Below are explanations for the two Interrogative Samples:

Relatives from The Brothers Karamazov

It came to pass that, settling permanently in Paris he, too, forgot the child, especially when the Revolution of February broke out, making an impression on what was left of his mind.

As the interactive exercise instructs, the first step is to highlight any words that could be interrogatives:

It came to pass that, settling permanently in Paris he, too, forgot the child, especially when the Revolution of February broke out, making an impression on what was left of his mind.

There appears to be only one interrogative in this sentence:

1. WHAT: precedes a main verb (WAS LEFT) and serves as subject of a clause; clause serves a nominal role (object of the preposition ON)

Challenge Sample from The Brothers Karamazov

Fyodor Pavlovitch looked for some time as though he did not understand which child he was talking about, and even as though he was surprised to hear that he had a little son in the house.

Again, the first step is to highlight any words that might be interrogatives:

Fyodor Pavlovitch looked for some time as though he did not understand which child he was talking about, and even as though he was surprised to hear that he had a little son in the house.

For this sample, there appears to be only one interrogative in this sentence:

1. WHICH: precedes a clause; clause serves a nominal role (direct object of UNDERSTAND)

Tips to Keep in Mind

The KEY MARKER for interrogatives is its association with a clause, or as the subject of a question. In some cases, the interrogative will be the subject of the clause, but as we saw in second sentence above, the interrogative can also be a headword for the clause. One other point, in both sentences above, there is also a THAT-clause that serves a nominal role (THAT . . . HE . . . FORGOT THE CHILD; THAT HE HAD A LITTLE SON). These are not considered interrogative clauses. We will discuss this in more detail in Section 6.

If you have questions about these sample analyses, please contact your instructor or start a conversation in your work group.