a speech act which expresses a strong emotional reaction to the propositional content that it conveys; and the construction that expresses this speech act. More precisely, the exclamative speech act expresses the speaker's surprise toward the degree of a scalar property contained in the propositional content of the speech act; the rest of the propositional content consists of a presupposed open proposition. Example: What a beautiful house! is an instance of an English exclamative construction. (Sections 12.1, 12.5)