Revisiting sentence-final adjunct WHAT

The sentence-final adjunct WHAT has been given much attention for the past few years, mostly on its why-like interpretation and negative force. In this study, evidence will be provided to show that what otherwise seems to be exceptional cases, in effect, constitutes an independent construction, the refutatory WHAT construction. Although such a construction yields a strong negative force, it has the force dwell upon the interlocutor’s attitude or commitment. It is used to refute his/her previous claim in a conversation and can tolerate any utterance form. This is in sharp contrast to the why-like WHAT which is typically used to forbid actions and is restricted to action verbs. As will be revealed later, in syntax, the refutatory WHAT has to employ a component above CP, which not only helps explain the speaker’s refutatory force, but also directs our attention to a new ascending perspective zoned for both the speaker and the hearer/addressee.