Exclamatory As Ifs

Abstract

In this paper, we investigate the meaning of exclamatory as if utterances. One of the main interpretive challenges raised by these constructions is to explain how they function to express incredulous denial of the as if complement despite the absence of any overt negating element. After rejecting a negation ellipsis account that assimilates exclamatory as if s to plain negative assertions, we develop an exclamation-based analysis that integrates Grosz’s (2011) “EX-Op” account of optatives and polar exclamatives with our earlier hypothetical comparative semantics for descriptive uses of as if in Bledin and Srinivas (2019).