Whether-exclamatives: a verum strategy

Abstract

Abstract Verum has been attested in declaratives, interrogatives, and imperatives. In this paper, we show that whether-exclamatives, a subtype of exclamatives, also qualify as a verum strategy, thus showing that the phenomenon ranges across all sentence moods. Motivation stems from the discourse properties of our data and the pragmatic contrast between whether-exclamatives and plain assertions. Furthermore, we argue that whether-exclamatives are illocutionarily defined as a coordination of assertion and excl, the illocutionary force of exclamatives. Assembling the formal tools for exclamatives, verum, and speech act coordination, we provide an analysis of verum in this complex hybrid speech act.