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The situation is that:
We've already read three English novels.
Which is the correct question for that situation?
Who has already read three English novels?
Who have already read three English novels?
Or could both be correct?
Please also provide the grammatical reasons for your answers.
The OP's question involves the topic of interrogative pronouns (e.g. "who" and "what") and the question of whether they could be considered to be singular or plural.
In general, the interrogative pronoun "who" takes the default value of singular; and when it does take the value of singular, its question can allow both singular and plural answers. And so, that's why we often see questions using the default singular (that is, singular subject-verb agreement).
But when the speaker is expecting only a plural answer, then the speaker could use a plural override when forming their question -- but usually that is not obligatory, and usually the speaker can still use the default singular in their question. But, sometimes there are exceptions, when the plural override is obligatory, and that obligatory plural override often occurs when the grammar of the question requires or strongly prefers a plural verb (e.g. a predicative complement realized by a plural noun phrase).
So, with that as a grammatical background, let's look at the OP's context for those candidate questions. The OP's context is described as:
The situation is that: We've already read three English novels.
where I'm assuming that two or more of the addressees have read at least 3 novels. It is possible that the "we" includes only the speaker and one other person, but I'd think it more feasible that there are three or more people involved here (e.g. a classroom with more than one teacher and two students). The rest of my post will work with that assumption: there is a speaker and at least two addressees.
If the speaker doesn't really know whether the answer will be singular or plural, or is willing to expect either a singular or plural answer, then the speaker will (in general) use the default singular for their question:
1) Who has already read three English novels?
because that allows both a singular and a plural answer.
But if the speaker expects that more than two (students) will respond in the affirmative, then, often the speaker might choose to use the optional plural override:
2) Who have already read three English novels?
because the speaker is expecting to get two or more affirmative answers. But, this is optional to the speaker; the speaker can still use the default singular version, because this is not one of the exceptions that I had mentioned earlier.
ANSWER: So, to answer the OP's questions:
Which is the correct question for that situation? Or could both be correct?
for the specific candidate questions, it seems that both versions could be considered to be grammatical for that given context. It would be up to the speaker as to which one they would want to use.
= = = = = SOME VETTED GRAMMATICAL INFO = = = = =
OP asked:
Please also provide the grammatical reasons for your answers.
For more information on this topic, there is the 2002 reference grammar by Huddleston and Pullum et al., The Cambridge Grammar of the English Language (CGEL), pages 505-6.
Related excerpt from CGEL pages 505-6:
(d) Interrogatives
In general, the interrogative pronouns who and what take the default value of singular. Compare:
[19]
i.a. Who wants some more ice-cream? - - - b. What remains to be done?
ii. Which (of these) is/are yours?
There is no presupposition in [i] that only one person wants some more ice-cream or that only one thing remains to be done: the default singular allows for either singular or plural answers. In [ii], with determinative which as fused determiner-head, we have a singular or plural verb according to whether the answer is presupposed to be singular or plural.
The default singular values for who and what can, however, be overridden when there is a presupposition that the answer is plural:
[20]
i. What are going to be the deciding factors?
ii. Who haven't yet handed in their assignments?
iii. Who have excelled themselves in this year's coxed pairs?
iv. What have pointed ears and long tails?
In [i] the override is obligatory: this case is similar to those discussed for fused relatives such as [18.i], with the plural PC the deciding factors forcing a plural construal of what.
A likely context for [20.ii] is one where I'm addressing a group of students and assuming that a plurality of them haven't handed in their assignments; singular hasn't would be possible (but without indicating any expectation of a plural answer and favouring singular assignment if there is only one each).
In [20.iii], coxed pairs involve three people (two rowers and the cox), so the presupposition is again that the answer is plural. The reflexive has to be plural, and this favours a plural verb.
Finally, [iv] presupposes a generic bare plural as answer, e.g. foxes, but the motivation for a plural override is relatively small since the answer could be given in the form of a generic singular, e.g. a fox.
There's also some related information in the older 1985 reference grammar by Quirk, Greenbaum, Leech, Svartvik, A Comprehensive Grammar of the English Language (1985 Quirk et al.). On page 371, footnote [a]:
[a] Who has both singular and plural reference, but when neither is explicit in the linguistic context, singular concord is the unmarked term. Thus, even though several voices are heard outside, the natural question will be Who's there? rather than ?* Who're there?
Note that the ?* symbol means: tending to unacceptability, but not fully unacceptable. Also, on page 756, footnote [a]:
[a] . . . Similarly, interrogative who and what as subjects normally take a singular verb even when the speaker has reason to believe that more than one person or entity is involved: Who is making all that noise? However, a plural verb may be used if other words in the sentence indicate that a plural subject is expected in the answer (Who have not received their passes?). . . .
EDITED: As a commenter has mentioned, there are also echo questions, where the "who" question can easily use a plural verb. For example:
A: "That gorgeous blonde girl that just moved in across the street, and the redhead that you're too shy to talk to, and also that girl who's always trying to beat you up on the playground, they are coming to your birthday party."
B: "Who are coming to my party?"
Or perhaps the simpler example as given by the commentator:
A: "They have done it."
B: "Who have done it?"
Here's an example borrowed from a comment in a related thread, where a plural verb might be obligatory:
Who has already read three English novels?
Who is the unspecified grammatical subject of the verb that follows and the usage is to have the verb in the singular. I do say it is based on common usage and not sustained by a grammatical rule.
Theoretically, if we ask the question we do not know in advance how many individuals will be concerned and the singular is, in a manner of speaking, a "by default option":
It is also the correct usage when we expect the answer to include several individuals:
Example in context:
The whole family is visiting for the weekend, that'll be 19 people altogether and I say we'll go and pick them up at the station or the airport, so I ask:
Who's coming by train and who's coming by plane?
I could say:
Who are those coming by train?
which would be a grammatically different question because it specifies the subject: those represents all the people (who are) coming by train, it is plural, therefore the plural agreement for be.
There are multiple ways one can specify the subject:
Who among you are better than average drivers?
Who among you have already read three English novels?
Quoting Quirk & al's A Comprehensive Grammar of the English Language, p.756:
[I]nterrogative who and what as subjects normally take a singular verb even when the speaker has reason to believe that more than one person or entity is involved: Who is making all that noise? However, a plural verb may be used if other words in the sentence indicate that a plural subject is expected in the answer (Who have not received their passes?)
So the above sentence:
could also be rephrased as:
Who have sampled their aquatic pets in the kitchen?
their specifying that a plural subject is expected in the answer.
If the verb implies a plural subject (an action one does not usually do on their own) I will either leave the unspecified who or specify if I'm bothered using the verb in the singular.
Example in context:
I come upon a street fight and I want to know who is involved. I have two options :
Who's fighting over there? (unspecified subject)
Who are the people fighting over there? (specified subject)
Note that in my sentence I use the same rule, if who is used in an indirect question :
I want to know who is involved in the fight.
w is very significant in analyzing search results; just reviewing a sample of the search results shows that the lowercase form more commonly lends itself to situations where "who have read" is grammatical because context pluralizes the "who": Considering, for instance, those authors *who have read* Faulkner. I would consider the "Who haven't yet..." example to be non-grammatical because "who" is by default considered in the singular unless otherwise appropriate in context.
Only option 1 is correct.
-Who here has been to France before?
-He has.
-I have.
Maybe both are correct in the other guys' dialects, but certainly in British English, only your first option is correct. "Who here have read...?" is wrong.
Examples of when you might hear "who have" together? When using the present perfect progressive (I/we/you/they have been doing).
"The three students, who have been living in England for the last four years, were attacked last Saturday."
"Who have you been cheating on me with, all this time?"
They're both correct, but have different implications.
Who has already read three English novels?
This is asked if the asker has no particular expectations of the audience. (Or alternately, expects everyone to reply negatively.) For example, an English teacher in Japan might ask this at the start of a semester.
Who have already read three English novels?
The second question connotes an expectation that there will we be multiple respondents who will say yes. The asker might ask this at a literature discussion event.
Disclaimer: I do not actually reference materials, I am natively English and hail from the UK itself as such I am using my own knowledge of my own language to answer.
Both sentences are valid in almost every situation, however, I agree with @LiveMynd in that if I were to ask this question I would have different expectations as to the response, however, they are not required nor assumed by default.
Let's have an example:
Who have read three books?
3 people have read three books
and:
Who has read three books?
1 person has read three books
while assuming you are talking about many individuals. It does feel as though if I were to put myself into the shoes of asking this question that "has" would imply a rare show of hands while "have" would imply, possibly, a large coverage.
But, to reiterate, this is not something that, in my view, is considered standard English.
To go back on what I said earlier:
Who are reading this book?
is correct to me but it talks about a different tense than "has"/"have" as shown by the present tense verb "reading":
Who are/is reading Harry Potter?
3 people are reading Harry Potter
would typically, in my view, be said to a book club meeting in the present tense, while you would ask:
Who have/has read Harry Potter?
for the past tense to the same group. "have" and "has" are extremely interchangeable from my own experience in this case, for example:
Who have/has witnessed three crimes?
You can see how it can be used for many different verbs in the past tense.
So to contradict what I originally said to @Giles: yes I do believe, after thinking a lot more about it, that have/has and are/is along with many others are interchangable and this is actually a generalisation, not an exception to the rule.
I myself think it would be correct to say who has because there must be one person at least who has done that. I clarify. When we hear knocking at the door we ask this question: Who is knocking at the door? Because there must be one at least and there can be more. And because questions always come before answers and we don't know if the answer subject will be plural it is more correct to use the singular form. I am a teacher. I sometimes use a sentence to ask questions on its different parts. Concerning the subject I suppose we must use the singular form because we are supposed not to know the answer before asking the question. Meanwhile grammatically speaking it is correct when we use the plural form because the answer is plural, But in use it's correct to use the singular form.
It depends on whether you are talking about one or more people. When talking about one person, you would use 'who has' but when talking about more than one, you would use 'who have'.
Examples:
I know Peter who has been very kind to me.I know Peter and Jane who have been very kind to me.
