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The sentence at hand:

> サンタクロースを **いつまで信じていたかなんて事** はたわいもない世間話にもならないくらいのどうでもいいような話だが、・・・

I assume なんて here serves a derogatory role as など does in the following
sentence:

> あの人の言ったこと **など** 気にする事はありません。

As far as I know, the particle can be removed without significantly changing
the meaning of the sentence completely or making it ungrammatical.

However, if we remove the particle from the first sentence, we have the
following noun phrase.

> サンタクロースをいつまで信じていたか事

As this is the first time seeing a question modifying a noun, this looks
rather odd to me. I would have probably inserted a という or って in between.

  1. Is this a common construct? Can questions modify nouns other than こと?

  2. Would it also be correct to insert という or って in there? If so, how would the meaning change?

  3. Perhaps this getting is off topic, but are my observations regarding なんて・など accurate?
CC BY-SA 3.0
2016-01-15T07:37:59.940
30434
2016-01-15T22:41:28.013
9838
question
grammar syntax
Modifying nouns with question phrases
> サンタクロースをいつまで信じていたか事

Your intuition is correct, this phrase is ungrammatical. You _must_ insert という
or って (サンタクロースをいつまで信じていたかということ).

According to [a
dictionary](http://dictionary.goo.ne.jp/jn/165854/meaning/m0u/):

> ３ ある事物を例示して、次の語と同格であることを示す。 **…などという** 。「田中―人、知らない」「人間―ものはちっぽけなもんです」

So when なんて directly modifies a noun, you'd have to think of it as `など + という`.
（田中など人 or 人間などもの are also ungrammatical)
CC BY-SA 3.0
2016-01-15T22:41:28.013
30445
2016-01-15T22:41:28.013
5010
30434
answer