Modal particles ≠ modal particles (= modal particles)
Daniel Gutzmann · 2016
It is an implicit assumption in the literature on German modal particles (MPs) that they behave homogeneously. This assumption, however, has been challenged recently. First, it has been noted that not all MPs exhibit strict speaker orientation and that some can receive a non-speaker oriented reading. Secondly, while some MPs (like wohl) seem to modify the sentence mood directly, others (like ja) have been argued to make an independent contribution. This non-uniform behavior challenges approaches that treat MPs alike. Against the background of a formal, multidimensional framework that analyses MPs as contributing expressive/useconditional content, the paper sketches ways in which the observed heterogeneous behavior can nevertheless be accounted for. Hence, it do not pose a problem for a uniform analysis of how MPs compose with other expressions.