On the existence of Korean degree what-exclamatives

On the existence of Korean degree what-exclamatives

This paper attempts to demonstrate the existence of Korean degree what-exclamatives and to provide a precise characterization of them. Close investigation of Korean degree what-exclamatives offers an unusually rich set of linguistic diagnostics that we can use to investigate cross-linguistic variation in what-exclamatives. In analying wh-exclamatives, there is an ongoing debate in the literature as to whether the construction denotes a set of propositions or a degree property and whether it counts as an assertion or an expressive in terms of illocutionary force. This paper presents fresh insights into the aforementioned issues by suggesting that Korean degree what-exclamatives denote a maximal degree derived via a maximality operator {ku/i}lehkey ‘so’, and further that they have assertive speech acts. This view allows us to account for various regular as well as idiosyncratic properties of Korean degree what-exclamatives.