How v. what....like?

[Dr. Jamshid Ibrahim]

There are situations in which the two question words overlap or may be different in usage.

How was the music?
What was the music like?

What's your boss like? Personality?
How's your boss? Does this sentence refer only to health?

Could anybody provide some more ambiguous examples and explain the differnece in meaning?
Regards
Jamshid

[Pete]

Originally Posted by Dr. Jamshid Ibrahim

There are situations in which the two question words overlap or may be different in usage.

How was the music?
What was the music like?

What's your boss like? Personality?
How's your boss? Does this sentence refer only to health?

Could anybody provide some more ambiguous examples and explain the differnece in meaning?
Regards
Jamshid

- How's your boss? I heard she was in the hospital last month. [A query about the boss's health. Spoken here, there's probably a secondary stress on "how's", slightly more stress on "boss".]

- My boss really isn't very good at managing people. How's your boss? [A query about the boss's management ability. Spoken here, there's a definite stress on "your".]

Note that in a spoken discourse, there would be no ambiguity.

Sorry, but though I'm sure that many sentences can be interpreted in more than one way, none come to mind right now.

[Dr. Jamshid Ibrahim]

Hi Pete
Thanks for your kind post. I believe as you said the two may differ and questinos with "how" possibly acquire more than one meaning depending upon emphasis.

What about the first example I gave:
How was the music?
What was the music like?

My last question to you personally Pete if you don't mind: Do you know some other websites which might be of interest to my linguistic pursuits?
Regards
Jamshid

[Pete]

Originally Posted by Dr. Jamshid Ibrahim

Hi Pete
Thanks for your kind post. I believe as you said the two may differ and questinos with "how" possibly acquire more than one meaning depending upon emphasis.

What about the first example I gave:
How was the music?
What was the music like?

The interpretation you give is the only one I can think of. The use of "how is/are" to ask about health is limited to living things whose state of health can be an issue.

Originally Posted by Dr. Jamshid Ibrahim

My last question to you personally Pete if you don't mind: Do you know some other websites which might be of interest to my linguistic pursuits?
Regards
Jamshid

I have never participated in any specifically linguistic forums myself. A while ago I pointed out a couple that I had heard of and you said you would check them out. I'm curious to hear what you discovered. Click here to see that posting.

I'm sorry, but I am not aware of others.

[Rusty]

How was the music?
What was the music like?

I see a slight difference in these questions.
How was the music? = How did the music effect you? What did you feel about the music?
What was the music like? = Describe the music to me.

[Dr. Jamshid Ibrahim]

Hi Rusty
Yes I do agree with you about the difference in meaning in the examples I gave. However, sometimes the difference is not really clear and might depend on emphasis. Just take:
How is your boss?
What's is your boss like?
Regards
Jamshid

[Dr. Jamshid Ibrahim]

Hi Pete
Thanks for your post. The websites you gave are fantastic. They are really hepful.
Regards
Jamshid