scholarly journals A Balkan View on the Left Periphery: Modal and Discourse Particles

Languages ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 75
Author(s):  
Anna Roussou
Keyword(s):  
Lexical Item ◽  
Similar Distribution ◽  
Left Periphery ◽  
Lexical Borrowing ◽  
Discourse Marker ◽  
Modal Particles ◽  
Discourse Particles ◽  
The Future ◽  
Analytic Expressions

The present paper discusses two sets of so-called particles in the Balkan languages, arguing that the correspondences attested in the E-languages reveal abstract properties at the level of the I-language. The first set involves modal particles which participate in the analytic expressions of the “future” and the “subjunctive”. Future markers are construed as V-related elements externalizing a scope position of the verb, while the subjunctive markers take their features from the nominal set. The second set of data involves the discourse marker “haide” which is argued to externalize features associated with the force of the sentence and its anchoring to the discourse participants. In the case of modal particles, the languages under consideration retain their own lexica, while in the case of the discourse marker, they share the same lexical item (lexical borrowing). Analysis of these phenomena supports an articulated left periphery which also accounts for the similar distribution of the discourse marker “haide”. At the same time, the different externalizations leave room for further microparametric variation.

Reconsidering the 'Modal Particles' in Modern Greek

2010 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 45-73 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anastasios Tsangalidis ◽  
Anna Roussou
Keyword(s):  
Left Periphery ◽  
Syntactic Category ◽  
Modal Particles ◽  
Modern Greek ◽  
Similarities And Differences ◽  
Future Subjunctive ◽  
Syntactic Status ◽  
Diachronic Development ◽  
Finite Verb

AbstractIn the present paper we consider the elements na, a and as, which combine with the finite verb and give rise to a variety of modal readings, such as future, subjunctive, etc. On the basis of their distributional similarities and differences, we argue that the elements under consideration are situated in the left periphery and fall into two categories: a and as have a verbal property, while na has a locative one which also underlies its deictic use. This approach allows us to get a better understanding of their current syntactic status, and also has certain implications regarding their diachronic development (e.g. 'grammaticalization'). Our analysis is consistent with the view that there is no syntactic category 'particle' (Zwicky 1985).

scholarly journals Mandarin Chinese sentence final de as a marker of private evidence

2018 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 22
Author(s):  
Hooi Ling Soh
Keyword(s):  
Mandarin Chinese ◽  
Epistemic Modals ◽  
Shared Knowledge ◽  
Discourse Marker ◽  
Discourse Particles ◽  
Modal Auxiliaries ◽  
Specific Proposal

In this paper, I present new empirical observations regarding discourse restrictions and interpretative effects associated with Mandarin Chinese sentence final de in a bare de sentence. I propose an analysis of de as a discourse marker that marks “private evidence”.  I then consider a prediction of the analysis regarding the distribution of de in yes/no questions.  I show that the pattern of restrictions observed with de in yes/no questions follows from the proposed analysis, coupled with a specific proposal about the syntax of de, and certain standard assumptions about the syntax of yes/no questions and modal auxiliaries.  Specifically, I argue that de heads a projection below TP and above a modal projection for non-epistemic modals.  I then discuss apparent counter-examples to the proposed discourse restrictions and suggest that the apparent counter-examples are not bare de sentences, but rather shi…de sentences with a silent shi.  The proposed analysis has implications on the syntax of modal auxiliaries, the relation between bare de sentences and shi…de sentences, and the syntax of discourse particles.  It connects de with discourse particles that mark the speaker’s belief about whether the (evidence for the) asserted proposition is shared knowledge between the speaker and the hearer and whether the (evidence for the) proposition is “verifiable on the spot” (e.g., German ja (Kratzer 1999, 2004; Gutzmann 2009); English parenthetical I’m telling you (Reese and Soh 2018)).

Linearization and typology

2019 ◽  
pp. 497-522
Author(s):  
D. Gary Miller
Keyword(s):  
Word Order ◽  
Linear Order ◽  
Left Periphery ◽  
Prepositional Phrases ◽  
Subject Pronouns ◽  
Discourse Particles ◽  
Default Position ◽  
Object Pronouns

This chapter focuses on the linear order of phrasal constituents. Subject pronouns preferentially precede the verb directly. Object pronouns generally follow the verb. Reflexives with few exceptions follow the verb and precede non-reflexives. D-words generally precede nouns and adjectives. Only prepositional phrases occur, from which non-deictic Ds are excluded. Attributive and possessive adjectives tend to follow the noun, quantifiers to precede. The default position for genitives is postnominal. Partitive genitives are nearly always postposed. Discourse particles belong to the left periphery. Some force their host to sentence-initial, especially V1, position. In native Gothic, verbs follow predicate adjectives and auxiliaries follow verbs, as is typical of verb-final languages. Imperatives raise to the left periphery. The negator ni forms a tight constituent with the verb. The chapter closes with a brief overview of Gothic in the context of Germanic word order typology.

scholarly journals On the left periphery: Modal particles and complementisers

2000 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 65-94 ◽  
Author(s):  
Keyword(s):  
Left Periphery ◽  
Modal Particles

AbstractThe purpose of this paper is twofold: first, to provide a unified account of the particles þa, na and as in Greek, and second, to refine the articulated CP structure of Rizzi (1997). To this end, it is argued that þa, na, and as occupy the lower C head, which is specified for modality. The particles na and as further raise to a higher C head (partly similar to Rizzi’s Force), thus differing from þa. The distribution of topic and focus in relation to the particles and the typical complementisers oti and an is used as evidence for the postulation of an additional C head characterised as a subordinator/connector, typically occupied by the complementiser pu and optionally by oti and an. The resulting structure differs from Rizzi’s (1997) in that it provides a tripartite C structure and places FocusP/TopicP between the two higher C heads. In the light of this analysis we also consider the position of negation, as well as the position of the verb in imperatives and gerunds.

scholarly journals THE FATE OF THE BULGARIAN WORD ДЕТО IN SLOVENE LITERARY TRANSLATIONS

2021 ◽  
pp. 34-44
Author(s):  
Robert GROŠELJ
Keyword(s):  
Semantic Analysis ◽  
Lexical Item ◽  
Source Text ◽  
Semantic Categories ◽  
Modal Particles ◽  
Introductory Overview ◽  
Broad Array ◽  
The Absolute

The aim of the article is to determine and to analyse translation equivalents of the Bulgarian lexical item дето in Slovene translations of five Bulgarian novels. After the introductory overview of the uses of дето (with a contrastive Bulgarian-Slovene perspective) and the functional-semantic analysis of all the occurrences of дето (including само дето and освен дето) in the novels analysed, their Slovene translation counterparts were extracted and analysed functionally, semantically, as well as quantitatively. The most frequent function of дето in the analysed novels is that of the absolute relativizer, followed by дето as a causal and a locative conjunction, and a relativizer with a concessive meaning; дето is also a part of two complex conjunctions, with само дето indicating limitation-contrast or unfoundedness, and освен дето signalling limitation. In addition, дето is found in the parenthetical clause дето се казва ‘as the saying goes’. The translation equivalents show a higher diversity in comparison with the source text forms. Bulgarian дето, само дето and освен дето have – within separate functional-semantic categories – a broad array of functional-semantic, lexical and structural Slovene translation equivalents: pronouns (mainly relative), various conjunctions, omissions, modal particles, adverbs, and clauses. The analysis has shown that дето (with само дето and освен дето) does not have an analogous lexical counterpart in Slovene. Moreover, translators frequently depart from the semantic, syntactic and stylistic features of the source text.

scholarly journals Cartography, Left Periphery and Criterial Positions: an interview with Luigi Rizzi

2020 ◽  
Vol 36 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sandra Quarezemin
Keyword(s):  
Left Periphery ◽  
Phase Theory ◽  
Syntactic Theory ◽  
The Future

ABSTRACT In this interview Luigi Rizzi discusses the ‘heuristic capacity’ of cartography and the functional lexicon, reinforcing important empirical issues for syntactic theory. Among the issues addressed by Rizzi are the tension between invariance and variation, the relations between cartographic representations and phase theory, the parametrization, the structural backbone and recursion, the criterial approach and freezing and the “future” of Cartography.

Discourse and Pragmatic Markers in the Romance Languages

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eva-Maria Remberger
Keyword(s):  
Romance Languages ◽  
Left Periphery ◽  
Prepositional Phrases ◽  
Modal Particles ◽  
Pragmatic Markers ◽  
Successful Communication ◽  
The Common ◽  
Functional Units ◽  
Linguistic Interfaces ◽  
Speech Situation

Discourse and pragmatic markers are functional units, universally present in human language, that deictically relate text fragments, propositions, utterances, and discourse chunks to the context of speech. They manage the interaction of the discourse participants in the speech situation and facilitate successful communication. This group of functional units includes elements as diverse as discourse and pragmatic markers in the broad sense, illocutionary markers, sentence particles, modal particles, and connectives. Romance languages, particularly the spoken varieties, exhibit all those types of elements, even modal particles, which have often been claimed to be absent in Romance. As in other languages, discourse and pragmatic markers mostly develop out of adverbs and adverbials (especially prepositional phrases), but nouns, adjectives, verbal forms, and other (parenthetical) phrases are further possible sources. One case that is peculiar to Romance is the ability to combine lexical material with the common complementizer corresponding to ‘that,’ which leads to more or less grammaticalized items that function as discourse and pragmatic markers. The wealth of data for Romance and Latin offers plenty of opportunities for the study of the diachronic evolution of discourse and pragmatic markers. In this context, the question whether discourse and pragmatic markers represent cases of grammaticalization or pragmaticalization and discoursivization remains a matter of some debate. In particular, the increased interest in linguistic interfaces in formal linguistic grammar theory has led to highly detailed investigations of the Romance left periphery, which has been shown to host all kinds of discourse-related phenomena.

scholarly journals ¡Mira! The grammar-attention interface in the Spanish left periphery

2021 ◽  
Vol 38 (1) ◽  
pp. 5-31
Author(s):  
Laura González López ◽  
Andreas Trotzke
Keyword(s):  
Speech Acts ◽  
Information Structure ◽  
Left Periphery ◽  
Discourse Particles ◽  
Sentence Interpretation ◽  
Structural Layer

Abstract In this paper, we focus on Spanish hearer-oriented particles like the highly frequent verb-based particle mira (lit. ‘look’). We provide a detailed syntactic account of these particles by demonstrating (i) that they must be distinguished from both vocative/appellative and expressive/exclamative particles, and (ii) that they feature illocutionary restrictions familiar from the class of discourse particles in languages other than Spanish. Since our proposal locates mira in the information-structural layer of the clause and, at the same time, demonstrates its sensitivity to the illocutionary component of sentence interpretation, we thus raise more general questions about the interaction between the syntax of speech acts and the syntactic encoding of information structure.

One ᵲa – many meanings. Syntax, semantics and prosody of the Moroccan modal particle ᵲa and its Egyptian Arabic counterparts

2012 ◽  
Vol 65 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Dina El Zarka
Keyword(s):  
Egyptian Arabic ◽  
Modal Particles ◽  
Discourse Particles

AbstractThis paper presents a study of certain modal particles in Moroccan and Egyptian Arabic that can be classified asIt has long been noted that other types of discourse particles (

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