formswhether

Formswhether is a term used in linguistic theory to describe a proposed category of morphosyntactic form that encodes the presence of an embedded interrogative content clause. The name combines form and whether, signaling that the same grammatical material may indicate both the surface form of a clause and the semantic status of an embedded question.

Definition and scope: A formswhether marker is hypothesized to realize both morphosyntactic signaling and a question-related reading on the dependent clause. In this view, a single affix, clitic, or particle can bundle information about the embedding of a question with aspects such as tense, mood, or modality on the matrix clause, effectively merging form and interrogativity in a unified feature. The concept is used in analyses of indirect questions, conditionals, and epistemic modalities across languages with complex verbal systems.

Cross-linguistic patterns: Proponents point to languages with agglutinative or polysynthetic morphology where a marker on the main verb or on the embedding clause appears to carry interrogative force. Critics argue that what is labeled as formswhether may instead reflect layered markers for indirect questions, evidentials, or mood, rather than a single unified phenomenon.

Relation to other concepts: The idea intersects with embedded question constructions, whether clauses, evidential systems, and morphosyntactic alignment. It is discussed in typology and theoretical syntax as a heuristic for understanding how languages encode interrogativity alongside other grammatical functions.

Note: Formswhether remains a debated, relatively niche label within theoretical linguistics and has limited widespread acceptance.