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Paul Evdokimov Posted 11 years ago
Grammar

2 subjects

I came across this excerpt in The Grammar Bible.
Eliza's response was quoted to demonstrate some grammar mistakes, but I'm more perplexed by the following utterence of Prof. Higgins from My fair Lady:
"What does it matter what becomes of you?''
First off, what the heck is he talking about unless it's merely bad grammar?!?
I`m not familiar with the cues from this particular part of My fair lady, but if Higgins refers to Eliza`s previous words (''what becomes of me"), they should be set off by speech marks...

Thanks for your comments in advance.
  

Top answer

Higgins is asking why what becomes of E liza is of importance to anyone, including Eliza herself. It should be obvious to anyone why it is of importance to Eliza herself, and Higgins in asking the question implies that it is of no consequence to anyone. It's just his usual condescending manner.

— Probus

  • Higgins is asking why what becomes of E liza is of importance to anyone, including Eliza herself.
  • It should be obvious to anyone why it is of importance to Eliza herself, and Higgins in asking the question implies that it is of no consequence to anyone.
  • It's just his usual condescending manner.
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6 Answers
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Higgins is asking why what becomes of Eliza is of importance to anyone, including Eliza herself. It should be obvious to anyone why it is of importance to Eliza herself, and Higgins in asking the question implies that it is of no consequence to anyone. It's just his usual condescending manner.
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Hi

Why would you expect that reference to be set off by speech marks? In general, it doesn't happen in English and I don't know of any language where that's usual

It may be that Higgins' utterance refers back - isn't that something you have to pick up by reading the text or seeing the performance?

Dave
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probus why what becomes of Eliza
Then why his question begins with absolutely irrelevant pronoun 'what'?
"Why does it matter what becomes of you?'' would be OK, but that`s not the original statement.
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dave_anonWhy would you expect that reference to be set off by speech marks?
dave_anon isn't that something you have to pick up by reading the text or seeing the performance?
The syntax of the sentence implies that the speaker requests the definition of the collocation 'what becomes of me/you'.
I can`t think of any other
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Hi

Sorry about the delay in reply

My feeling is that What does it matter + np is a well-formed sentence without additional punctuation

(where np is any relevant noun phrase introduced by a relative pronoun) ...

- What does it matter what time of year it is?

- What does it matter what clothes I wear?

It's not easy to
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Paul EvdokimovWhat does it matter?
This is an idiom for "How does it matter?", "In what way does it matter?" The implied answer is "In no way at all" or "It doesn't matter". Idioms don't always follow the rules of grammar as expected.

The follow-up for this pattern is an indirect question:

What does it matter ...
... what peop
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