Focus Particles in German
Focus Particles in German

Author: Stefan Sudhoff

Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing

Published: 2010

Total Pages: 353

ISBN-13: 9027255342

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This study explores the grammar of focus particles in German. It gives a thorough description and analysis of focus particle constructions and links their syntactic, semantic, and information structural properties to their prosodic characteristics. The study also shows that focus particles present a particularly well-suited subject for the investigation of the modularity of grammar in general. The first part of the book deals with the syntax, semantics, and pragmatics of focus particle constructions and results in a modular account of the relation between their word order, information structure, and meaning. The second part presents a corpus study and several speech production and perception experiments investigating the prosodic realization of the constructions. The integration of these two lines of research results in a comprehensive theory of focus particles and of the interaction of grammar and information structure in German.

Particles in German, English, and Beyond
Particles in German, English, and Beyond

Author: Remus Gergel

Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing Company

Published: 2022-08-15

Total Pages: 390

ISBN-13: 9027257671

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Germanic languages have been recognized as having not only intensifying or focus particles, but also so-called modal particles. The relevant items are specialized discourse markers joined by characteristic syntactic properties. After an introductory overview of the complex field, the contributions of the current volume capitalize on, but also work much further beyond the baseline of the established insights. They offer analyses of (a) new data types within and sometimes across several Germanic languages (e.g. varieties/stages of German, Dutch, or Norwegian), encompassing different classes of particles and a variety of syntactic-semantic as well as usage-based aspects; (b) the classical dichotomy between languages like German and English when it comes to the availability of modal particles both synchronically and diachronically; (c) crucial integrated insight from non-Germanic languages such as French, Hungarian, Italian, Mandarin, or Vietnamese. A number of mostly interface-based proposals of several languages as well as further generalizations are put on the table for both expert and novice readers in the field.

Modality in Syntax, Semantics and Pragmatics
Modality in Syntax, Semantics and Pragmatics

Author: Werner Abraham

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2020-09-17

Total Pages: 455

ISBN-13: 1108861083

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What do we mean when we say things like 'If only we knew what he was up to!' Clearly this is more than just a message, or a question to our addressee. We are expressing simultaneously that we don't know, and also that we wish to know. Several modes of encoding contribute to such modalities of expression: word order, subordinating subjunctions, sentences that are subordinated but nevertheless occur autonomously, and attitudinal discourse adverbs which, far beyond lexical adverbials of modality, allow the speaker and the listener to presuppose full agreement, partial agreement under presupposed conditions, or negotiation of common ground. This state of the art survey proposes a new model of modality, drawing on data from a variety of Germanic and Slavic languages to find out what is cross-linguistically universal about modality, and to argue that it is a constitutive part of human cognition.

Discourse Particles
Discourse Particles

Author: Werner Abraham

Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing

Published: 1991

Total Pages: 347

ISBN-13: 9027250227

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This book is about particles in the narrower sense of the word as opposed to the broader meaning covering all uninflected words of a language. In the narrower meaning of the linguistic term particles can be distinguished between logical, or scalar particles and modal, or pragmatic particles. The semantic, pragmatic and syntactic properties of modal particles differ vastly from those of the scalar particles, on the one hand, and their homonymic counterparts functioning in different syntactic categories, on the other hand. The contributions to this volume offer the latest research on the semantic, pragmatic and syntactic properties of particles in the English and German language.

Focus and Background in Romance Languages
Focus and Background in Romance Languages

Author: Andreas Dufter

Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing

Published: 2009

Total Pages: 375

ISBN-13: 9027205795

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Papers presented at a workshop, Focus and background in Romance languages, that convened during the 30th Romanistentag, in Vienna, Austria, 23-27 September 2007.

Modal and Focus Particles in Sign Languages
Modal and Focus Particles in Sign Languages

Author: Annika Herrmann

Publisher: Walter de Gruyter

Published: 2013-12-12

Total Pages: 420

ISBN-13: 1614511810

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Bringing together the research fields of sign language linguistics and information structure, this bookfocuses onthe realization of modal particles and focus particles in three European sign languages: German Sign Language, Sign Language of the Netherlands, and Irish Sign Language. As a cross-linguistic investigation based on a systematic methodological approach, thestudy analyzes the results particularly with regard to nonmanual features expressed by articulators such as the body, head, and face. The analyses of the data provide interesting insights into the syntax-prosody interface in sign languages and the interaction of syntax and prosody in general. Modal and focus particles have not been thoroughly investigated in sign languages. This volumepresents the first studyon this phenomenonand is thus an innovative contribution to the field. From a methodological and theoretical perspective, it draws onup-to-date linguistic tools and provides professionally elicited and annotated data. The bookaccounts for theresultswithin existing theoretical models. Given its specific focus on nonmanuals, the book contributes to recent debates on information structure and the syntax-prosody interface and will be of special interest to both sign and spoken language linguists.

Focus on Additivity
Focus on Additivity

Author: Anna-Maria De Cesare Greenwald

Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing Company

Published: 2017-08-24

Total Pages: 342

ISBN-13: 9027265259

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The present volume is centered on the notional domain of additivity. Many linguistic phenomena are based on additivity (i.e. are incremental) and additive relations are a mechanism that underlies a wide array of text types. Specifically, the present volume is centered on the class of function words which have been labeled, among many others, Additive Focusing Modifiers (FMs). The chapters gathered in this volume deal with the syntactic, prosodic and pragmatic properties of Additive FMs and new lines of research on these items are pursued, including (i) the historical development of Additive FMs and the use of these forms in older stages of the European languages; (ii) the pragmatic and sociolinguistic properties of Additive FMs, in particular of the functions they play in discourse and their distribution in different language varieties; (iii) the processing of Additive FMs by adults, in particular by relying on reading experiments involving eye tracking and self-paced reading; (iv) the use of Additive FMs in language contact situations and (v) the acquisition of Additive FMs by different learner groups.

Approaches to Discourse Particles
Approaches to Discourse Particles

Author: Kerstin Fischer

Publisher: Brill Academic Pub

Published: 2006

Total Pages: 498

ISBN-13: 0080447376

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Discourse particles fulfil many different functions; they contribute to text structuring, dialogue management, turn-taking, and politeness. This reference presents a spectrum of approaches to discourse particles/markers in their richness and variability, whilst ensuring that the differences and similarities between the approaches are comparable.

Intensifiers in English and German
Intensifiers in English and German

Author: Peter Siemund

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2003-09-02

Total Pages: 297

ISBN-13: 1134604491

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This book deals with expressions like English myself, yourself, himself and so on, and German selbst from a perspective of language comparison. It is the first book-length study of intensifiers ever written. The study investigates the syntax and semantics of these expressions and provides a thorough account of a much neglected grammatical domain. Given that the approach is both descriptive and analytic, the book will be of interest to linguists, grammar writers and teachers of English and German alike.

The Grammatical Realization of Polarity Contrast
The Grammatical Realization of Polarity Contrast

Author: Christine Dimroth

Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing Company

Published: 2018-11-15

Total Pages: 299

ISBN-13: 9027263388

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The polarity of a sentence is crucial for its meaning. It is thus hardly surprising that languages have developed devices to highlight this meaning component and to contrast statements with negative and positive polarity in discourse. Research on this issue has started from languages like German and Dutch, where prosody and assertive particles are systematically associated with polarity contrast. Recently, the grammatical realization of polarity contrast has been at the center of investigations in a range of other languages as well. Core questions concern the formal repertoire and the exact meaning contribution of the relevant devices, the kind of contrast they evoke, and their relation to information structure and sentence mood. This volume brings together researchers from a theoretical, an empirical, and a typological orientation and enhances our understanding of polarity with the help of in-depth analyses and cross-linguistic comparisons dealing with the syntactic, semantic, pragmatic and/or prosodic aspects of the phenomenon.