Question on this question 'What did she say when she laughed?'

Question

Hi teachers,
My question is why here the verb 'did' only affects 'say' and not 'laughed'?
a) What did she say when she laughed?
Because we say, 'What did he do and say later? / What do you like and dislike about the film?'
What kind of sentence, grammatically speaking, is 'a' besides being a question?

Thanks in advance.

Canadian45 · Accepted Answer

Thinking SpainHi teachers, My question is why here the verb 'did' only affects 'say' and not 'laughed'?

a) What did she say when she laughed? because we cannot say 'did laughed'

Because we say, 'What did he do and say later? yes, because "do" and "say" are both present tense

he did say ..he did do..he did go.. all

he did said..he did did...he did went..he did laughed....all

Tenacious Learner · Answer

Hi Canadian 45,
Thank you for your reply. I do know the things you wrote. Perhaps I didn't explain myself very well.
he did say ..he did do..he did go.. all

he did said..he did did...he did went..he did laughed....all

a) What did she say when she laughed? because we cannot say 'did laughed' Of course.

Still, what kind of sentence, grammatically speaking, is 'a' besides being a question?
a) What did she say when she laughed?

Canadian45 · Answer

a) What did she say when she laughed?

It's a complex sentence, with one independent clause and and one dependent clause.

Do you have s further question?

"What did he do and say later?" is a simple sentence.

BillJ · Answer

Thinking Spainmy question is why here the verb 'did' only affects 'say' and not 'laughed'? a) What did she say when she laughed? Because we say, 'What did he do and say later? / What do you like and dislike about the film?' What kind of sentence, grammatically speaking, is 'a' besides being a question?

But it does affect 'laughed', or at least the subordinate clause that contains it. This is all about 'scope' of an interrogative clause. It has to do with the way the meaning of the whole sentence is built up from the meaning of its parts. In the interrogative clause "What did she say?" the questioning doesn't apply to what she said, but to what she said when she laughed. The sentence implies that she said something when she laughed and we want to know what it was. Thus the questioning ("what did she say") has scope over the adjunct "when she laughed".

The sentence comprises a matrix clause with an embedded subordinate clause functioning as an adjunct of time.

BillJ

Canadian45 · Answer

BillJThinking Spain
my question is why here the verb 'did' only affects 'say' and not 'laughed'? a) What did she say when she laughed?
BillJThinking Spain....
my question is why here the verb 'did' only affects 'say' and not 'laughed'? What I would like to know is who told TS that did "only affects say", and why they said that. Presumably someone did say that.

a) What did she say when she laughed? Because we say, 'What did he do and say later? / What do you like and dislike about the film?' What kind of sentence, grammatically speaking, is 'a' besides being a question?

But it does affect 'laughed', or at least the subordinate clause that contains it. Taking a broad approach to the whole sentence one could say that, but one could also say that "did" more clearly relates to "say" than it does to "laughed".
This is all about 'scope' of an interrogative clause. It has to do with the way the meaning of the whole sentence is built up from the meaning of its parts. That's nothing unique to that particular sentence. In the interrogative clause "What did she say?" the questioning doesn't apply to what she said, but to what she said when she laughed. I think that "did" grammatiically most directly applies to what she said and less so, if at all, to when she said it.

BillJ
Anyway, I hope that TS gives us further feedback on what raised the question he asked and on whether he has received a satisfactory answer.

Tenacious Learner · Answer

canadian45Do you have s further question?

Hi Canadian45,
Thank you for your reply. No I don't have any further questions.

But it does affect 'laughed', or at least the subordinate clause that contains it. Taking a broad approach to the whole sentence one could say that, but one could also say that "did" more clearly relates to "say" than it does to "laughed".
OK. So we use 'laughed' in the 'simple past' just because the independent clause contains 'did'. That's very clear.

my question is why here the verb 'did' only affects 'say' and not 'laughed'? What I would like to know is who told TS that did "only affects say", and why they said that. Presumably someone did say that. A teacher that I know in my city.

Anyway, I hope that TS gives us further feedback on what raised the question he asked and on whether he has received a satisfactory answer. Yes I did, a very satisfactory one.

Tenacious Learner · Answer

BillJThis is all about 'scope' of an interrogative clause

Hi BillJ,
Thank you for your reply. I just don't understand the meaning of the above sentence. Could you please explain it?

Tenacious Learner · Answer

Hi Canadian and BillJ,
Thank you for your replies. So a 'complex sentence' is complex because it contains two diferent types of clauses, an independent clause and a dependent clause.
The order of the clauses can be reverse with no difference in meaning:
a) What did she say when she laughed?
b) When she laughed, what did she say? ( A comma is needed when the dependent clause comes first).

TS

Canadian45 · Answer

Thinking Spain So a 'complex sentence' is complex because it contains two diferent types of clauses, an independent clause and at least one dependent clause. The order of the clauses can be reversed with no difference in meaning:

a) What did she say when she laughed?
b) When she laughed, what did she say? ( A comma is needed when the dependent clause comes first.)

TS

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