Ana,
My impression is that all three questions are pretty much the same, just asking for the answer in a different syntactic context. The speaker formulates the expected answer differently. The wh-question word is a possessive. All three relate to a prototypical case of the wallet belonging to some person.
In the first example, "Whose wallet is this?" the expected answer would be something like: "It is my wallet" from the owner of the wallet as speaker. Of course, the speaker may have reason to believe that it belongs to someone else and answer accordingly, "It is his wallet" or "It is the teacher's wallet," etc.
In the second example, "Whose is this wallet?" the expected answer would be more like: "The wallet is mine" with the same kinds of semantic variation as in the first: "The wallet is his" or "The wallet is the teacher's," etc.
In the third example, "Whose is this?" the context has to supply the nature of the thing possessed, which must also supply it in the expected answer: "It is mine," "It is his," "It is the teacher's," etc.
Other uses of the possessive case are not as clear cut. Sometimes a partitive, associative, genitive, or some other relationship is being referred to. "Whose brother is this?" "Whose integrity is questioned?" People do not belong to other people, so that "Whose is this brother? is strange. We don't expect the answer: "He is mine" except perhaps in the context of a game or other situation where an artificial belonging relationship has been set up. Integrity is also difficult to see as alienable so that "Whose is the integrity in question?" doesn't seem to work.
________________________________________
From: Assembly for the Teaching of English Grammar [[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Ana Cervantes [[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Wednesday, June 24, 2009 4:13 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: question
Dear all,
This is the first time I write, but I've been following your insightful
discussions and debates for a while. I need your help with the following
questions:
"Whose wallet is this?"
"Whose is this wallet?"
"Whose is this?" (wallet)
Are all three options right?
Most importantly; Why?
Thank you very much for your help
Ana M. Cervantes
Peru
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