grammaticality - Position of verb for object clause


Is the general word order of this sentence correct?



We investigate how strong the effect of X on Y is.



Or, as an alternative,



We investigate how strong the effect of X is on Y.



In a preprint for a scientific publication I came across the formulation:



We investigate how strong is the effect of XZY.



and now I'm all confused.



Answer



The Object clause how strong ..., since it starts with a Wh-word, is an Embedded Question Object Complement clause. Embedded Wh-Questions differ from real Wh-Questions in that they don't undergo Subject-Auxiliary Inversion.


So that's what lets out the third example, which has undergone Subject-Auxiliary Inversion.


Both of the first two examples are fine, because they both come from different potential placements of the prepositional phrase on Y. Being a locative adverbial, it can be inserted into any available niche in the sentence, including



  • The effect of X is Z on Y.

  • The effect of X on Y is Z.


Both of these, if "Z" is a real variable, coreferential with What, produce



  • What is the effect of X on Y?


as a non-embedded Wh-Question. However, as an Embedded question, either order is available, since the auxiliary verb is doesn't get inverted with the subject Noun Phrase the effect.


Summary:



  1. We investigate how strong the effect of X on Y is -- OK.

  2. We investigate how strong the effect on Y of X is -- OK.

  3. We investigate how strong is the effect of X .. -- Not OK.


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