15 nov 2013: While digging in the Egyptian desert

[krrishna.chirumamilla]

"What" doesn't stand for another noun in the sentence.
In fact, the whole purpose of "what", in this kind of usage, is to refer to something that is not specifically named in the sentence.

E.g.,
I don't know what you bought at the store.
Please tell me what you did last night.

Etc.

Hi Ron,

As you said, the purpose of "What", in this kind of usage, is to refer to something that is not specifically named in the sentence. But, I came across a sentence below.

His studies of ice-polished rocks in his Alpine homeland, far outside the range of present-day glaciers, led Louis Agassiz in 1837 to propose the concept of an age in which great ice sheets existed in what are now temperate areas

From what I understand, the what in the bold part refers to temperate areas.

How is this what different from the one you stated?

Please help. Thanks a ton (:

[RonPurewal]

Yeah, but it doesn't say what they were in the timeframe of the sentence.

E.g.,
In 1980, the construction firm Glass & Associates built what would later become our company's headquarters.
—> In 1980, when the building was built, it was NOT our company's headquarters. What was it back then? ...Not specified! We don't know (nor do we particularly care).

[sdfsdfsdfs481]

"appear" versus "appears". Subject-verb agreement.

By the way, concision is NEVER a reason to choose one answer over another. NEVER. No matter what the GMAT says, and no matter what you read elsewhere, there has NEVER been a documented case of a question that could only be answered on the basis of concision. There is ALWAYS another reason, such as the one I demonstrated above.

I have question in the verb of the what ... structure.

Why do we have to use appears in this sentence? Is this because what should be in accordance with the dinosaur(singular)?
from what appears to be the second most massive dinosaur

How to decide if the what is singular or plural?
What about the sentences below? Which one is correct?
I like what excite me.
I like what excites me.

[RonPurewal]

Why do we have to use appears in this sentence? Is this because what should be in accordance with the dinosaur(singular)?

as opposed to what?

the rest of your post is about singular/plural choices, but i don't think you're asking about singular/plural here. (that decision would be trivial—there are no plural nouns with any relevance to that part of the sentence.)

so what is your question here? 'appears' vs. ______?

[RonPurewal]

from what appears to be the second most massive dinosaur

How to decide if the what is singular or plural?

it is very, very, VERY unlikely that the gmat will ever test this issue, but, if it ever does, then 'what' should be singular.

[sdfsdfsdfs481]

Thank you, Ron!

from what appears to be the second most massive dinosaur

How to decide if the what is singular or plural?

it is very, very, VERY unlikely that the gmat will ever test this issue, but, if it ever does, then 'what' should be singular.

[RonPurewal]

you're welcome.

[pawank491]

Yeah, but it doesn't say what they were in the timeframe of the sentence.

E.g.,
In 1980, the construction firm Glass & Associates built what would later become our company's headquarters.
—> In 1980, when the building was built, it was NOT our company's headquarters. What was it back then? ...Not specified! We don't know (nor do we particularly care).

Hi Ron,

Could you please explain following statement in detail

Yeah, but it doesn't say what they were in the timeframe of the sentence.

what you mean by same timefrme. Please clarify.

Thanks.

[RonPurewal]

when "what" is used to talk about something that became something else later on (as in those examples), then, it doesn't carry the same meaning of "everything".

[RonPurewal]

i.e.,
when "what" is used in the same timeframe as the sentence -- She took what was on the table and ran out the door -- then, generally speaking, it means "everything".
in that sentence, the girl/woman took everything that was on the table.

when "what" is used for something that became something else later (or was something else earlier) -- as in what are now temperate areas or what would later become our company's headquarters -- then, it doesn't have the same meaning of "everything" anymore.

[JbhB682]

Basically, this thing comes in two varieties.

1/
"what + subject + verb" (in which "what" is the object)
e.g.,
Show me what you bought at the store.

2/
"what + verb" (in which "what" is the subject)
e.g.,
I don't know what makes that noise in the furnace closet.

This one ("what appears to be...") is an example of #2.
Hope that helps.

Hi Experts -- could you please provide some examples of this difference in the construction mentioned by Ron

I just made up some sentences with different 'what clause' constructions

Construction # 1) Sam likes to know what John and James are eating
Construction # 2) Sam likes to know what (make/makes) those noises
Construction # 3) Sam likes to know what (is/are) toffees

[JbhB682]

in construction 1 -
WHAT is a subordinate conjunction
John and James = plural noun
are eating = plural

THIS IS THE CONSTRUCTION I AM FAMILIAR WITH

in Construction 2
Is WHAT a subordinate conjunction ?
Is WHAT a subordinate conjunction as well as the Subject ?
Given there is no target noun for 'what' - are we just assuming 'what' is singular ? Is that why the verb (makes) in the blue construction should be singular, even though NOISES is plural ?

in Construction 3
- Is WHAT a subordinate conjunction ?
- Is WHAT a subordinate conjunction as well as the Subject ?
- How come suddenly in construction # 3 - the verb has to be plural whereas in construction # 2 - the verb is singular
- Logically, why can "WHAT' be singular, like in the case of "What" in construction # 2

[Whit Garner]

I'm going to edit your sentences slightly, as these aren't how we'd say most of these things in conventional American english (we'd use "wants" rather than "likes" here). I also switched up the who, when, and what so that you can see how this understanding of using singular or plural shows up in all sorts of situations (not just with "what").

Construction # 1) Sam wants to know when John and James are eating. --> (plural because the subject John & James is plural).

Construction # 2) Sam wants to know who (is/are) making those noises. --> (when you don't know the subject, revert to singular - since we don't know who is making the sounds, it will be "is.")

Construction # 3) Sam likes to know what (is/are) toffees. --> Okay, so I didnt' change this one because we really don't use this construction at all in American english; we'd entirely rewrite it. BUT, since the subject is technically "toffees" (in that "toffees ARE what?"), you would use are. That said, you'd rewrite this sentence to be something like "Sam wants to know what toffees are (you'd put the noun first)." You WOULD see this issue if you were asking the question "What are toffees?" but the GMAT doesn't have questions in SC.