How Dare Construction in English

This paper discusses the how dare construction in English, analyzing the mismatch between its syntactic form and meaning (including its pragmatic function). The key goal of this study is to investigate the syntactic and semantic characteristics of this construction within the framework of Construction Grammar (CxG). This construction exhibits the syntactic structure of an interrogative with subject-auxiliary inversion, where the auxiliary comprises a unit of dare followed by the infinitival marker to. The sequence ‘how dare + pronoun’ functions semantically as a unit, expressing an intense degree of outrage. By focusing on these syntactic and semantic properties, this study proposes a prototypical constructional meaning, derived from a specific syntactic pattern within CxG. This constructional meaning is supported by statistical validation in terms of collostructional analysis. This meaning is further categorized into four extended meanings: moral outrage, strong disapproval, indignation and self-criticism. The findings indicate that the how dare construction should be a new type of construction inherited from interrogative, exclamative and rhetorical constructions.