145. Highlighting with “What…” Sentences

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The importance of a word in a sentence can be emphasized by placing it at the end after a starting “what”

HOW AND WHY “what” HIGHLIGHTS WORDS

The word what can be used not just to ask questions but also as a kind of relative pronoun, meaning “the thing which” (see 200. Special Uses of Relative Clauses, #4). It is with this second meaning that what can highlight particular words. To do so, it must begin a sentence that has the highlighted word at the end after BE, like this:

(a) What causes the most stress is noise.

The highlighted word here is noise. The highlighting informs the reader that this is the main information in the sentence – what the sentence is “about”.

Most sentences contain important and less important information (see 24. Good and Bad Repetition and 156. Mentioning What the Reader Knows Already). However, most do not highlight the important information as directly as (a) does – there will often be no need because clues like the normal word order of English will be enough.

What sentences (and other means of highlighting) become desirable if a writer feels that a misunderstanding is more likely. In this sense, they are “emphatic”, one of a range of possibilities surveyed in the Guinlist post 125. Stress and Emphasis. Here, I wish to look in detail at the nature and problems of highlighting with what.

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THE ESSENTIALS OF “what” HIGHLIGHTING

Most grammar descriptions cover the basics of highlighting with what. As mentioned above, the word itself is a pronoun meaning “the thing which”. Its highlighting use is not actually its only one. Consider this:

(b) What causes the most stress is a fact of life.

In sentence (a) above, what corresponds to, and is identified by, noise at the end. Here, though, the words at the end do not identify what, but instead describe it. What corresponds to an unmentioned idea that the reader is expected to know already from either general knowledge or a previous mention in the text.

With the use in (b), the end of the sentence does not always comprise BE + noun: an alternative ending in (b), for example, might be …is alarming or …needs attention. When such sentences do end with BE + noun, though, a double meaning sometimes arises (see 257. Structures with a Double Meaning 4, #3).

Another means of placing noise at the end of (a) is, of course, the passive voice of the verb (… is caused by noise). However, as indicated above, this is less emphatic than the use of what.

The emphatic highlighting provided by what can also be achieved by starting the sentence with it, like this:

(c) It is noise that causes the most stress.

For details of highlighting in this way, see 190. Special Uses of “it”, #3. The main difference between (c) and (b) is, of course, that the highlighted meaning is at the start rather than the end of the sentence. Sometimes that is better – some sentences are easier to read with the highlighting first. Sometimes, however, there may be a good reason for wanting to highlight at the end (see 265. Grammar Tools for Better Writing).

Very many sentences can be made to begin with what. Moreover, different parts of the same sentence can be placed at the end after a starting what. Consider this:

(d) Plants absorb carbon dioxide at night.

Emphasizing plants (the subject of the sentence), this becomes:

(e) What absorb(s) carbon dioxide at night is/are plants.

Emphasizing carbon dioxide (the object), we have:

(f) What plants absorb at night is carbon dioxide.

Emphasizing absorb (the verb) is a little trickier:

(g) What plants do at night is (to) absorb carbon dioxide.

Here, moving absorb to the end necessitates its replacement by DO. This use of DO is fairly typical, though BE needs another use of itself instead. Verbs with an object (here carbon dioxide) take it with them to the end. In their new position, they usually have no ending (they have the “infinitive” form, with or without to – see 148. Infinitive Verbs without “to”, example #c), unless they correspond to a continuous tense (e.g. are absorbing), in which case they keep -ing.

One other kind of idea that is easily emphasised with what may be illustrated as follows:

(h) What is worrying is that glaciers are melting.

Here, the emphasised words are the understood subject of the main verb (is) but are themselves a subject and verb. If the sentence was written without what, it would begin with it (It is worrying…). For details, see 207. Exotic Grammar Structures 4, #3.

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CONSTRAINTS ON USING “what”

The one part of sentence (d) that cannot be highlighted at the end of a what sentence is at night, a preposition phrase acting like an adverb (saying when the action of the verb occurs). However, some adverb-like preposition phrases are more flexible:

(i) What the ancient Egyptians wrote on was papyrus.

Here, the preposition part of the phrase (on) stays with the verb, but its following noun moves to the end. It is perhaps the type of meaning expressed by the preposition phrase that determines its grammar: time phrases like at night cannot be split, whereas “instrument” phrases (naming tools – see 73. Prepositions for Saying How) can. Others that can be split include to and for before an indirect object (see 126. Verbs with an Indirect Object) and the by associated with passive verbs. All are what I have elsewhere called “grammatical” prepositions (see 111. Words with a Typical Preposition).

Ordinary adverbs like quickly, yesterday and too much also seem unable to be highlighted at the end of a what sentence. Verbs expressing states rather than actions – e.g. EXIST, HAVE and KNOW – do not easily fit there either. Nouns and adjectives in the “complement” position after BE are perhaps rarely highlighted because of repetition like the following:

(j) ?What children are is energetic.

Although nouns with a subject or object function are the easiest to highlight at the end of a what sentence, there are exceptions there too. Consider this:

(k) The British have the fewest public holidays in Europe.

As a general rule, nouns representing human beings, like the British, cannot be highlighted at the end of a what sentence. This is logical because what generally refers to things, not people. However, people nouns are not the only kind that are constrained; others include nouns for places, points in time, reasons, methods and quantities. Even nouns that can be highlighted with what are unable to when the idea of “thing(s)” inside what needs to be added to (see below).

The inability of words to follow what, however, does not mean that they cannot be given the same kind of sentence-end highlighting that what allows.

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SUBSTITUTES FOR “what”

The normal equivalent of what for highlighting human and other exceptional nouns is the + NOUN + wh-. The noun needs to be the name of a wider class containing the meaning of the highlighted noun, e.g. person/people (+ who), place (where), time (when), reason (why), thing (that) and number/amount (that). Thus, (k) can become:

(l) The people (or nation) who have the fewest public holidays in Europe are the British.

An alternative to the people who… is those who… (see 211. General Words for People). An interesting observation about noun substitutes for what is that they tend to be the very same words that equate to question words in indirect questions (see 185. Noun Synonyms of Question Words).

Nouns of this kind can also help to highlight a preposition phrase:

(m) The time when plants absorb carbon dioxide is at night.

(n) The way (in which) most bulky loads are transported is by sea.

An example where what needs to be replaced by the thing(s) is:

(o) The one thing everyone needs is exercise.

Here, it is the need to add the idea of “one” to what that necessitates the change (see 260. Formal Written Uses of “Thing”, #3).

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PRACTICE EXERCISE: HIGHLIGHTING WITH what-TYPE SENTENCES

In this exercise the challenge is to reword given sentences so that the underlined part in each is given what-type emphasis. Two of the rewordings can begin with what, but the others need a noun. Answers are given afterwards.

1. The Russian Revolution began in 1917.

2. Solar power will solve the energy crisis.

3. Gandhi inspired India to achieve independence.

4. Humans first evolved in sub-Saharan Africa.

5. Carbon dioxide is accumulating in the atmosphere.

6. Every six months a trip should be made to a dentist

7. Malaria is still a threat because the parasites quickly develop drug resistance.

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Answers (other possibilities may exist)

1. The date/year when the Russian Revolution began was 1917.

2. What will solve the energy crisis is solar power.

3. The person who inspired India to achieve independence was Gandhi.

4. The place/region where humans first evolved was sub-Saharan Africa.

5. What carbon dioxide is doing is accumulating in the atmosphere.

6. The frequency with which a trip should be made to a dentist is every six months.

7. The reason why malaria is still a threat is that the parasites quickly develop drug resistance.

144. Words that are Often Heard Wrongly

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Some common grammar mistakes result from mishearing English words

HOW PRONUNCIATION CAN CAUSE ERRORS

When we listen in a language that is not our mother tongue, we will inevitably misinterpret some of the sounds we hear, associating them with different words from those intended by the speaker. A well-known example in English involves number pairs like 15 and 50 (see 67. Numbers in Spoken English, #8). In this case, misunderstanding results.

Elsewhere, however, we might still understand the right meaning, but not the right grammar. This can happen, for example, with similar-sounding all and whole (see 308. Complexities of “Whole”). if we repeatedly misinterpret a particular word, the incorrect word we think we heard can easily become established in our memory so that we start to produce it in our speech and writing. 

This post is about errors of both kinds that I have noticed in an academic context. I wish to present a small number of them not so much in order to highlight them as to raise awareness of the importance of pronunciation study and accurate listening in the learning of English.

Pronunciation is, of course, just one among many causes of English errors. Alternative causes are considered in this blog under the headings Words with Unexpected Grammar (on the influence of similar-meaning words), Confusions of Similar Structures (on the influence of similar-looking grammar structures), 142. Grammar Errors with Passive Verbs (on the role of skill deficiency), and Words with Complicated Grammar (on difficulties resulting from a word having an unusually wide range of uses).

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EXAMPLES OF ERRORS CAUSED BY PRONUNCIATION

1. Misunderstanding of “Can’t”

People whose mother tongue is not English quite commonly hear can’t as can. Pronunciation is probably the sole reason. Two different points tend not to be appreciated. Firstly, the final “t” is unimportant: it is hardly pronounced at all because it undergoes “consonant reduction” as a result of being a “plosive” placed at the end of the word (see 91. Pronunciation in Reading Aloud, #6).

Secondly, the letter “a” is pronounced differently in the two words. In can, it is pronounced /Ə/ most of the time (but /æ/ for emphasis), while in can’t it becomes either /æ/ or (in some British English accents) the slightly illogical /ɑ:/ (see 29. Illogical Vowel Spellings). The way the vowel is pronounced is the main means of distinguishing can from can’t.

The most likely reason why the difference tends not to be appreciated is that learners of English very often believe English vowel letters always have to be pronounced more or less as they are spelt, as in most other languages, and both are spelt with “a”. The idea that many English vowels must change their pronunciation to either /Ə/ or /ɪ/ when pronounced weakly – as can usually is – is hard to remember, if learned at all (see 125. Stress and Emphasis and 202. Some Strategies for Learning English, #3).

To sum up, what seems to happen when can’t is misunderstood is that the /t/ is not heard and the /ɑ:/ is believed to signal can, since the normal pronunciation of can with /Ə/ is not easily appreciated or remembered.

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2. Misunderstanding of “… and eight(y)”

In a number-dictation exercise that I once used to do with Economics students, I noticed that many would write 482 as 492. I surmised that pronunciation was the second of two different causes. The first was the students’ ignorance of the need for and after the word hundred in spoken numbers (see 67. Numbers in Spoken English). The second was my pronunciation of and in an abbreviated way that was new to the students but typical of English: /әn/ or /nd/ or simply /n/. These causes meant that I was saying “four hundred n’eighty two” and the students were understanding n’eighty as ninety, despite the obvious phonetic differences.

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3. Wrong Preposition after “Reason”

The correct preposition for linking reason with a following consequence noun is for (see 111. Words with a Typical Preposition). An example is:

(a) There are numerous reasons for grammar errors.

The incorrect preposition that is sometimes used in such sentences is of. Part of the reason for it is probably transfer from another language. In French, for example, (a) would have the equivalent of of instead of for (cf. raison d’être – “reason of being” – in 135. French Influences on English Vocabulary). However, English pronunciation probably plays a part too, reinforcing the mother tongue influence.

In order to understand the role of English pronunciation in the error, it is necessary to examine the normal spoken forms of of and for. There is not so much difference as the spellings suggest. The phonological representations /Əv/ and /fƏ/ show that both words comprise just a vowel and a consonant. Two features appear to differ: the consonants (a surprise, given their identical spellings) and the consonant positions. However, in fast spoken speech, the position difference virtually disappears because the /Ə/ vowel is so weak as to be hardly heard. Therefore, the main difference between of and for is that one sounds like “v” and the other like “f”.

Now these two consonants are very similar – /v/ is just more “voiced” than /f/. As a result, they must be easily confusable, making it easy for someone expecting of after reason to think that that is what they heard and what they should always say.

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4. Wrong Preposition before “Consideration”

After the verb BE, it is normal to say under consideration (see 111. Words with a Typical Preposition), but after TAKE, into consideration. (see 264. Variations in the Use of TAKE, #13). A common error is to use under instead of into. As with the previous error, pronunciation is probably not the only cause (the very variability of the preposition is confusing), but it does seem to be a factor. To see why, we must again look at the normal pronunciation of these two prepositions.

Under is pronounced /ʌndƏ/ and into /intƏ/. Once more, a greater than expected similarity is revealed: the same number of sounds in each word, the vowels in the same positions (beginning and end), and two of the four sounds /n, Ə/ identical. Moreover, the /d/ of under and /t/ of into are as close to each other as /f/ and /v/ are. This means that the main difference between the two prepositions is their first vowels. It is surely not impossible that a learner of English might ignore this slight difference and believe under has been said when in fact it was into.

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5. Confusion of “Increasing” and “Increase in”

The pronunciation difference here between -ing /iŋ/ and in /in/ involves two very similar-sounding consonants. It will trouble speakers of any language that does not clearly distinguish them. The main grammar error that can result may be illustrated as follows:

(b) *There is increase in doubt about the value of jogging.

The error is the absence of a word like an or some before the singular countable noun increase (see 110. Nouns without “the” or “a”). A very likely cause of the error is the fact that increasing could correctly replace increase in, and it does not need a word like an or some before it because it is not a noun like increase but a participle describing doubt. This change makes doubt the main noun, and it needs no a or some because it is uncountable.

My hypothesis is that English users whose mother language does not clearly distinguish /ŋ/ from /n/ could easily, on hearing increasing in sentences like (b), think that they had heard increase in, and hence believe that it was alright to use this noun without an article before it.

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6. Omission of -s and -ed

Errors with endings are often, of course, a result of a grammar rather than pronunciation confusion (see, for example, 142. Grammar Errors with Passive Verbs). However, a case can be made for the involvement of pronunciation at least sometimes.

One likely culprit is the common use by mother-tongue English speakers of what I call “lengthening”: pronouncing the same consonant ending one word and starting the next just once (with a time delay) instead of twice. Examples are the /n/ sound across can never, and the /f/ across enough food (see 91. Pronunciation in Reading Aloud, #6).

Lengthening involving -s and -ed is common. It is likely, for example, in writes something and dropped down. Obviously, learners not aware of lengthening might easily think that -s or -ed is not present in such combinations, and so drop them in writing.

The -ed ending could also fail to be heard as a result of the fact that it involves a “plosive” consonant (/d/ or /t/). Such consonants are often only half pronounced at the end of a word. They are pronounced most clearly when the next word begins with a vowel (e.g. dropped out, removed everything), and they are especially likely to be reduced before another (different) plosive (e.g. passed behind, argued convincingly) or at the end of a sentence.

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7. Wrong Article after “with”

The difference between with the and with a is not as great as it seems. The underlined vowels are both pronounced /Ə/. The difference would then appear to be just the number of times the “th” sound is pronounced. Even here, however, the real difference is smaller: in both combinations “th” tends actually to be pronounced just once, as described above (#6), the only variation being the length of time taken to do so (longer in with the).

The pronunciation of with the with only a single (prolonged) “th” must sometimes mislead learners of English into thinking that they heard with a, thus building up a misconception that with a is correct in places where it is not. There might even be wider damage to the understanding of a versus the.

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8. Confusion of “this” and “these”

The choice between these two visibly different words of course depends on whether they represent a singular or plural idea (see 204. Grammatical Agreement). The problem is that, although the spellings indicate a difference of vowel pronunciation (/ɪ/ in this, /i:/ in these), this is not so helpful when someone with a mother tongue that does not differentiate the two vowels is mainly learning English through speaking and listening. In this situation, it is easy think the same vowel is being used all the time, and to reflect that in writing by only ever using one spelling (usually this).

The difference between the two words is especially difficult for Spanish speakers to hear because Spanish words, besides only having one “i” sound, rarely end in the /z/ one – a secondary feature differentiating these from this.