This article presents a reanalysis of the syntax, semantics, pragmatics, and phonology of the word actually. It endeavours to show, among other things, that in addition to the distinction between Greenbaum'’s ‘disjunct’ and his ‘adjunct’, we seem to require here a distinction between two kinds of ‘disjunct’: (i) a ‘propositional modifier’ and (ii) a ‘discourse modifier’ (or ‘discourse transition marker’). An examination of constraints on the use of actually as a propositional modifier suggests the need for a feature ‘assertive/nonassertive’, not just on root sentences but on all structures that denote propositions, whatever their syntactic form.