On the interpretation of wh-clauses in exclamative environments (original) (raw)
Related papers
On the Semantics of German Declarative and Interrogative Root and Complement Clauses
2006
kommt? 'That Maria is coming?' (= Hans believes that Maria is coming?, ≠ Is Maria really coming?) (8) A: Hans studiert in Berlin. 'Hans is studying in Berlin.' B: Er studiert dort Jura. 'He is studying law there' B': # Dass er dort Jura studiert. that he there law studies ii) The following examples demonstrate that ob-and wh-solitaires cannot be analysed as direct interrogative acts inasmuch as it is not necessary for the addressee to know the answer-cf. Truckenbrodt (2003). (9) attorney: #Ob Sie den Angeklagten kennen? Whether you the accused know (9') attorney: Kennen Sie den Angeklagten? 'Do you know the accused?' We will show that these observations can be explained by the different semantics of verb-final and root clauses. We suggest that the main difference is that declarative or interrogative root clauses create either propositions p or questions Q as wordly objects. They do this with the help of illocutionary force, which introduces illocutionary conditions determining that p or Q emerge as worldly objects upon uttering the sentence and that p and Q are related to the utterer as well as to the addressee. Complement clauses, however, provide the structure of state of affairs, on the one hand, or questions, on the other. These structures already exist as worldly objects which are denoted via the matrix predicate, i.e. they exist independently of uttering the sentence. 2. Syntax and semantics of declarative and interrogative root and embedded clauses We have hypothesized that declarative and interrogative root clauses create a proposition or question and that V-final clauses are related to propositions or questions that exist independently. What notion of a proposition or question do we have? What does it mean that a proposition or question is created or that it exists independently? And do our semantic considerations match with syntax? 2.1. Declarative root clauses and dass-clauses According to Barwise (1989:185), a state of affairs σ is a structure that classifies a situation s σ. He defines 'classify' as the relation 'HoldsIn' (|=)-cf. (10i). It follows from his reasoning (p. 226) that a proposition itself classifies a situation, the propositional situation s p , which involves the cognitive activity of an agent. (10ii) represents the relation between the proposition and the propositional situation s p , again as a 'HoldsIn' relation.
_____________________________________________________________________ This paper focuses on the comparison of the treatment of nominal relative clauses and dependent wh-interrogative clauses in A Comprehensive Grammar of the English Language, Longman Grammar of Spoken and Written English and The Cambridge Grammar of the English Language. Especially The Cambridge Grammar of the English Language -the third and latest in a series of comprehensive grammar references -sheds light on problems in distinguishing nominal relative clauses from dependent wh-interrogative clauses by analysing the former as clear noun phrases and the latter as clauses. _____________________________________________________________________
Exclamative Clauses in English and their relevance for theories of clause types.
Studies in Language, 2015
In the present study, I investigate the grammar and usage of English exclamative clauses of the type What a wonderful journey this is! and How wonderful this journey is!. Building on existing research, I argue that the exclamative clause type can be motivated both syntactically and semantically/pragmatically. In the main part of my study, I offer a usage-based analysis of English exclamative clauses drawing on data from the British National Corpus and the International Corpus of English, British Component. I consider 703 tokens of what-exclamatives and 645 tokens of how-exclamatives. My analysis reveals that English exclamatives typically occur in reduced form lacking an overt verbal predicate, i.e. What a wonderful journey! or How wonderful!. I provide an explanation for the predominance of reduced forms based on the semantico-pragmatic properties of exclamations. Moreover, I argue that the usage properties of exclamatives render it a marginal clause type, as it is highly infrequent and predominantly appears in non-clausal forms. Usage data point to a cline of clause types as the more appropriate approximation of reality instead of the familiar distinction between major and minor clause types.
On the semantics of “embedded exclamatives”
Studia Linguistica, 2010
Abstract. It is sometimes assumed that there is a special exclamative semantics, in particular, that some wh clauses have an exclamative semantics even when embedded, maybe beside an interrogative semantics. In this paper I investigate what such an exclamative semantics ...
The Characterization of Exclamative Clauses in Paduan
Language 76:1, 123–132, 2000
In this descriptive report we outline the structural pattern of exclamative clauses in Paduan. Because of the close similarity between exclamative and interrogative clauses in this language, we begin by developing a number of tests which allow us to distinguish these two clause types. We then present the range of exclamative structures. A variety of factors interact to mark a clause as an exclamative, yielding a quite complex array of facts. We view this work as the basis for future study in the syntax and semantics of exclamatives.
Semantic characterizations of German question-embedding predicates
Logic, Language, and Computation, 2009
The paper investigates the conditions under which German twoplace verbs like wissen dass 'know' and bedauern dass 'regret' embed interrogatives. We present a necessary and sufficient condition for a dassverb to have an ob-form. The corresponding verbs we call objective. An objective verb has a wh-form (F weiß, wer kommt 'F knows who is coming') if it satisfies a further condition stating that it has to be consistent with wissen dass. A non-objective dass-verb does not have an ob-form, but it can have a wh-form if it permits a da-or es-correlate and meets particular consistency conditions which render it factive or cognitive in the presence of the correlate (cf. bedauern 'regret' vs. annehmen 'assume') It turns out that the meaning of the wh-form of non-objective verbs deviates distinctly from the meaning of the wh-form of objective verbs. Unlike other approaches our rules are general and hold without exceptions.