'w-exclamations' in German correspond to 'wh-exclamations' in English with the inclusion of formations introduced by how (= wie) . On the basis of relevant data on German, the study examines the theory that so-called 'w-exclamations' have an interrogative sentence-grammatical meaning and therefore the assumption of a w-exclamation sentence/clause type in its own right is unnecessary. Systematic analysis is undertaken both of embedded w-clauses, with reference to the meaning and the selection procedure of some of the predicates embedding them, and of w-sentences in their use as exclamatory illocutions. Special attention is paid to those w-sentences/clauses that are impossible in either context.