Chapter published in:
Information-Structural Perspectives on Discourse ParticlesEdited by Pierre-Yves Modicom and Olivier Duplâtre
[Studies in Language Companion Series 213] 2020
► pp. 27–46
Chapter 1Discourse particle position and information structure
Marianne Mithun | University of California
Discourse markers differ cross-linguistically not
only in their functions but also in their positions within the
sentence. Some are sentence-initial, some are sentence-final, and
some occur in what has been termed the ‘middle-field’. But many
appear simply in second position in the sentence. In many cases the
positions of the markers can be explained in terms of the source
constructions from which they emerged. Here one likely pathway of
development is traced in Mohawk, indigenous to North America,
illustrated with a pervasive marker of discourse coherence. Patterns
in the modern language suggest that it and others emerged from
marked information structures, which, over time, evolved into basic
clause structures via familiar mechanisms of grammaticalization.
Article outline
- 1.The position of discourse markers
- 2.Mohawk
- 3.Topic shift constructions
- 4.Focus constructions
- 5.Antitopic constructions
- 6.Grammaticalization
- 7.Conclusion
-
References
Published online: 04 March 2020
https://doi.org/10.1075/slcs.213.01mit
https://doi.org/10.1075/slcs.213.01mit
References
Abraham, Werner
Abraham, Werner & Leiss, Elisabeth
Hentschel, Elke
Mithun, Marianne
WBe
Indogermanische
Forschungen
1, 333–436.