A Question, With Example

[gothwalk]

A question, and a sub-question. The sub-question first: is "What horrid weather it is!" a complete sentence, or just a fragment? And the real question: If it is a sentence, what kind of part is "What"? I mean, it's not a noun, verb... is it some sort of mutant adjective or ad-adjective?

Comments

[whitecrow0.livejournal.com]

I would say complete sentence. Subject and verb. (It is [what] horrid weather.)
Sorry. Sick. Can't answer what question without fall over.

[juuro.livejournal.com]

I think I would classify it as an adverb.
Your example sentence is a complete declarative sentence. It just happens to be in some specific declamatory or something mode.

[fundessie.livejournal.com]

What... like many other words varies as per usage...

but I believe it can be a pronoun, and adjective or a conjunction..

There might be others but I don't know for certain.

[arken-thell.livejournal.com]

Isnt that more of a statment or rethorical question?

[ex-agname.livejournal.com]

Despite having a degree in linguistics, I hadn't a notion before checking dictionary.com just now that "what" had so many different part-of-speech associations! I also didn't know that an interjection was a classification of part-of-speech (a P.O.S. is a noun, verb, adjective, adverb etc). So in this context, "what" is in interjection, I would say.

[kehoea.livejournal.com]

I’ve pasted the relevant part of the OED entry below, and it says "adjective" for its part of speech. I am personally fine with analysing it as an adverb that modifies "is", which works better with "what's" other uses, but I trust the OED’s judgement far beyond reason :-)

The traditional classifictation only accords three moods to English, the indicative, subjunctive and imperative, and this is clearly indicative (the verb form isn’t “were” or “be” which would indicate the others.) I would suggest that the word order is a hangover from those days when you could move around sentence consituents at will for the sake of emphasis, but any insight from those who’ve learned it as a second language, or better, from those who’ve taught them, is more trustworthy than this.

I disagree with agname on the “interjection” judgement, though I can see an argument for it. I think it has too much grammatical connection to its neighbours for that to work.

III. 5. a. adj. Used (as sing. or pl.) to express the surprising or striking nature of the thing(s) or person(s) denoted by the n.; in sing. usually, now always, followed by the indef. art., exc. with a n. in collective or abstract sense. Often with ellipsis (cf. A. 4, 13).

Formerly usually, and still in archaic style, with inverted construction as in a direct question; being distinguished from this by intonation, and in the (non-collective) sing. by the presence of the indef. art.; cf. `What a place is this!' (mod. `What a place this is!') with `What place is this?'

c1315 SHOREHAM II. 119 O swete leuedy, wat {th}e was wo, {Th}o ihesus deyde on rode! a1450 Le Morte Arth. 530 O, worthy god, what wele is me! 1450-1530 Myrr. our Ladye II. 119 O wyth what reuerence,..wyth what inwarde deuocyon..oughte we to haue vs in euery place. c1485 Digby Myst. IV. 1157 What a fawte it was, The seruaunte, alas, His master to forsake! 1509 BARCLAY Shyp of Folys (1874) II. 105 O what a Cyte, and what a se royall Hath had first name of pore men and rurall. 1590 SHAKES. Com. Err. III. i. 48 What a coile is there Dromio? who are those at the gate? 1596 {emem} Merch. V. I. iii. 161 O father Abram, what these Christians are. 1601 {emem} Jul. C. I. iii. 42 Cassius, what Night is this? 1602 {emem} Ham. II. ii. 315 What a piece of worke is a man! 1611 {emem} Cymb. IV. i. 16 What Mortalitie is? 1615 W. LAWSON Country Housew. Garden (1626) 32 What rottennesse? what hollownesse? 1633 A. STAFFORD Fem. Glory 133 O what proficients in Faith did these rusticall Swaines prove in a moment! 1705 ADDISON Italy 307 What a strain'd unnatural Similitude must this seem to a Modern Reader? 1776 EARL CARLISLE in Jesse Selwyn & Contemp. (1844) III. 160 What a house! What people! what manners! 1798 G. HAY in Ushaw Mag. (1913) Dec. 288 What shocking times we live in! 1825 SCOTT Talism. i, What was the surprise of the Saracen, when, dismounting to examine the condition of his prostrate enemy, he found [etc.]. 1847 C. BRONTE J. Eyre ii, What a consternation of soul was mine that dreary afternoon!.. Yet in what darkness, what dense ignorance, was the mental battle fought! 1855 BROWNING A Lovers' Quarrel i, Oh, what a dawn of day! How the March sun feels like May! 1888 RIDER HAGGARD Col. Quaritch xli, What rubbish you talk.

[smarriveurr.livejournal.com]

It's a complete sentence, that much is certain.

From there, I have to get conjectural. "What" is an intensifier adverb on the "horrible", in that sentence, to my ear. I mean it translates roughly to "It is very horrible weather today", ne?

Grammar

[(Anonymous)]

In the sentence "What horrid weather it is," "what" is an exclamatory interrogative adjective, qualifying the noun "weather."