichotomy suggests. In a previous paper I have tried to demonstrate that the so-called nonstandard forms are actually commonplace in the speech (if not the writing) of speakers of standard American English and that they are widespread in Anglo-Irish.2 Even earlier, Gordon and Lakoff pointed out that such constructions as the following are common in certain American (presumably mainstream) dialects:3

Gender Studies in Language · Linguistic Variation and Morphology · Multilingual Education and Policy · Psychology

• First and second language speakers’ sensitivity to the distributional properties of wh -clauses

  Open Access•Ivana Domazetoska, Helen Zhao•Australian Review of Applied…•2025

  Incluir item

• Variation and Change in Alabama English

  Ronald R Butters, Crawford Feagin•Language•1981

  Incluir item