Date Approved
2025
Degree Type
Open Access Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Arts (MA)
Department or School
English Language and Literature
Committee Member
T. Daniel Seely, Ph.D.
Committee Member
Eric Acton, Ph.D.
Abstract
Exclamatives are an intriguing case study of the syntax-semantics interface. Despite several attempts to define them and explain their properties, there has not yet been convergence on a general theory of the exclamative sentence type. This thesis aims to unify existing approaches to exclamatives and explain a wider range of data by modifying and extending Zanuttini and Portner (2003). The critical modification allows exclamatives to be formed via operators other than wh-, which, when combined with factivity, ultimately yields exclamativity. The implications of this proposed analysis are investigated for both familiar and previously unexplored data. The modified analysis has several advantages over previous accounts: its central postulates are independently motivated, it has substantially wider empirical coverage, and it provides a unified explanation of otherwise disparate exclamative types. Fundamentally, there is no “exclamative” force feature internal to the narrow syntax. Rather, exclamatives emerge naturally from independently attested components.
Recommended Citation
Niemann, Christa, "A generative account of English exclamatives" (2025). Master's Theses and Doctoral Dissertations. 1294.
https://commons.emich.edu/theses/1294
