Re: whether

[And Rosta <a.rosta@UCLAN.AC.UK>]

Robin Turner:
> "She knew whether he was hungry."
>
> Is this really Standard English?

Yes.

> I have never heard "whether" used like
> this, though I suppose it might be common in the U.S.  Us Brits would just
> say "She knew he was hungry."

This is why I only work on English: I can judge when other
people's reports are accurate. If someone made claims like yours
about a language I don't know well, I'd be at their mercy, and
would end up drawing conclusions from false premises.

Anyway, what can I say? Your report is false to an extent
so blatant that I can scarcely believe you mean it, and am
hard pressed to think of a way to end your delusion.
Try asking a sample of ordinary English speakers whether the
two sentences mean the same thing. As for "whether" Qs in British
English, you could consult, say, Quirk et al's Comprehensive
Grammar of the English Language.

BTW, if you are British, where did you acquire your cognitivist
proclivities?

--And

p.s. It occurs to me that you might speak a nonstandard dialect
where "whether" is much less common than "if". Do you find
"She knew if he was hungry" any better? Where did you grow up?