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Words and Functions

What the heck!

Although interjections may not qualify as sentences, there is a special sentence form in English devoted primarily to rather similar expressions, the exclamative (or exclamatory sentence. The rule for such sentences is that they begin with what followed by at least a noun or noun phrase or how followed by some other kind of phrase, usually an adjective or adjective phrase or adverb phrase. We'll define those various kinds of phrases much later. For the moment, let's just say that exclamative sentences look like this:

(1) What folly!
(2) How sad!
Such sentences are not restricted to two words, however:
(3) What a fine mess you've got us into!
(4) How very sweet it is!
(5) How well you did that!
One can think of some expressions which look like interjections as reduced forms of exclamatory sentences:
(6) (a) What a jerk!
(b) Jerk!
(7) (a) How cool!
(b) Cool!

Exercise 1: Exclamative Subjects

Remember that an exclamative (or exclamatory) sentence usually begins with what or how. We are not always told what is being exclaimed about, especially when that would be the subject of the sentence if expressed. In the following sentences, circle the item exclaimed about if it appears in the sentence:
1.01 How beautiful you are to me!
1.02 What beautiful eyes you have!
1.03 What luscious lips!
1.04 How corny!
1.05 What a fool I have been!
1.06 How blind I was!
1.07 How stupid!
1.08 What a disaster this relationship has been!
1.09 How worthless!
1.10 What a waste of time!

Intensifiers. The words what and how are used in other kinds of sentences as well, especially in making questions:

(8) What did he do?
(9) How did he do it?
In an exclamative sentence, though, what and how are used in an unusual way,as intensifiers, a sentence function with a wide variety of names, including degree word, qualifier, and intensifying adverb. You can turn the sentences above into statements and replace most of the initial words with the all purpose American intensifier, really:
(10) (This was) really folly!
(11) (This was) really sad.
(12) You've got us into a really fine mess.
(13) It is really very sweet.
(14) You did that really well.
(15) (He is) really a jerk.
(16) (This is) really cool.

Intensifying adverbs are normally found modifying other words or phrases. Their most frequent use is in sentences like (17) and (18) where they strengthen words like sweet and dumb, words we'll get around later to identifying as adjectives. But intensifiers can also modify words which themselves modify verbs, adverbs like fast in sentence (19) or often in sentence (20). In sentence (21) the intensifier even modifies what we would call a prepositional phrase, near the church:

(17) You are very sweet.
(18) This was a quite dumb mistake.
(19) He runs awfully fast.
(20) I very often eat sugar cubes.
(21) The bar is very near our church.

Although very and its synonyms are the most usual intensifiers, words which make the following attribute less intense rather than more intense can also be thought of as intensifiers:

(22) You are hardly sweet.
(23) He runs rather fast.
(24) The bar is a bit near our church.

A word like very is used almost exclusively as an intensifier. Other words which can serve this function, however, can also serve others. In the examples below, the first use of each word is as an intensifier, the second as something else:

(25) (a) You are too sweet for your own good.
(b) You are on my mind, too.
(26) (a) You are surprisingly sweet.
(b) Surprisingly, I had never checked my purse.
(27) (a) You are reasonably sweet.
(b) He spoke reasonably for a change.
When people use the term degree word for an intensifier, they are implying that there is a separate word category of words that serve that function. It is certainly handy to have a term one can apply to words like very, but this is another case in which most words can perform more than one sentence function. The function itself can be performed by two-word expressions, like a bit in sentence (24) above or sort of.


Exercise 2: Words and Functions

In each of the following sentences, say whether the underlined word is functioning as an intensifier. Remember that how and what are also used in questions:
2.01 How she can dance!
2.02 How stupid!
2.03 How can I be sure?
2.04 My sister is excessively nice.
2.05 No one can be very sure of their job.
2.06 She hurt me terribly.
2.07 She calmed the somewhat anxious groom.
2.08 The arm bled profusely.
2.09 What did you say?
2.10 What nonsense that is!

Why Not to Use Intensifiers. Most intensifiers don't add much of value to sentences, and excessive use of them is a sign of bad prose. The overuse of intensifiers like very and really suggests that one has been too lazy to think of a stronger and more specific adjective or adverb. The overuse of intensifiers which downplay the attributre--ones like a bit, rather, somewhat, or quite--might suggest that one is unwilling to stand 100% behind one's assertions. Learn to identify intensifiers as a reader and eliminate them as a writer.


Exercise 3: Avoiding Lame Intensifiers

For each of the following sentences, reword the sentence by making it stronger and/or more specific, so that the lame intensifier is unneeded.:
3.01 My awfully nice friend gave me this teddy-bear.
3.02 His behavior was very bad.
3.03 A really good friend wouldn't do that.
3.04 I've been rather upset these days.
3.05 The omens have been somewhat negative.
3.06 Very odd dreams have troubled my nights.
3.07 It was terribly good of you to come.
3.08 We've been a bit depressed.
3.09 Janice was very sick.
3.10 She was really sad.

Just for the Record. Although we cited a sentence like (28) earlier, we should note that most of the words known as degree words cannot modify things, only attributes. The more usual version of sentence (28) would employ a word like real instead, as in sentence (29). In traditional grammar, real without its -ly would not be called an intensifiying adverb, though one might call it an intensifying adjective. instead,

(28) This was really folly!
(29) This was real folly!

Moving On. In this section we have dealt with one sentence type, the exclamative sentence, and one sentence function/word category, the intensifying adverb. The latter will be with us frequently in what follows, though one cannot build a sentence around them, since they need something to intensify. It won't do you any harm to know that the exclamative sentence form exists--or that there are different rules for different kinds of sentences. Even so, a sentence form which requires all sentences to begin with one of two words (what or how does not make much of a building block for the language, and we won't be talking much about the exclamative form from now on. Even when it comes to exclamations, English tends to employ its other sentence forms more often--mainly statements as in sentence (30), but also question forms (31):

(30) This grammar stuff is fun!
(31) Are you crazy?
As we go on to look at other sentence forms, we'll see the same distinction between purpose and form. Just as more than one kind of word or phrase can serve a given sentence function, more than one kind of sentence form can serve a given purpose.

How Much of This Will be on the Test?
You should remember the exclamative (exclamatory) sentence form and be able to tell it from look-alikes, like questions beginning with how or what. You should be able to tell when a word is operating as an intensifier, and you should know the other names for such words as a category: degree word, qualifier, intensifying adverb. If you have encountered other terms that puzzle you, look them up in the Glossary. \ We'll be getting to them later.