The apparent deniability of those gradable exclamatives is attributable to their scale-indicating elements, while German third-group exclama
The apparent deniability of those gradable exclamatives is attributable to their scale-indicating elements, while German third-group exclamatives cannot be denied strongly or weakly.
Paper reconstruction — Robert Wilhelmy et al. (2025), Exclamatives, deniability, and answerhood
Trotzke’s German evidence tests only wh- and dass-exclamatives containing explicitly scale-indicating elements.
Second-group exclamatives only seem deniable because their explicitly scale-indicating elements, such as groß and schnell, can be rejected.
German exclamatives divide into three types that differ in deniability: declarative exclamatives, exclamatives with an explicitly gradable element, and exclamatives without such an element.
Removing the scale-indicating element from second-group exclamatives makes them no longer deniable and makes them behave like third-group exclamatives.
Declarative exclamatives, the first group, can be denied through either strong or weak denial.
Neither Trotzke's 2019 study nor TaG discusses German third-group examples.
Third-group exclamatives, including those without an explicitly gradable element, cannot be denied by either strong or weak denial.