"Wh"-exclamatives in Catalan

Abstract

[eng] The thesis "Wh-exclamatives in Catalan" is a research that intends to shed light on the characterization of exclamatives, a type of clause that has not been paid as much attention as other types of clause such as interrogatives or declaratives. This is a theoretical study that falls within the framework of generative grammar. As such, it highlights the main problems that the previous literature has noted, it considers new puzzles that stem from the data from Catalan, it provides an explanatory analysis for most of them, and it presents relevant lines for future research. My working hypothesis is that exclamatives are a kind of degree construction that resembles comparative clauses and result clause constructions. However, exclamatives and the other degree constructions differ in at least one relevant property: exclamatives do not make the same discourse contribution as declaratives. This works limits its scope to two instances of wh-exclamatives in Catalan, namely exclamatives whose wh-word is the degree operator que ('how') (as in (1)) and exclamatives introduced by the wh-word quin ('what'), which is a determiner (cf. (2)). (1) Que alt que és en Pau! / 'How tall Pau is!' (2) Quin pastís tan bo que ha preparat en Ferran! / 'What a nice cake Ferran made!' In (1), the wh-phrase que alt is a degree phrase which moves towards the left periphery of the clause, whereas in (2), the wh-phrase quin pastís tan bo is a determiner phrase. Even if the moved phrases have different heads, they both contain a degree phrase. I propose that que in (1) is the wh-counterpart of tan ('so') in (2). The inclusion of [+wh] in its feature makeup causes the movement of the phrase headed by que to the clause periphery. The facts that make exclamatives an attractive object of study are numerous and concern their syntax, their semantics and their pragmatics. From a syntactic viewpoint it is interesting to ask oneself why exclamatives allow the presence of the complementizer que ('that') between the wh-phrase and the verb and what is the reason why a wh-word such as qui ('who') cannot introduce an exclamative. With regard to semantics, there is a need to define and formalize the essence of an exclamative: is it surprise? Unexpectedness? Extreme degree? And with respect to pragmatics, we need to explain the reason why an exclamative does not make a good answer to a question (i.e., why it cannot be used assertorically). The syntactic analysis contains two basic ideas. On the one hand, I assume that the wh-phrase lands in Spec,C, which makes sense if we understand that the complementizer que occupies Cº. On the other hand, I propose that it is required that the wh-phrase include a degree phrase introduced by tan or que. Semantically, I analyze tan as a degree operator that establishes a relation between two degrees, a reference degree and a standard degree. The reference degree is the degree of ADJ-ness of the individual that is the argument of the gradable adjective interpreted as a measure function of type <e,d>. The standard degree is taken from context and it is high. Finally, from the point of view of pragmatics, I propose that an exclamative contains two kinds of meaning: a verbally expressed meaning (the descriptive content of the clause) and the meaning that is contributed to discourse. The descriptive meaning is taken for granted by the speaker, who treats it as a fact. What he/she wants to contribute to discourse is information that is not verbally encoded: his/her attitude towards a degree. KEYWORDS: attitude toward degrees, degree phrase, degree operator, exclamation, fact, result clause construction, polarity sensitivity, wh-movement.

[cat] La tesi "Wh-exclamatives in Catalan" ('Les exclamatives-qu en català') es proposa caracteritzar les oracions exclamatives-"qu" (i.e., aquelles que estan introduïdes per un mot-"qu" com "quin" o "que") des del punt de vista de la seva sintaxi, semàntica i pragmàtica. Aquest és un estudi emmarcat en la gramàtica generativa i, com a tal, enfoca l'objecte d'estudi a partir dels contrastos que s'han posat de relleu en la bibliografia prèvia, planteja nous problemes derivats de les dades del català, proposa una hipòtesi i mira de comprovar si la hipòtesi permet explicar les dades. Els dos tipus d'oració amb què he treballat són els següents: (1) Que alt que és en Pau! (2) Quin pastís tan bo que ha preparat en Ferran! A (1) "Que alt" és un sintagma de grau que s'ha traslladat a la perifèria oracional, mentre que a (2) tot el sintagma determinant "Quin pastís tan bo" és el que s'ha traslladat. Però, crucialment, (2) també conté un sintagma de grau (i.e., "tan bo"). La hipòtesi de treball és que les oracions exclamatives-qu no s'han d'explicar des de la semàntica de les preguntes com s'ha fet fins al moment, sinó que se les ha de considerar construccions de grau com les comparatives o les oracions consecutives , això sí, amb una particularitat: no tenen la mateixa contribució al discurs que una oració comparativa o consecutiva, ja que no són oracions declaratives. Més concretament, la tesi vol demostrar que tota exclamativa-"qu" ha de contenir un sintagma de grau (ja sigui de forma manifesta o inferit del context) que està encapçalat per un operador de grau ("tan" o "que"), i que estableix una relació entre un grau de referència i un grau estàndard recuperat del context i que sempre és considerat alt. El que diferencia les exclamatives de les declaratives és que mentre que aquestes funcionen generalment com a asseveracions, un parlant que profereix una exclamativa no té la intenció d'introduir el contingut descriptiu de l'exclamativa com a informació nova, sinó que vol expressar la seva actitud emotiva envers un grau alt. Per això proposo que el contingut descriptiu d'una exclamativa és un fet i no una proposició, perquè el parlant no el fa servir per introduir informació nova, sinó que el considera la causa de la seva actitud.