*What the hell?* exemplifies a class of so-called
'aggressively non-D-linked' questions which show a range of syntactic and
semantic restrictions not transparently reducible to their emotive content.
In this talk, I offer an account of *wh-the-hell* questions in a
focus-alternative semantic framework, proposing that *the hell* denotes a
set of possible alternatives inaccessible to the speaker, and arguing that
we can derive from this denotation accounts of numerous phenomena,
including its incompatibility with *which*, a number of embedding
restrictions, its inability to be sluiced, and its inability to appear in
situ. In doing so, I argue against the prominent analysis of *wh-the-hell* as
a domain-expanding polarity item with lexicalized negative attitude (den
Dikken & Giannakidou 2002), and raise new questions about the interaction
of alternative structures and *wh*-movement at the syntax-semantics
interface.
