Diagramming Questions

Interrogative constructions (questions) often involve inversions; verbs with auxiliaries; or "question words" such as who, what, when, where, and so on, that might be treated differently depending upon the syntax.  Sometimes, bridging becomes necessary in diagramming.

The following examples illustrate a feature of structural grammar that might seem counterintuitive to some speakers of English.  Often it seems to make sense to treat the word who as a subordinator.  But who, because it "inflects"--that is, has the two forms who/whom, in structural grammar is not just a function word, but a part of speech.  It is treated as a pronoun like the "personal pronouns" I, we, you, he, she, it, and they.  Like the other pronouns, who can function syntactically as a noun--among other things, as the subject or object of a verb.  Thus, who can be an IC in a construction involving the grammatical ties of predication or complementation.   Similarly, some of the other "question words" normally function as subordinators, but in questions they might function in other ways.

Here, Who is diagrammed as the subject of the interrogative sentence, and what, a word often used as a subordinator, is diagrammed as a modifier of fossils.  For the treatment of have been found, see the discussion of verbs with auxiliaries.

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