Scott,

It's a determiner. "What" and "which" are interrogative determiners. "Whose"
is a possessive interrogative determiner.

Dick

On Mon, Aug 15, 2011 at 1:27 PM, Scott Woods <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

> Dear List,
>
> In the sentence <What wisdom can you find that is greater than kindness?>,
> what is the role of "what"? How would you explain it?  Is it adjectival to
> "wisdom"? Is it just a question marker? You could re-write the sentence as
> <Can you find wisdom that is greater than kindness?>, so "what" doesn't seem
> to be telling exactly the kind of wisdom. You could also re-write it as <You
> can find no wisdom that is greater than kindness>, so does "what" operate
> like an interrogative adjectival negator modifying "wisdom"?
> What else might be going on?
>
> Thanks,
>
> Scott Woods
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