The other day my friend asked me, “What time is it?” and I responded, “What time is what?” without thinking. What is the it in the question?
I googled “what time is it” and the search returned my local time as well as the current time in a few other major U.S. cities. I searched deeper into the query and could not find an answer. It has to stand for something. It is a pronoun – it replaces a noun. So what is it?
Questions like “What time is it starting” make sense. It replaces the event you’ve already been talking about:
“Let’s go see Avatar tonight.”
“What time is it playing?”
The only logical conclusion I could come up with is that it stands for the present time. "What is the present time?" That makes sense. But you wouldn’t say, “What time is the present time?”
“What time is it?” could also just be a rearranging of the question, “What is the time?” with it replacing time and then redundantly repeating the noun you’ve just replaced with a pronoun.
But if it is replacing “this present time,” wouldn't you ask, “What time is this present time?”
In that case, wouldn’t it make more sense to just ask, “What time is this?”
My theory is that over time the "now" of "What time is it now?" was dropped because everyone understood that the time being requested was the present time. Maybe?
Posted by: Carrie | February 15, 2010 at 02:00 PM
While that does make sense, it still doesn't explain what "it" stands for. What noun is "it" replacing?
Posted by: Jeremy Hawking | February 15, 2010 at 02:02 PM
The "it" is a pronoun to referring to the "time" in "what time." "It" is standing in place of the answer being sought.
"What time is it?" could be restated "It is what time?" Rephrase the question as a statement, and there's no question as to what "it" is referring. "It is 9:00."
Posted by: Joe | March 17, 2010 at 04:40 PM
That's exactly what I thought; that it would stand for "this present time" or "the present time."
Turns out it's not referring to anything AT ALL!
It's called a non-referential it.
Here's a whole study on the subject: http://www.ling.ohio-state.edu/~adriane/papers/boyd-acl-it.pdf
Posted by: Jeremy Hawking | March 17, 2010 at 04:55 PM