This elliptical syntax is restricted to particular verb-final or embedded wh cases; other forms, including German V2 forms, require other analyses, and no universal exclamative syntax is proposed.
In the focal degree wh cases, the analysis may involve ellipsis of a higher emotive predicate and embedding under a higher assertive predicate.
Searle and Vanderveken classify exclaim together with announce and interject, and say that these verbs do not restrict an utterance's illocutionary point.
Exclamation prosody and meaning can apply to a metalinguistic comparative, a non-canonical question, and an emphatic imperative, so these cases need no force beyond assertion, question, or command.
The verb exclaim cannot itself serve as an explicit performative in the way that verbs such as apologize can; exclamation prosody, rather than merely using the verb, realizes the performative character.
The authors' focal degree wh-exclamatives appear to have syntax confined to an exclamatory reading, which is why prior literature has postulated a dedicated exclamative clause type.
The authors maintain that degree wh-exclamatives can instead be analyzed as assertions, without an additional exclamation force.
Their elliptical assertive-matrix analysis is only proposed for verb-final/embedded wh-exclamatives such as German (4a), not for V2 forms such as (4b).
Paper reconstruction — Andreas Trotzke & Anastasia Giannakidou (2025), The landscape of exclamations: brief musings on emotive language