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I found a meme that says 'I flew in from (wherever) and boy are my arms tired!'. I can understand what's funny about this meme but I can't understand why 'are my arms tired!' is used instead of 'my arms are tired!'. that's not an interrogative sentence, right? why does there have to be an inversion?

Laurel
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notnative
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  • You are correct. It is a declarative statement. There is no question implied in the phrase. – perpetual Apr 08 '21 at 11:02
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    To the extent that it's an "interrogative", it's a *rhetorical* question (with the "built-in" answer *Yes, your arms are definitely tired!*) – FumbleFingers Apr 08 '21 at 11:06
  • @FumbleFingers You need to make this an the answer. – Greybeard Apr 08 '21 at 17:12
  • @Greybeard: I knew there was another more appropriate term than "interrogative" when I wrote that comment, but I couldn't think what it was. Thanks to Edwin, I now realise "le mot juste" is in fact *interjection. But the actual question* being asked here isn't really suitable for ELU anyway - it's essentially an ELL-level question. – FumbleFingers Apr 08 '21 at 18:00
  • The "mot" in question is "rhetorical". – Greybeard Apr 08 '21 at 18:18
  • @Greybeard: Looking at Should rhetorical questions end with a period?, I'm now thinking you're probably right. But the fact that I couldn't identify the "correct" terminology without all this help from others does rather suggest I should leave it to others to address the "terminological" aspect of the Q! :) – FumbleFingers Apr 09 '21 at 10:33

4 Answers4

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After a short interjection of amazement / delight / relief / exhaustion, inversion is not uncommon but only with a limited subset of interjections:

This is discussed in an article by [Andersen and Aijmer in The Pragmatics of Society]:

Subject-Auxiliary Inversion (SAI) is one standard index of the exclamative clause type.... This inversion of standard word order instantiates one type of exclamative sentence and is itself a marker of emotional involvement ....

Occasionally, the inversion-form exclamatory appears without an overt interjection:

  • "Am I glad to see you!"
  • "Is he one lucky guy!"
Edwin Ashworth
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It does appear at first glance to be an interrogative due to the subject-auxiliary inversion. However, in this instance, the closed interrogative (yes/no question) indirectly conveys an exclamatory statement, the implicit meaning being close to that of the positive exclamative:

How tired my arms are!

The understood meaning is that the speaker's arms are very tired.

DW256
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The intended meaning is "the astonishing degree to which my arms are tired is deserving of the exclamation »boy!«"

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are my arms tired!

This is a rhetorical question. It is emphatic and humorous. Rhetorical questions do not take a question mark.

Greybeard
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