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I found in a comic book an interesting example of an embedded interrogative that had Subject-Auxiliary Inversion (SAI): I'm not too sure what exactly is it that you're asking. Is this Standard English or a dialect thing? I know embedded SAI is found in Northern England, but this is presumably an American example. Are there any special environments in which we may find embedded SAI?

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  • Inversion is sometimes found in AmE (but not normally in BrE) in contexts of strong question-orientation. Cf. also "Ed asked what had he done wrong" / "She wanted know was he ill".
    – BillJ
    May 9, 2022 at 11:10
  • If the embedded question is actually intended to solicit an answer, it can optionally invert to signal this pragmatically.
    – John Lawler
    May 9, 2022 at 15:38

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