Thursday 10 August 2017

Exclamative Clauses

Halliday & Matthiessen (2014: 164):
These clauses have the WH- element what or how, in nominal or adverbial group. … what conflates with a Complement, as in what tremendously easy riddles you askthis is often an attributive Complement, as in what a fool he is. how conflates with an Adjunct, as in how beautifully you make loveIn earlier English the Finite in these clauses preceded the Subject, as in how are the mighty fallenbut since the Finite ^ Subject sequence became specifically associated with the interrogative mood, the normal order in exclamatives has become Subject ^ Finite.