Inversion usage

Question

I am not sure if native speaker only uses inversion on certain words such as which or who. No inversion is required for any clause beginning with what. Is it true or is it only my misunderstanding?

why is that if it is true?

1./ the music to which you are listening is beautiful
2./ who is the person with whom you excnanged greetings just now?
3./ i have no idea what i am capable of

Blue Jay · Accepted Answer

What are you talking about? Who told you that?

CalifJim · Answer

You seem to be approaching English grammar in an unusual way.

Inversion is the reversal of the order of two words or word groups, almost always a subject and a verb.

You are > Are you
The boss was > Was the boss
A little dog has been seen ... > Has a little dog been seen ...

Question words like which and who do not participate in inversion, but when they are used at the beginning of a sentence to form a direct question, they cause the subject and verb to undergo inversion.

You are doing the dishes. > What are you doing?
__________

An exception is when the question word is the subject. You can't invert those because the question word has to be at the beginning.

Obama is the president of the U.S. > Who is the president of the U.S.? (Not Is who the president of the U.S.)
__________

Another exception is that the question word can be preceded by a preposition. You can 'strand the preposition' at the end of the question: What do you base your conclusions on? Or make it the first word (not stranding it): On what do you base your conclusions? For most questions like this, native speakers greatly prefer the first form (with stranding).
_____________________

'Stranding a preposition' can also be done at the end of a relative clause.

You can strand the preposition: the music which you are listening to, the person whom you exchanged greetings with
Or not strand the preposition: the music to which you are listening, the person with whom you exchanged greetings

Both ways are correct. Not stranding the preposition is very formal. In ordinary conversation the preposition is almost always stranded at the end.
_____________________

Your third example contains an indirect question (also called an embedded question).

This is the direct question form. This form contains inversion.

With stranding: What am I capable of? [usual]
Without stranding: Of what am I capable? [rarely used]

Embedding in another clause, making it an indirect question. This form does not contain inversion.

With stranding: I don't know what I am capable of. [usual]
Without stranding: I don't know of what I am capable. [so rare that it sounds incorrect]

So the reason it's I have no idea what I am capable of is that it's an indirect question (no inversion) and has a preposition which virtually must be stranded because the alternative (I have no idea of what I am capable) sounds strange to native speakers.

CJ

2cr3nd4 · Answer

CJ, wholeheartedly thank you. Your explanation is magnificent.

let me bring you into another perspective.

which, whom and what are just the pronouns denoting and replacing the subject of the subordinate clause.
and all the examples I quoted are adjective clauses which could be extracted from the original sentence like below

the music to which you are listening is beautiful
- the music is beautiful
- you are listening to the music

who is the person with whom you exhanged greetings just now?
- who is the person?
- you are exchanged greetings with the person

i have no idea what i am capable of
- i have no idea
- i am capable of an idea

adding one more example
I would further enhance my knowledge what I am capable of
- I would further enhance my knowledge
- I am capable of the knowledge

and actually all subordinate clauses could also be seen as a question as in
which music are you listening to?
who are you exchanged greetings with?
what idea am i capable of?
what knowledge am i capable of?

I am not sure if my acknowledgement on the above is correct.
but you were saying the first 2 examples were relative clauses as the latter ones were indirect questions.
aren't all are relative clauses? aren't all are indirect questions?
I am very confused tbh.
We can strand or not strand the preposition in the first 2 examples as explained by you. Why cant we apply the same to the latter 2 examples?

CalifJim · Answer

2cr3nd4I would further enhance my knowledge what I am capable of < not correct!
- I would further enhance my knowledge
- I am capable of the knowledge

Actually this one is not correct, and it introduces yet another topic not discussed above, and that introduces more complications, so we shouldn't use it for our discussion just now.

I would enhance my knowledge of that.
I am capable of that.
> I would enhance my knowledge of that which I am capable of.

Fused relative: what = that which
> I would enhance my knowledge of what I am capable of. [Correct.]

Without the stranding: I would enhance my knowledge of of what I am capable. [Wrong! Impossible!]

To make a correct version without the stranding, the fused relative has to be separated into its parts.

I would enhance my knowledge of that of which I am capable. [Correct.]

However, it is extremely rare for a writer to resort to this strategy because it is such an awkward grouping of words — even though it is grammatically correct.

CJ

Edit: Actually, there is another interpretation of this sentence in which what I am capable of is an indirect question.

CalifJim · Answer

2cr3nd4you were saying the first 2 examples were relative clauses as the latter ones were indirect questions.aren't all are relative clauses? aren't all are indirect questions?

You will occasionally find a clause which is difficult to categorize as either a relative clause or an indirect question, but most cases are just one or the other, and not both.

So think of relative clauses and indirect questions as two separate kinds of clauses.

Relative clauses can begin with who, whom, whose, which, what, and that, and occasionally where or when.
Indirect questions can begin with any of the question words, e.g., who, whom, whose, what, which, when, where, why, and how. And indirect questions can also begin with if or whether.

Many indirect questions are introduced by expressions that have to do with not knowing. We can refer to these introductory words informally as "the stem".

I don't know [ who he is / what he does / when she will arrive / where they go / why he wants it / how it is done / whether she likes it / if we should wait longer].

Instead of I don't know, you might have I don't care, I wonder, I can't even guess, I have no idea (of), We can't be sure, etc. as a stem.

CJ

CalifJim · Answer

2cr3nd4We can strand or not strand the preposition in the first 2 examples as explained by you. Why cant we apply the same to the latter 2 examples?

I suppose you can apply the same transformations to the indirect questions, but those constructions tend to sound awkward, so people don't use them much.

For example, the second of each pair below sounds very strange to native speakers. I recommend avoiding them entirely.

I don't know who I can rely on.
I don't know on whom I can rely.

I wonder what they are talking about.
I wonder about what they are talking.

Can you figure out what music she is listening to?
Can you figure out to what music she is listening?

She won a lot of money. Now she has to decide what she's going to spend it on.
She won a lot of money. Now she has to decide on what she's going to spend it.

When the stem ends in a preposition (e.g., depends on), the effect of two prepositions in a row is even more objectionable.

It all depends on what you use it for.
It all depends on for what you use it.

Little Billy was undecided about which toy to play with.
Little Billy was undecided about with which toy to play.

When both prepositions are the same, the effect is even worse.

Steve gave a great deal of thought to who he might appeal to for help.
Steve gave a great deal of thought to to whom he might appeal for help.

CJ

2cr3nd4 · Answer

<img class='emoticon' style='Width:19px;Height:19px;' data-delaysrc='https://uat-englishforward-forums-backend.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/Emoticons/1.gif' src='https://uat-englishforward-forums-backend.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/Emoticons/1.gif' alt='Emotion: smile'/>CJ, your explanation was just incredible.

Inversion usage

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