English Wh-exclamatives and the Role of T-to-C in Wh-clauses

English wh-interrogatives and wh-exclamatives are largely in complementary distribution. The former do not occur where the latter do, and vice versa. Pesetsky & Torrego (2001) propose a theory of wh-clauses which treats the syntax of those two wh-constructions virtually the same. Whether a wh-clause receives interrogative or exclamative interpretation is determined by an interpretive rule. We point out some empirical problems for their analysis, and offer a new account while keeping intact their idea that the two constructions have the same syntax. The gist of our account is that exclamatives, but not interrogatives, involve a semantically-motivated operator, i.e. factive operator, which allows us to deal with both similarities and differences between the two wh-clauses.