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Information-Structural Perspectives on Discourse Particles
Edited by Pierre-Yves Modicom and Olivier Duplâtre
[Studies in Language Companion Series 213] 2020
► pp. 195–222

Chapter 8
Discourse particles in thetic judgments, in dependent sentences, and in non-finite phrases

| University of Vienna

I survey the discourse effects and conditions of selection of the German modal (discourse) particles on the basis of different questions that have always been in the focus of analytical descriptions (cf. Whitt 2015), which, however, can be formulated more clearly today. Special attention will be paid to the dimension of the Common Ground that mediates between the prior context and the current utterance or speaker and addressee and, depending on the individual modal particle morpheme, allows for negotiation of the question under discussion. Special focus is laid on the restrictions under which modal particles appear in dependent sentences.

Article outline
  • 1.Introduction: Waltereit’s objection
  • 2.Modal particles in subordinate clauses
  • 3.MP in specific subordinate sentences
  • 4.Prosody as MP-selector
  • 5.MP-immobility
  • 6.MP in nonfinite constructions: Clause syntax or speech act felicity?
  • 7.MP and scene-setting
  • 8.Generalizations
  • 9.Discourse particle or modal particle?
  • 10.MP as CG-manipulators
  • 11.CG and speech act requirements for individual MPs
  • 12.About-topic
  • 13.Conclusion: Do you speak an epistemic or an MP-language?
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 4 March 2020
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/slcs.213.08abr
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