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What are the parts of speech in this exclamatory sentence?

English Language & Usage Asked by Jason Derksen on March 15, 2021

I am attempting to help a student with a particular sentence:

  • What an amazingly wise creature God made in the otter!

The exercise asks him to identify if the sentence is active or passive. That question has been answered (active), but we are attempting to determine the parts of speech and uses in a sentence for the rest of it. Here’s what we believe right now.

“God” is the subject. “Made” is the verb. “An amazingly wise” are adjectives modifying “creature,” which we believe to be the Direct Object. We are unable to determine what “what” is and how it is used in this sentence.

2 Answers

In the terms of the Comprehensive Grammar of the English Language "what" is here an intensifying determiner (CGEL, § 2.57, p. 88). It is equivalent to "such" (CGEL, § 18.57, p. 1416).

  • What an amazingly wise creature God made in the otter!
  • God made such an amazingly wise creature in the otter!

Answered by LPH on March 15, 2021

What an amazingly wise creature God made in the otter!

Exclamative "what" is an adjective functioning here as an external modifier. It always occurs in NPs with a following head, where it questions quality or degree.

Don't confuse it with interrogative "what", as in "What was that?", which is a pronoun questioning identity.

"What an amazingly wise creature" is object of "made".

Answered by BillJ on March 15, 2021

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