Freie Universität Berlin, Institut für Englische Philologie
HS: Understanding English-German Contrasts
WS 2002/2003, 7. Semester

Exclamative sentences - a basic sentence type?
An analysis of exclamative sentences in English and German

by

Phyllis Wiechert

Table of contents

1 Introduction 3

2 Exclamative sentences in German 4

2.1 Exclamative sentences in German grammars 4

2.1.1 DUDEN Grammatik  5
2.1.2 Deutsche Grammatik  5
2.1.3 Grammatik der deutschen Sprache  6

2.2 Exclamative sentences in German papers 8

2.2.1 Fries: Ist Pragmatik schwer! – über sogenannte ’Exklamativsätze im Deutschen 8
2.2.2 Näf: Gibt es Exklamativsätze?  9
2.2.3 Summary  12

3 Exclamative sentences in English  14

3.1 Exclamative sentences in English grammars 14

3.1.1 A Comprehensive Grammar of the English Language (CoGEL)  15
3.1.2 The Cambridge Grammar of the English Language (CGEL)  15
3.1.3 The Longman Grammar of Spoken and Written English (LG)  17

3.2 Exclamative sentences in English papers  17

3.2.1 Elliott: Toward a Grammar of Exclamations 17
3.2.2 McCawley: Boy! Is syntax easy!  18
3.2.3 Portner and Zanuttini: Exclamative Clauses at the Syntax-Semantics Interface 19
3.2.4 Summary  22

4 Exclamative sentences in English and German  23

5 References 26

1. Introduction

The grammatical concepts for the basic sentence types in German and English are established and confirmed in various grammars. Each grammar differentiates between declarative, interrogative and imperative sentence. But when it comes to the classification of exclamative sentences different and partly excluding concepts can be found. Some grammarians regard exclamative sentences as an individual sentence type whereas others define exclamative sentences as a special case of one of the other three basic sentence types.
The purpose of this paper is to try to find an answer to the controversial question whether exclamative sentences are a basic sentence type. For this reason an analysis of German and English grammars and research papers dealing with the classification of exclamative sentences is necessary. The analysis will focus on the following questions and problems:
• Is there a sentence type “exclamative sentence”, which can be unambiguously characterised and identified?
• If so, can exclamative sentences be regarded as a basic sentence type alongside declarative, interrogative and imperative sentences?
• If not, what are exclamative sentences? Do they belong to the basic sentence types or are they a minor sentence type?
The analysis will proceed in the following fashion. First, I will analyse German grammars and papers regarding exclamative sentences, including their use and meaning. Second, I will continue the analysis with English grammars and papers. A summary after each part will restate the results of the analysis. Third, in a concluding section the results will be restated shortly. The gained information from the other sections will be used to answer the initial question whether there is an individual exclamative sentence type.

2. Exclamative sentences in German

The three basic sentence types declarative, interrogative and imperative sentences can be found in every German grammar. Most grammars differ considerably about the actual number of sentence types, because they either regard exclamative sentences as an own sentence type or as a subcategory of other sentences. Näf1 has analysed the main grammars in German with the result that only three grammars include the exclamative sentence as a basic sentence type. All other grammars he has considered either count exclamative sentences as a subtype of other sentence types or as an exclamation function of several sentence types. Problematic about German exclamative sentences is that they do not have a common structure and can occur in many different varieties, which are similar or even identical with structures of the basic sentence types. In order to be able to decide whether exclamative sentences in German can be seen as an independent sentence type or not it is necessary to consult different grammars and papers dealing with exclamative sentences.

2.1 Exclamative sentences in German grammars

For the analysis of the exclamative sentences in German grammars the following grammars were chosen: the DUDEN Grammatik², the Grammatik der deutschen Sprache³ and the Deutsche Grammatik⁴. For a better comparison of the different types of exclamative sentences a table was produced. It contains all the types of exclamative sentences which were found in the different grammars. This table will be presented after the analysis of the German grammars and also after the analysis of the German papers. Both tables contain the same types of exclamative sentences. A blank position indicates that there is no example given. A plus (+) implies that even though there is no example given the structure would be possible according to the linguist. The size of the columns varies according to the number of different exclamative sentence types which were subdivided by each grammar or linguist.

2.1.1 DUDEN Grammatik⁵

The DUDEN Grammatik gives an ambiguous explanation for the number of sentence types in German. It distinguishes five different sentence types: Aussagesatz, Fragesatz, Aufforderungssatz, Wunschsatz and Ausrufesatz. In a footnote⁶ the DUDEN Grammatik states that there is also the possibility to have only three sentence types: declarative, interrogative and a combination of imperative and wish sentence. In this case exclamative sentences would be a special case of the declarative sentences. Despite this vague explanation the DUDEN Grammatik analyses exclamative sentences as expressions which imply statements like „Ich wundere mich, dass ...“ or „Ich bewundere ...“. Exclamative sentences have the following characteristics:

• the verb is either indicative or conjunctive
• the finite verb can be in the first, second or last position
• the finite verb is in the last position when the sentence starts with dass or a w-question word
• the intonation is falling towards the end of the sentence
• one word is particularly stressed which expresses emotionality, admiration or amazement
• the punctuation mark is usually an exclamation mark⁷

2.1.2 Deutsche Grammatik⁸

[...]

1 Näf, Anton. “Gibt es Exklamativsätze?“ In: Jörg Meibauer (Hrsg.). Satzmodus zwischen Grammatik und Pragmatik. Tübingen: Niemeyer, 1987. 141.

2 Duden. Grammatik der deutschen Gegenwartssprache. 6. Auflage. Mannheim: Dudenverlag, 1998.

3 Zifonun, Gisela. Grammatik der deutschen Sprache. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 1997.

4 Helbig, Gerhard und Joachim Buscha. Deutsche Grammatik: Ein Handbuch für den Ausländerunterricht. Leipzig: Verlag Enzyklopädie Langenscheidt, 1991.

5 Duden Grammatik 1998: 609-616.

6 Duden Grammatik 1998: 610.

7 Duden Grammatik 1998: 616.

8 Helbig / Buscha 1991: 616-617