Home Chapter 6. Modal particles and Verum focus
Chapter
Licensed
Unlicensed Requires Authentication

Chapter 6. Modal particles and Verum focus

New corollaries
  • Werner Abraham✝
View more publications by John Benjamins Publishing Company
Search
Pragmatic Markers, Discourse Markers and Modal Particles
This chapter is in the book Pragmatic Markers, Discourse Markers and Modal Particles

Abstract

The paper pursues two goals: first, comparing the behavior of speech act adverbials with modal particles, and second, the kinship of verum focus and modal particles with respect to their function in discourse. I explore the main difference between German(ic) grammatical modal particles and lexical discourse markers in other, non-Germanic, languages: By using modal particles in a core-grammatical sentence p, the speaker’s utterance of p sets up a thematic common ground with the further disposition that this temporarily final common ground is to be negotiated (agreed upon or challenged and, upon the addressee’s reaction, changed) with the addressee. Lexical correspondents to modal particles do not establish such a common ground and, therefore, do not invite, in an implicit fashion, the addressee’s appropriate reaction to the common ground. It is claimed that this type of grammatical modal particle is typically endorsed by v2-Vlast of German (and Dutch).

Abstract

The paper pursues two goals: first, comparing the behavior of speech act adverbials with modal particles, and second, the kinship of verum focus and modal particles with respect to their function in discourse. I explore the main difference between German(ic) grammatical modal particles and lexical discourse markers in other, non-Germanic, languages: By using modal particles in a core-grammatical sentence p, the speaker’s utterance of p sets up a thematic common ground with the further disposition that this temporarily final common ground is to be negotiated (agreed upon or challenged and, upon the addressee’s reaction, changed) with the addressee. Lexical correspondents to modal particles do not establish such a common ground and, therefore, do not invite, in an implicit fashion, the addressee’s appropriate reaction to the common ground. It is claimed that this type of grammatical modal particle is typically endorsed by v2-Vlast of German (and Dutch).

Chapters in this book

  1. Prelim pages i
  2. Table of contents v
  3. Preface ix
  4. Introduction. Pragmatic Markers, Discourse Markers and Modal Particles 1
  5. Part 1. General theoretical questions and quantitative approaches
  6. Chapter 1. The emergence of Hebrew loydea / loydat (‘I dunno masc/fem ’) from interaction 37
  7. Chapter 2. Towards a model for discourse marker annotation 71
  8. Chapter 3. Towards an operational category of discourse markers 99
  9. Chapter 4. A corpus-based approach to functional markers in Greek 125
  10. Chapter 5. Discourse markers and discourse relations 151
  11. Part 2. The status of modal particles
  12. Chapter 6. Modal particles and Verum focus 171
  13. Chapter 7. Italian non-canonical negations as modal particles 203
  14. Chapter 8. A format for the description of German modal particles and their functional equivalents in Croatian and English 229
  15. Part 3. Language-specific and diachronic studies
  16. Chapter 9. Vocatives as a source category for pragmatic markers 257
  17. Chapter 10. Paths of development of English DMs 289
  18. Chapter 11. Grammaticalization of PMs/DMs/MMs in Japanese 305
  19. Chapter 12. Dubitative-corrective constructions in Italian 335
  20. Chapter 13. On the pragmatic expansion of Polish gdzieś tam ‘somewhere (there)/about’ 369
  21. Chapter 14. A pragmatic approach to Joseph Wright’s English Dialect Dictionary 399
  22. Part 4. Language contact and variation
  23. Chapter 15. Italian discourse markers and modal particles in contact 417
  24. Chapter 16. Functional markers in llanito code-switching 439
  25. Chapter 17. Just a suggestion 459
  26. Author index 481
  27. Language index 487
  28. Subject index 489
https://doi.org/10.1075/slcs.186.07abr

Chapters in this book

  1. Prelim pages i
  2. Table of contents v
  3. Preface ix
  4. Introduction. Pragmatic Markers, Discourse Markers and Modal Particles 1
  5. Part 1. General theoretical questions and quantitative approaches
  6. Chapter 1. The emergence of Hebrew loydea / loydat (‘I dunno masc/fem ’) from interaction 37
  7. Chapter 2. Towards a model for discourse marker annotation 71
  8. Chapter 3. Towards an operational category of discourse markers 99
  9. Chapter 4. A corpus-based approach to functional markers in Greek 125
  10. Chapter 5. Discourse markers and discourse relations 151
  11. Part 2. The status of modal particles
  12. Chapter 6. Modal particles and Verum focus 171
  13. Chapter 7. Italian non-canonical negations as modal particles 203
  14. Chapter 8. A format for the description of German modal particles and their functional equivalents in Croatian and English 229
  15. Part 3. Language-specific and diachronic studies
  16. Chapter 9. Vocatives as a source category for pragmatic markers 257
  17. Chapter 10. Paths of development of English DMs 289
  18. Chapter 11. Grammaticalization of PMs/DMs/MMs in Japanese 305
  19. Chapter 12. Dubitative-corrective constructions in Italian 335
  20. Chapter 13. On the pragmatic expansion of Polish gdzieś tam ‘somewhere (there)/about’ 369
  21. Chapter 14. A pragmatic approach to Joseph Wright’s English Dialect Dictionary 399
  22. Part 4. Language contact and variation
  23. Chapter 15. Italian discourse markers and modal particles in contact 417
  24. Chapter 16. Functional markers in llanito code-switching 439
  25. Chapter 17. Just a suggestion 459
  26. Author index 481
  27. Language index 487
  28. Subject index 489
Sign up now to receive a 20% welcome discount
Institutional Access
How does access work?
Have an idea on how to improve our website?
Please write us.
© 2025 De Gruyter Brill
Downloaded on 12.9.2025 from https://www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi/10.1075/slcs.186.07abr/html
Scroll to top button