What in the academics doing things is this?: Intensified comments in English, Dutch, and German
The result's identifiers
Result code in IS VaVaI
<a href="https://www.isvavai.cz/riv?ss=detail&h=RIV%2F00216208%3A11320%2F26%3ANXZN4HVH" target="_blank" >RIV/00216208:11320/26:NXZN4HVH - isvavai.cz</a>
Result on the web
<a href="https://www.aup-online.com/content/journals/10.5117/NEDTAA2025.1-2.007.VERE" target="_blank" >https://www.aup-online.com/content/journals/10.5117/NEDTAA2025.1-2.007.VERE</a>
DOI - Digital Object Identifier
<a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.5117/NEDTAA2025.1-2.007.VERE" target="_blank" >10.5117/NEDTAA2025.1-2.007.VERE</a>
Alternative languages
Result language
angličtina
Original language name
What in the academics doing things is this?: Intensified comments in English, Dutch, and German
Original language description
Abstract English, Dutch, and German make use of an expressive wh-construction that has a commentary function, evaluates an event negatively, and is rooted in intensifying constructions such as wh- in the world. An English example is What in the Devil Wears Prada is going on?, which expresses incomprehension (like intensified open wh-questions) and conveys negative emotions, but also contains a comment by simultaneously answering the question: the above example can be paraphrased as “What is going on here? This reminds me of the contents of the film The Devil Wears Prada,” whereby the event commented on is negatively evaluated by linking it with another object. This contribution investigates how intensified wh-questions such as wh- in the world are related to such examples of intensified comments (i.e., intensified wh-questions with a commentary function), and how the latter are rooted in the former. It furthermore compares the use of intensified comments in English, Dutch and German. It is demonstrated that intensified comments build on the conventionalised pragmatic functions of intensified wh-questions in all three languages, although the concrete wh-templates differ (wh- in the/de X for English and Dutch, wh- zum X for German). The intensified wh-template that is being used depends on its status in the language: it is in every case the most versatile template that allows for most variation. Data from the social media platform X shows that intensified comments are frequent in English and infrequent in German, yielding a situation in which Dutch (which borrows its intensified-comment template from English) takes the middle road. Moreover, English and Dutch intensified comments are more versatile with regard to their syntactic buildup: non-NP constructions such as Whatin the [academics doing things]VPis this? and gender-mismatched constructions such as Wat in de.utr[Mandela-effect.neut]NPis dit? are unproblematic, while German intensified comments only occur with nouns and year numbers (e.g., Was zum [Grafikfehler]NPist das?, Was zum 2020 is das?).
Czech name
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Czech description
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Classification
Type
J<sub>ost</sub> - Miscellaneous article in a specialist periodical
CEP classification
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OECD FORD branch
10201 - Computer sciences, information science, bioinformathics (hardware development to be 2.2, social aspect to be 5.8)
Result continuities
Project
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Continuities
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Others
Publication year
2025
Confidentiality
S - Úplné a pravdivé údaje o projektu nepodléhají ochraně podle zvláštních právních předpisů
Data specific for result type
Name of the periodical
Nederlandse Taalkunde
ISSN
1384-5845
e-ISSN
2352-1171
Volume of the periodical
30
Issue of the periodical within the volume
1/2
Country of publishing house
US - UNITED STATES
Number of pages
29
Pages from-to
134-162
UT code for WoS article
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EID of the result in the Scopus database
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