When an embedded question is used as a relative clause, does the embedded question still have an interrogative function, or does it become purely descriptive?
E.g.,
你看了大卫给谁的书。
Is this:
You read the book that David gave someone.
OR
You read the book that David gave someone, and who did he give it to?
If it's the former, is this phenomenon completely general, wherein embedding a question makes the WH word interpretable as an indefinite pronoun?
Actually, the sentence itself is stilted and ambiguous in meaning.
你看了大卫给谁的书。
The way to express your first idea(You read the book that David gave someone):
你看了David给别人的书。
And the second one (You read the book that David gave someone, and who did he give it to?):
你看的那本书David给谁了？or 你看过的那本书David给谁了？
Both implies that you have read the book; you are questioning who David have given that book to.
First analyze the components of the sentence:
你看了大卫给谁的书？ (should be a question mark here)
Here, 你 is the subject, 看了 is the predicative, and the phrase 大卫给谁的书 is the object. Actually, 书 is the object, and 大卫给谁的 is the attribute modifier.
So the sentence is basically 你看了书. The question is located in the attribute modifier, so it's asking about Who David give the book to.
A reference translation is
Who did David give the book (that you read) to?
(It just seems to be as confusing as the original Chinese sentence.)
