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Hallo!   Can you help me?  I wanna know how is it right to ask question?    "Where do you think am I  from?"   or  " Where do you think I am  from?"

Ruslana · Accepted Answer

The second one.

Tzurinskas · Answer

Where do you think am I from?" or " Where do you think I am from?"

That would be the second one, "I am". It's usually spoken in USA as "i'm", like the word "time" with the "t" cut off. Use I'm and it's easy too remember. Also we use "it's" instead of "it is" as a general rule.

tz

Andriy Lapin · Answer

Dear friend,

Where do you think I am from? - The words in bold do not form a question by themselves, because the verb think is the one to which interrogation refers. Thus, this is the only correct option.

Respectfully, Gleb Chebrikoff

CalifJim · Answer

Gleb_Chebrikoffthe verb think is the one to which interrogation refers.

In what sense do you mean 'interrogation refers to the verb think'? Can you please elaborate on that? I ask for clarification because this comment makes it seem that you are saying that the question (interrogation) (Where?) is asking where the thinking occurred, and I doubt that's what you meant.

CJ

Andriy Lapin · Answer

CalifJimCan you please elaborate on that?

Surely.

Take 'interrogation' as a synonym to 'do-support', and look at it as a grammatical device for turning a statement into a question by grammatical means (as partially opposed to lexical devices reflected by using the wh-word).

CalifJimI ask for clarification because this comment makes it seem that you are saying that the question (interrogation) (Where?) is asking where the thinking occurred, and I doubt that's what you meant.

- Right you are in your doubts. Within this structure, we deal with a complex sentence in which think takes two arguments: the external argument is realised by its subject you, the internal subject is clausal, so the wh-word is linked to some other element, and I am pleased as Punch that we agree on that

.

Respectfully, Gleb Chebrikoff

CalifJim · Answer

Gleb_ChebrikoffTake 'interrogation' as a synonym to 'do-support'

I never would have thought of doing that.

For example, Where am I? is an interrogation, but as far as I know, it has no relationship to the phenomenon of 'do-support'. Nor can I say, "Where am I? is a do-support", which I suppose I could say if 'interrogation' and 'do-support' were synonymous terms. Maybe you mean that you wish the reader to take 'interrogation' as 'do-support' not in general, but only for the purposes of your explanation in this thread.

But even then, the synonymy you propose leaves us with this: "interrogation refers to the verb think" should be understood as "do-support refers to the verb think". Again, I believe we have to establish another synonym, namely that 'refers' is a synonym, (for the purposes of this thread), to 'is applied to', leaving us with this: "interrogation refers to the verb think" should be understood as "do-support is applied to the verb think". Thus, "... because the verb think is the one to which interrogation refers" = "... because the verb think is the one to which do-support is applied". At least I believe that's the interpretation you intended; and you can correct me if I've got that wrong.

In any case, your answer surprised me.

I predicted that you would take an entirely different approach, namely, talking about the fronting ofwhere and subject-verb inversion in the independent clause (with do-support), given the base sentence and derivation as shown below:

You think I am from where? > Where you think I am from > Where do you think I am from?

That leaves the subject and verb in the dependent clause uninverted, which was the word order the original poster was asking about.
_______________

Perhaps both explanations amount to the same thing, but my concern is that neither approach explains why the second subject-verb combination is not inverted as well. Have we reached the point where we have to say, "That's just how it is. English never inverts subject and verb more than once per sentence, and that will have to be explanation enough"?

CJ

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