Abstract
In this paper, I analyse German and Italian modal particles and argue that they are deficient (i.e., weak) adverbs merged with dedicated functional constituents of the Mood/Mod field. I also show that sentence-initial and sentence-final particles are not one and the same element. In particular, sentence-final particles are not (functional) heads in the left-periphery of the clause and cannot be derived by movement of their complement to their specifier. They are instead merged with functional constituents of the IP-internal Mood/Mod field, like sentence-internal particles, and their final position is derived by remnant movement of what follows the particle to a specifier higher than the particle, similarly to what happens with right-dislocated constituents. Verb-based particles are also briefly discussed. In their sentence-final use, they are shown to have the same syntax as adverb-based particles; in their sentence-initial use, they are instead merged in the CP layer.
© 2011 Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co. KG, Berlin/Boston
Artikel in diesem Heft
- Introduction: Particles through a modern syntactic lens
- Neg-to-Q: The historical origin and development of question particles in Chinese
- Discourse particles, clause structure, and question types
- German and Italian modal particles and clause structure
- High analyticity and Coptic particle syntax: A phase-based approach
Artikel in diesem Heft
- Introduction: Particles through a modern syntactic lens
- Neg-to-Q: The historical origin and development of question particles in Chinese
- Discourse particles, clause structure, and question types
- German and Italian modal particles and clause structure
- High analyticity and Coptic particle syntax: A phase-based approach