Cover not available

Article published In: Linguistic Constructions
Edited by Beata Trawiński, Marc Kupietz and Kristel Proost
[Languages in Contrast 24:2] 2024
► pp. 248–270

Get fulltext from our e-platform
JBE logo with link
PDF logo with download linkDownload PDF
EPUB logo with download linkDownload EPUB
authorization required

Projected meaning in English and French

The embedded exclamative construction

ORCiD logo with link | University of Mons, Belgium
Published online: 11 October 2024
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/lic.00046.tro
Abstract
This study offers a reanalysis of embedded exclamative constructions as true exclamative, and even as mirative, items. Through a quantitative study of the constructions and the verbs that licence them in English and French, it is demonstrated that not only do these embedded constructions resemble their non-embedded counterparts, their conventional meaning is not over-ruled by a matrix clause but rather projected by it.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.The exclamative construction: Combining form and meaning
  • 3.Aims, means, and method
    • 3.1Data
    • 3.2Aims and method
  • 4.Results
    • 4.1Construction types in embedded exclamatives
    • 4.2High degree in embedded exclamative constructions
    • 4.3Functional performativity in embedded exclamatives
    • 4.4How exclamative constructions embed: Matrix sentence and process types
  • 5.Conclusions
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
References (54)
References
Abels, K. 2010. Factivity in exclamatives is presupposition. Studia Linguistica 64(1): 141–157. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Allan, K. 2006. Clause-type, primary illocution, and mood-like operators in English. Language Sciences 281: 1–50. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Anscombre, J.-C. 2013. Les exclamatives: intentensification ou haut-degré ? Langue française 177(1): 23–36. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bolinger, D. 1972. Degree words. The Hague: Mouton. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Cambridge Dictionary. n.d. Available at [URL] [Retrieved February 29, 2024].
Celle, A. and Lansari, L. 2015. Surprise et exclamation en anglais. In La surprise à l’épreuve des langues, N. Depraz and C. Serban (eds). 79–99. Paris: Hermann.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Collins, P. 2005. Exclamative clauses in English. Word 56(1): 1–17. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Collins Online Dictionary. n.d. Available at [URL], [Retrieved [URL]].
Croft, W. 2001. Radical construction grammar: Syntactic theory in typological perspective. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Dagnac, A. and Vinet, M-T. 2021. La variation dans les phrases exclamatives. In La Grande Grammaire du Français. A. Abeillé and D. Godard (eds), Arles: Actes Sud. Available at [URL] [Last accessed May 27, 2024].
Davidse, K. 1994. Fact projection. In Perspectives on English: Studies in honour of Professor Emma Vorlat (Orbis Supplementa 2), K. Carlon, K. Davidse and B. Rudka-Ostyn (eds), 259–286. Leuven: Peeters.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Delaveau, A. 2021. Les phrases exclamatives. In La Grande Grammaire du Français. A. Abeillé and D. Godard (eds), Arles: Actes Sud. Available at [URL] [Last accessed February 29, 2024].
Elliot, D. 1974. Toward a grammar of exclamations. Foundations of Language 11(2): 231–246.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Frantext, ATILF, Base textuelle Frantext (En ligne). ATILF-CNRS & Université de Lorraine. 1998–2023. Available at [URL] [Last accessed May 11, 2023].
Gérard, J. 1980. L’exclamation en Français: la syntaxe des phrases et des expressions exclamatives. (Linguistische Arbeiten 85). Tübingen: Niemeyer. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ghesquière, L. 2014. The directionality of (inter)subjectification in the English noun phrase: Pathways of change. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
2017. Intensification and focusing: The case of pure(ly) and mere(ly). In Exploring intensification: Synchronic, diachronic and cross-linguistic perspectives, M. Napoli and M. Ravetto (eds), 33–54. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ghesquière, L. and Troughton, F. 2021. What a change! A diachronic study of exclamative what constructions. Journal of English Linguistics 49(2): 139–158. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Grevisse, M. and Goosse, A. 2008. Le bon usage: grammaire française. Brussels: De Boeck University.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Grimshaw, J. 1979. Complement selection and the lexicon. Linguistic Inquiry 10(2): 279–326.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Halliday, M. and Matthiessen, C. 2004. An Introduction to Functional Grammar. London: Routledge.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
2014. Halliday’s Introduction to Functional Grammar. Fourth edition. London: Routledge. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
HarperCollins 2009. Collins Wordbanks Online. Available at [URL] [last accessed May 11, 2023].
Heine, B., Kaltenböck, G. and Kuteva, T. 2020. On the status of wh-exclamatives in English. Functions of Language 27(2): 207–233. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hoffman, T. 2022. Construction Grammar: The structure of English. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Huddleston, R. and Pullum, G. 2002. The Cambridge grammar of the English language. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kennedy, C. and McNally, L. 2005. Scale structure, degree modification, and the semantics of gradable predicates. Language 81(2): 345–381. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Langacker, Ronald W. 1991. Foundations of Cognitive Grammar. Volume II: Descriptive application. Stanford: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Larousse. n.d. Available at [URL], [Retrieved February 29, 2024].
Marandin, J.-M. 2008. The exclamative clause type in French. Proceedings from the National Institute of Information and Communications Technology: The 15th International Conference on Head-Driven Phrase Structure Grammar. Keihanna, Japan, 28–30 July, 2008. Stanford, CA: CSLI Publications. 436–456. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
2010. Les exclamatives de degré en français. Langue française 1(165): 35–52. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
2018. La phrase exclamative et l’exclamation en français contemporain. Hal 01882115. Available at [URL], [last accessed June 18, 2024].
Michaelis, L. and Lambrecht, K. 1996. Toward a construction-based theory of language function: The case of nominal extraposition. Language 72(2): 215–247. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Michaelis, L. 2001. Exclamative Constructions. In Language typology and language universals (2), M. Haspelmath, E. König, W. Oesterreicher and W. Raible (eds), 1038–1050. Berlin: De Gruyter.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Moline, E. 2008. L’emploi exclamative de comme, proforme qu- de manière. Linx. 581: 25–45. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Neveux, J. 2018. Grammar and feelings: A study of Wh-exclamatives in Katherine Mansfield’s short stories. Etudes de stylistique anglaise 121: 193–222. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Olbertz, H. 2009. Mirativity and exclamatives in Functional Discourse Grammar: Evidence from Spanish. Web Papers in Functional Discourse Grammar 821: 66–82.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Paradis, C. 1997. Degree modifiers of adjectives in spoken British English. Lund: Lund University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Quirk, R., Greenbaum, S., Leech, G., and Svartvik, J. 1985. A grammar of contemporary English. London: Longman.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Rett, J. 2008. A degree account of exclamatives. In Proceedings of Semantics and Linguistic Theory XVIII. Massachusetts, Amherst, March 21–23, 2008. Ithaca, NY: CLC Publications. 601–618. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
2011. Exclamatives, degrees and speech acts. Linguistics and Philosophy 341: 411–442. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Riegel, M., Pellat, J.-C. and Rioul, R. 2009. Grammaire méthodique du français. Paris: Presses Universitaires de France.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Rys, K. 2006. L’exclamation: assertion non stabilisée? Le cas des exclamatives à mot qu-. Revue Romane 41(2): 216–238. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Schroeder, D. 2020. Insubordinate exclamative constructions in the history of English. PhD Thesis. Universität of Münster.
2017. English exclamative clauses and interrogative degree modification. In Exploring intensification: Synchronic, diachronic and cross-linguistic perspectives. M. Napoli and M. Ravetto (eds), 207–228. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Trotta, J. 2000. Wh-clauses in English: Aspects of theory and description. Amsterdam: Rodopi. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Troughton, F. and Ghesquière, L. 2022. I never realized how controversial it was: On the embedded exclamative. Paper presented at BAAHE Conference, University of Liège, Belgium, 2 December 2022.
Troughton, F. 2024. Translation and Categorization: The English and French Exclamative. PhD thesis. University of Mons.
Unger, C. 2019. Exclamatives, exclamations, miratives and speaker’s meaning. International Review of Pragmatics 111: 272–300. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Vandelanotte, L. and Davidse, K. 2009. The emergence and structure of be like and related quotatives: A constructional account. Cognitive Linguistics 20(4): 777–807. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Vinay, J-P. and Darbelnet, J. 1958/1995. (Juan C. Sager and Marie-Josée Hamel, eds. and trans.). Comparative stylistics of French and English: A methodology for translation. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Zanuttini, R. and Portner, P. 2003. Exclamative clauses: At the syntax-semantics interface. Language 79(1): 39–81. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Mobile Menu Logo with link to supplementary files background Layer 1 prag Twitter_Logo_Blue