Wie geil ist das denn?: Eine neue Konstruktion im Netzwerk ihrer Nachbarn

This paper investigates the structure and emergence of a new construction in German, the wie-X-ist-das-denn! exclamative (roughly corresponding to ‚How X is that!‘), usually with X being an evaluative adjective. A quantitative and qualitative investigation based on the DeReKo (German reference corpus) shows that the construction is spreading also in written German. It also reveals a clear prototype with little variation (the latter affecting the placement and use of the modal question particle denn, the use of other pronouns than das, and the use of non-evaluative adjectives in the X position). On the basis of a discussion of the construction’s relationship to various neighbouring constructions it is shown that it strongly resembles the German leading question construction, but differs from the latter above all in invariably placing the nuclear accent on the demonstrative das. It is argued that the most plausible origin of the new construction therefore is a blend of the leading question construction with the prosodic exclamative construction, which has led to the cancellation of the implicature inherent in leading questions. While in leading questions, the implicature is that the proposition contained in it is wrong, the new exclamative construction has a direct semantic-pragmatic reading which can be paraphrased as an expression of the speaker’s surprise about the degree to which the property expressed in the X-position applies to the referent of das.