Aspetti sintattici e interpretativi delle frasi interrogative non canoniche in italiano antico e moderno

In this article I discuss some syntactic and interpretive aspects of non-canonical interrogative clauses in old and modern Italian, underlining analogies and differences with respect to canonical interrogative clauses on the one hand and with exclamative clauses on the other. I will show that the interpretive shades of the utterance have precise syntactic correlates in the different structural position occupied by the wh-operator within the left periphery of the clause. Moreover, I will point out that the basic interpretive property of non-canonical interrogatives is that their illocutionary function does not correspond to the elicitation of an informative answer from the addressee. More precisely, I will propose that, although they both involve the expression of the speaker’s bewilderment caused by an unexpected state of affairs, non-canonical wh-questions and wh-exclamatives are to be clearly distinguished with respect to their illocutionary force: while non-canonical wh-questions constitute directive speech acts which express the implicit request for the hearer to provide a plausible account for the contingent situation, wh-exclamatives are more akin to assertions, and rather aim at expressing the speaker’s surprise about the clash between the expected state of affairs and the actual one.