Whoever told...

Question

"Whoever told Philip Hammond he was one of life’s natural raconteurs and that a few toilet gags would go down a storm has a lot to answer for."

(The Guardian.)

Is Whoever told Philip Hammond he was one of life’s natural raconteurs and that a few toilet gags would go down a storm a noun phrase (with the fused pronoun Whoever in it) and a subject of the sentence above?

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I think it is. I also think that has a lot to answer for is a predicate in that sentence. In other words, 'everything' on the left from "has" is the subject and on the right from it a non-finite clause, a 'follow-up' in the catenative construction has [a lot to answer for] where a lot is an adverb.

GPY · Accepted Answer

tkacka15Is Whoever told Philip Hammond he was one of life’s natural raconteurs and that a few toilet gags would go down a storm a noun phrase (with the fused pronoun Whoever in it) and a subject of the sentence above?

Yes.

tkacka15 I also think that has a lot to answer for is a predicate in that sentence.

Right.

tkacka15where a lot is an adverb.

"a lot" is a noun phrase, not an adverb. This person must answer for a lot.

BillJ · Answer

Whoever told Philip Hammond he was one of life’s natural raconteurs and that a few toilet gags would go down a storm has a lot to answer for.

You have it right that the underlined subject is a fused relative construction, i.e. a noun phrase with "whoever" serving as both 'head' and relativized element. But “has” is a present tense verb-form so has a lot to answer for is a finite clause.

The verb “have” is not a catenative one here. "A lot" is direct object of "have", and the clause “to answer for” is an infinitival relative clause modifying “lot”.

Infinitival relatives characteristically have a modal meaning comparable to that expressed in finites by “should”, compare Whoever … has a lot that he/she should answer for.

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