0

an example from the section "More examples" on cambridge.org:
(1) Is monarchy relevant in the modern world or should it be abolished?
Is it necessary to invert the word order in the second clause of compound interrogatives?
If it is not, then is there any rule about applying inversion in such cases?

my variant:
(2) Is monarchy relevant in the modern world or it should be abolished?
Is (2) correct?
If it is, then what's the difference between (1) and (2)?

Improve this question
6
  • 3
    Your variant is invalid. We invert the normal English default subject/verb sequence in questions. The question format is Should it be abolished?, (John asked me) which you can contrast with the statement format It should be abolished (I replied to John).
    – FumbleFingers
    Commented Apr 3 at 16:22
  • 1
    Compare "Is this piece of paper trash, and we should throw it away, or is it something valuable and we should keep it?" This sentence has two equal, independent clauses, and we use the inverted question order for them: "Is this... is it." But each of those clauses also has a dependent clause for which we keep the standard order ("we should"). Admittedly, it's a bit of a fake example, and would be more likely to be worded more simply, like "Is this trash, or something valuable that we should keep" or similar.
    – Andy Bonner
    Commented Apr 3 at 18:32
  • @AndyBonner Could we infer that: If an interrogative is a complex sentence [like your examples], we mustn't use inversion in the second clause [which is dependent]. But if an interrogative is a compound sentence [like (1) in the original post], we must use inversion in the second clause [which is independent].
    – Loviii
    Commented Apr 3 at 19:01
  • It's not that complicated; it's just "we invert clauses that are actual questions." For my complex example I "glued together" two questions, but it could have just been "Is this something valuable which we should keep?" We invert the first because it's the real question, and not the second because it's just a dependent clause. The rule is just "invert question clauses"; don't worry about the complexity of the sentence. E.g. "What is this? Should we keep it?" becomes "What is this, and should we keep it?" But...
    – Andy Bonner
    Commented Apr 3 at 20:30
  • ... "What is this thing? I found it under the table. Should we keep it?" becomes "What is this thing that I found under the table, and should we keep it?" We don't invert the clause that was never really a question to begin with.
    – Andy Bonner
    Commented Apr 3 at 20:31

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
3

This sentence has an afterthought, and that it is non-integral to the main clause can be indicated with the em-dash:

Is monarchy relevant in the modern world — or should it be abolished?

It could even be punctuated so:

Is monarchy relevant in the modern world? Or should it be abolished?

Is monarchy relevant in the modern world, or should it be abolished?

It's two separate questions, not a "compound interrogative".

Your variant is ungrammatical:

Is monarchy relevant in the modern world or it should be abolished?

The word order of the italicized question is wrong.

Improve this answer
3
  • A compound sentence has more than one main clause (or independent clause). That (1) has two separate questions [as you noted] indicates it's a compound interrogative. If you disagree, could you please give an example which, on your opinion, can be called a compound interrogative?
    – Loviii
    Commented Apr 3 at 17:42
  • In my view, a compound interrogative would be something like "Who's knocking at the door and what do they want?" But even there the name "compound interrogative" seems somewhat spurious to me since this "compounding" has no special syntactic effects on either clause.
    – TimR
    Commented Apr 3 at 20:15
  • @Loviii, I believe a compound interrogative is simply a subtype of compound sentence. It has two main clauses joined by "or". Those clauses follow the same rules as a simple interrogative sentence. Sometimes, we drop the comma between short clauses in a compound sentence. "I play football and my brother plays baseball" can have a comma, but some authors will choose to drop it. Note that we can sometimes mix interrogative and declarative clauses in a compound sentence: "I know you like pizza, but do you like pasta?"
    – Kaia
    Commented Apr 4 at 0:56

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .