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Is this question grammatically correct?

Published in 1936, the first issue of Life magazine had a Margaret Bourke-White photo of a what on its cover?

Can words like "the", "a", or a number be followed by the word "what"?

Can the word "what" in my question posted act as a noun itself?

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  • Published in 1936, the first issue of Life magazine had a Margaret Bourke-White photo on its cover is the statement. Now what is your question? Is it what photo that was? What do you mean by of a what on its cover?
    – mahmud k pukayoor
    Commented Apr 22, 2017 at 10:44
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    @mahmudkoya It's a perfectly idiomatic and understandable question.
    – Araucaria - Him
    Commented Apr 22, 2017 at 11:14
  • Is it required two times a ( a Margaret Bourke-White photo, photo of a what)? Can't the question be published...photo of what on its cover?
    – mahmud k pukayoor
    Commented Apr 22, 2017 at 11:20
  • You will only find questions like this in a quiz show or similar. It sounds very artificial. It implies that the questioner already knows the answer.
    – TonyK
    Commented Apr 24, 2017 at 19:47

1 Answer 1

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When used like this, what acts as a placeholder, analogous to a blank space if the question had been written out, e.g.

Published in 1936, the first issue of Life magazine had a Margaret Bourke-White photo of a _______ on its cover?

The respondent is expected to answer by filling in the blank. Since the article is required when the blank is filled in, it's also used with the placeholder.

But it would also be fine to write it without the article, or to completely invert the question, e.g.

What was the Margaret Bourke-White photo on the cover of the first issue of Life Magazine, published in 1936, a picture of?

These are mainly stylistic choices.

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  • But, can the phrase "a what" be considered a noun phrase?
    – Anis Haidar Ali
    Commented May 29, 2017 at 11:46
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    Yes. what is acting as a noun or pronoun, so it's part of a noun phrase.
    – Barmar
    Commented May 29, 2017 at 21:27
  • Just like the title "Despicable Me", right?
    – Anis Haidar Ali
    Commented May 30, 2017 at 14:04
  • So the word "what" in the phrase "a what" is a head noun, right?
    – Anis Haidar Ali
    Commented Jun 25, 2017 at 13:08

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