Exclamation in English and Arabic: a contrastive Study dr. Nadia Amin Hasan


Exclamation in English and Arabic: II. 1. Exclamation in English



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Exclamation in English and Arabic A Cont

Exclamation in English and Arabic: II. 1. Exclamation in English




1-Prototypical or matrix exclamatives: The basic form of an exclamative 'is marked by an initial exclamative phrase containing how or what'. They are called in the literature prototypical, matrix or proposition exclamatives. Huddleston & Pullman (2005: 168) state that they may function as subject or non-subject as in the following examples:
What unpleasant people work in this restaurant? How clever you are!
They may also be main or subordinate clauses as in the following examples: How very kind you are!
I told them how very kind you are! (Huddleston & Pullman 2005: 180)


2- Interrogative exclamatives: When uttering an exclamative, an interrogative clause may be used as in the following:
Isn‟t she beautiful! (Rosengren 1997 qtd. in Bijar,2002: 9)
In the example above the speaker expresses his/her feelings concerning the fact that the female in question is not only beautiful, but beautiful to a high degree on the scale of beauty (unless it is uttered ironically) (Bijar,2002: 9)
Some wh-questions (called by Rett (2008: 613) Inversion exclamatives have the force of an exclamative particularly when intensified by some adverbs. Svartvik & Leech (1985) state that 'You can intensify the emotive force of a wh- question by adding some adverbs like ever, on earth etc. to the wh- word. They cite the following examples:
How ever did he escape? {I just can't imagine!}
Why on earth you didn't tell me? {How silly of you!}
What in Heaven's name does he think he's doing? {The idiot!}
The utterances as such are all scalar; they all refer to phenomena on high positions on various scales.
Also when the subjunctive is combined with inversion may do as exclamations as in Far it be from me! as pointed out by Quirk et al (1985:204).


3-Some statements when uttered with emphasis and falling intonation can do as exclamations or when emphasized by 'do' when used as a dummy auxiliary or when Emphatic 'so' and 'such' are added as in the following examples
You do look pretty!
He's such a nice man.
Negative statements when intensified by 'at all' express exclamatory meanings. For example: I found nothing at all the matter with him.
Other negative intensifiers are 'a bit and by any means' (both adverbials of degree) and 'whatever' (a postmodifier of a noun phrase).
You have no excuse whatever
Negative emphasis is also expressed by placing the negative element at the beginning of the clause:
Never have I seen such a crowd of people. (Svartvik & Leech ( : 118-119 )
c. 'can' is used in exclamations to express the idea 'is it possible..'
It surely can't be four o'clock already!
Could any one be such a fool as to believe that! (:Eckersely & Eckersely,1981: 197)

d. May is used in exclamatory sentences to express a wish May all your dreams come true! (ibid: 206)


Some statements with comment clauses can do as exclamatory utterances; they are so called because they do not add to the information, but they function as a comment on its truth' the manner of saying it or the attitude of the speaker.
Stated bluntly, he had no chance of recovery. What's more, we lost all our belongings
- Some sentence adverbials can express an emotional reaction as:
To my regret,he did not accept our offer.
Surprisingly, no one objected to the plan. (Svartvik & Leech, 1985: 121) 4- Nominal, DP, hidden or Non-sentence exclamations:
A DP as pointed out by Beijer (2002:14) can also be used as an exclamative, as long as the NP is modified by a restricted relative clause (Quirk et al. 1985:11.53):
The fuss they made! (Quirk et al. (1985 §11.53)
Quirk et al. (1985) call the utterance above nonsentence, since it is a DP used as if it were a complete sentence. This exclamative type naturally relies on the intonation contour. According to Quirk et al. (1985:11.53) DP-exclamatives generally express disapproval, i.e. the speaker does not approve of the fuss they made. Grimshaw (1979) refers to exclamations like that as hidden exclamatives.

  1. That-clause exclamations: Rosengren (1997 qtd. In Bijar,2002: 9-10) points out, however, that some exclamatives consist of that-clauses. A that-clause denotes a real or hypothetical state of affairs, and when using that clause exclamatorily, the speaker in question considers the existence of the state-of-affairs denoted by the that-clause to be a deviation from a certain norm. They may be emphasized by so or such as in the following examples they cite:

That I have something to do with this monstrousness! That she could be so ruthless!
In example (16) the speaker considers the very fact that someone believes that he has something to do with something described as a monstrousness to be remarkable. In example (17) the existence of the fact that she could be so ruthless is in itself a deviation from a norm. Exclamations, thus, do not only express deviations from certain norms, but also various feelings, such as astonishment, joy, surprise and disappointment in relation to this deviation. These feelings regarding the propositional content of an utterance are conveyed via certain intonation patterns.


Beijer (2002:13) affirms that 'when someone utters an exclamatory that-clause, he conveys that the very existence of the fact in question is a deviation from a certain norm'. Zanuttii & porter (2003: 4) argue that nominal and that-clause exclamatives have the two syntactic components marking an exclamative, namely the wh- and the factive operator. The relative clause can fulfill the role of the wh- operator and the definite article 'the' marks the clause as factive.



  1. Infinitive exclamations: An infinitive is sometimes used in exclamatory sentences or in sentences expressing a wish unlikely to be realized. For example:

To think that he knew about it all the time! Oh! To be young again!
Oh! To be in England! (Eckersely & Eckersely , 1981: 235)



  1. Echo exclamations, which repeat part or all of the preceding utterance:

A: I‟m going to London for a holiday.
B: To LONdon! That‟s not my idea of a rest. (Quirk et al. (1972: 7.84 qtd. In Bijar 2002:4)



  1. There are also some exclamatory constructions. Eckersely & Eckersely (1981: 160) state that: a. some exclamatory sentences are of the pattern 'adv./ v./ subj. i.e. adverbs have front position. This is so for emphasis. 'This usage is in many cases literary and emotional' (ibid: 263)

Here comes the bride!
There goes our train!
Here they are!
b. Svartvik & Leech (1985: 125) state that the construction 'if only I could remember his name is exclamatory
Now for some fun!



  1. Repetition {which also denotes degree = extremely} It's far, far too expensive. (Svartvik & Leech, 1985: 118)




  1. Some imperatives in particular contexts could be classified as exclamatory, e.g. down with the prime minister!




  1. Epithet exclamative: Arnold M. Zwicky (2004: 1) adds another type of exclamation which he calls epithet exclamatives and cites the following as an example:

You goddam linguist!
  1. Single word exclamations


Some exclamations are expressed by single words. It is a type of language where no verb is needed because every thing needed for the understanding of the message is provided by context'. Eckersely & Eckersely (1981: 315) confirm that 'sometimes an ordinary word or groups of words are used as interjections. For example: Silence! Well done! Stop! These 'perhaps are elliptical sentences equivalent to something like: I want silence! You have done well'


  1. 2. Exclamation in Arabic:


II.2. A. Syntactically based Exclamatives




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