Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-t8hqh Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-25T06:43:42.907Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

8 - Modal Particles: The Enigmatic Category

from III - Adverbial Modality

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 February 2021

Werner Abraham
Werner Abraham
Affiliation:
Rijksuniversiteit Groningen, The Netherlands
Get access

Summary

German (and Dutch) modal particles are distinct discourse particles separate from other discourse elements on account of their specific grammatical status: they look like lexical items, but behave like grammatical morphemes and thus are true end results of grammaticalizing processes. As such their modern function still reflects semantic and syntactic properties of their etymological origins. Modal particles have the syntactic status of the about-topic category. Compared to their lexical pregrammaticalized origin, their modern semantics is highly underspecified.

Keywords

German (and Dutch) modal particles as distinct discourse particlesillocution and attitudinalitymodal particles and where they come from
Type
Chapter
Information
Modality in Syntax, Semantics and Pragmatics , pp. 213 - 237
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2020

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×