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Need expert help ....

by voodoo_child » Sat Aug 06, 2011 7:38 am
Those skeptical of the extent of global warming argue that short-term temperature data are an inadequate means of predicting long-term trends and point out that the scientific community remains divided on whether significant warming will occur and what impact will it have if it does.
A. on whether significant warming will occur and what impact will it have if it does.
B. on whether warming that occurs will be significant and the impact it would have.
C. as to whether significant warming will occur or the impact it would have if it did.
D. over whether there will be significant warming or the impact it will have.
E. over whether significant warming will occur and what impact it would have

OA E
I am not questioning OA.

What's a GRAMMATICAL difference between "whether impact it would have" and "what impact it would have"

Ron says that "impact it would have" is not a clause. However, if I reverse it, "it would have impact" sounds like a clause. HEnce, "what impact it would have" ~ "whether impact it would have"?

Here's a good MGMAT discussion : https://www.manhattangmat.com/forums/tho ... t1938.html



Thanks
Voodoo
Last edited by voodoo_child on Sat Aug 06, 2011 7:58 am, edited 1 time in total.
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by HSPA » Sat Aug 06, 2011 7:51 am
Hi,

divided based on severe/normal impact. Those two are two different questions based on which or in clear based on the answers for those questions the teams are divided
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by GMATGuruNY » Sat Aug 06, 2011 1:51 pm
voodoo_child wrote:Those skeptical of the extent of global warming argue that short-term temperature data are an inadequate means of predicting long-term trends and point out that the scientific community remains divided on whether significant warming will occur and what impact will it have if it does.
A. on whether significant warming will occur and what impact will it have if it does.
B. on whether warming that occurs will be significant and the impact it would have.
C. as to whether significant warming will occur or the impact it would have if it did.
D. over whether there will be significant warming or the impact it will have.
E. over whether significant warming will occur and what impact it would have

OA E
I am not questioning OA.

What's a GRAMMATICAL difference between "whether impact it would have" and "what impact it would have"

Ron says that "impact it would have" is not a clause. However, if I reverse it, "it would have impact" sounds like a clause. HEnce, "what impact it would have" ~ "whether impact it would have"?

Here's a good MGMAT discussion : https://www.manhattangmat.com/forums/tho ... t1938.html



Thanks
Voodoo
In what impact it would have, the function of each word is clear:

-- the subject is it
-- would have is the verb of the subject it
-- what impact is the direct object of would have
-- what is an adjective modifying impact
-- the entire clause is the object of the preposition over: scientists remain divided over...what impact it would have.

In what it would have impact, the function of what is unclear. If what is a pronoun, it has no clear referent. If what is an adjective, there is no clear noun being modified. If what is introducing a question, where is the question? The structure what it would have impact makes no sense.
Last edited by GMATGuruNY on Sun Aug 07, 2011 5:24 pm, edited 4 times in total.
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by voodoo_child » Sun Aug 07, 2011 6:33 am
Mitch,
Thanks for helping me out. I did some research after reading and re-reading your post.

Isn't it that "that" is understood in the following construction? -- something similar to ellipsis clauses?

Impact (that) it would have?

Is it that "impact it would have" doesn't have an object? My ear clearly says that something is missing in "impact it would have" but I tend to give less preference to ear when it comes to grammar.

can you please help me?
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by GMATGuruNY » Sun Aug 07, 2011 7:44 am
voodoo_child wrote:Mitch,
Thanks for helping me out. I did some research after reading and re-reading your post.

Isn't it that "that" is understood in the following construction? -- something similar to ellipsis clauses?

Impact (that) it would have?

Is it that "impact it would have" doesn't have an object? My ear clearly says that something is missing in "impact it would have" but I tend to give less preference to ear when it comes to grammar.

can you please help me?
Please revisit my amended post above. I initially had responded to your query about whether, but whether isn't the issue here.
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by SticklorForDetails » Sun Aug 07, 2011 8:26 am
voodoo_child wrote:Those skeptical of the extent of global warming argue that short-term temperature data are an inadequate means of predicting long-term trends and point out that the scientific community remains divided on whether significant warming will occur and what impact will it have if it does.
A. on whether significant warming will occur and what impact will it have if it does.
B. on whether warming that occurs will be significant and the impact it would have.
C. as to whether significant warming will occur or the impact it would have if it did.
D. over whether there will be significant warming or the impact it will have.
E. over whether significant warming will occur and what impact it would have

OA E
I am not questioning OA.

What's a GRAMMATICAL difference between "whether impact it would have" and "what impact it would have"

Ron says that "impact it would have" is not a clause. However, if I reverse it, "it would have impact" sounds like a clause. HEnce, "what impact it would have" ~ "whether impact it would have"?

Here's a good MGMAT discussion : https://www.manhattangmat.com/forums/tho ... t1938.html



Thanks
Voodoo
I'm not sure exactly what you're looking for here, but I'll try to add my $.02

"What" is an interrogative pronoun introducing a noun clause. Thus, "what impact it would have" is a noun clause that can be used to mean simply "the impact it would have." Look at this example:

"I do not know what impact it would have."

Here you have the main sentence, with "I" as the subject, "do know" as the verb, "not" as an adverb, and "what impact it would have," a five-word clause, as collectively the direct object -- a noun clause introduced by "what" as an object. Within that noun clause, "it would have" is our subject/verb and "what impact" is its object, with "what" acting as an adjective, apparently, modifying "impact." A little weird, but fine; even more clearly, let's try:

"I do not know what this would impact." Here, "would impact" is the verb-inside-the-noun-clause, and "what" is its object.

"Whether" is an interrogative word introducing a noun clause but it isn't a pronoun, it's an adverb. Thus it can't be the object of the noun clause it introduces.

"I do not know whether impact this would have."

Here, "whether" introduces a noun clause wonderfully, but it's unclear what its role should be in the noun clause itself. It should be an adverb modifying "would have," but it's awkward placed next to the unmodified "impact." To clarify this in English, we specify the impact with its own adjective, or even just an article:

"I do not know whether this would have an impact."

Now it's clear that "whether" is an adverb introducing a noun clause and "an impact" the object inside the noun clause.

So, what your ear is picking up is the missing article behind "impact," but as you may or may not know, article rules in English are VERY difficult to define. Generally, if we're talking about something specific and not in general, we need some adjective to specify it, even if it's just an article. "What" can serve as this adjective but "whether" cannot. Maybe, after all this typing, it's that simple! haha.
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by lunarpower » Sat Aug 13, 2011 12:38 am
eeehhh. the question you're asking doesn't really mean anything, because "whether impact it would have" is nonexistent.
in fact, "what" and "whether" are mutually exclusive -- if one of them works, the other can't. so, rather than getting into a bunch of nitty gritty grammar, i will just show you how they work via examples.

--

"WHAT" is a term that refers to some noun or description. it is NOT a yes/no thing.

as a QUESTION:
What are you eating? --> here, "what" refers to the noun itself that the person is eating
What items did you order? --> here, "what" refers to the identity of the items. (notice the question structure -- the verb "did" comes BEFORE the subject)

as a NON-QUESTION:
i don't know what items you ordered. --> "what" is the same as in the second example above. however, note that, because this is not a question, the S/V are not inverted.

--

"WHETHER" refers to YES OR NO.

"whether" must be a NON-QUESTION:
i don't know whether you ordered the items. --> i.e., i don't know yes/no on this particular issue.

WHETHER *cannot* introduce a question.
the corresponding question here would just be, "did you order the items?"

--

in the sentence you've posted here, make sure you can correlate the two structures to the two corresponding examples in this post. it's meaningless to try to compare them to each other, because they can never be used for the same thing -- "whether" is used only for yes/no type issues, while "what" is used only for identifications.
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