Scaling counterarguments:

The dynamics of exclamative se constructions

Abstract

This paper introduces Exclamative Se Constructions (ESCs), analyzing their use in two Romance languages: Trevigiano, a northern Italian dialect, and Standard Italian. ESCs are used to express shock or surprise at someone’s statement and to challenge its accuracy. Although they resemble adverbial clauses, ESCs function autonomously as main clauses. I identify four defining properties of ESCs: adverbial clause form, form-function mismatch, main-clausality, and the anchoring of surprise to a preceding assertion rather than to the ESC’s own propositional content. I argue that ESCs function as counterarguments, specifically rebutting assumed premises using contextually relevant scales. These rebuttals consistently involve asserting a value that contrasts sharply with some initial statement, often reaching an extreme or unexpected point on the contextually relevant scale.