The modal particles ja and doch and their interaction with discourse structure: Corpus and experimental evidence

Abstract

 Introduction German modal particles have been in the centre of linguistic research for several years, the main focus lying on their semantic and pragmatic properties (e.g. Thurmair 1989; Lindner 1991; Jacobs 1991; Waltereit 2001; Karagjosova 2004; Zimmermann 2004, 2012; Gutzmann 2009; Egg 2013; Repp 2013; Rojas-Esponda 2014). Modal particles are usually thought to operate at the semantics-pragmatics interface. The meaning contributions that they have been claimed to make, roughly fall into three types. The first is a modification of the sentence type or the illocution(ary operator) of the utterance they occur in (e.g. Lindner 1991; Jacobs 1991; Waltereit 2001; Karagjosova 2004). For instance, in an assertion a particle may indicate that the speaker is uncertain about committing to the proposition that is asserted, i.e. the particle signals that the speaker modifies or cancels a felicity condition of the speech act assertion. The second is that modal particles relate the proposition they scope over to another proposition in the common ground CG (e.g. Karagjosova 2004; Egg 2013; Repp 2013). The other proposition can be a proposition that was at issue in the previous utterance, a felicity condition of the previous utterance, or it can be a proposition that was entailed or implicated by earlier discourse. The third type of meaning contribution is more generally interaction-directed: Modal particles serve as meta-pragmatic instructions (König & Recquart 1991) or as interaction-regulating instructions (Karagjosova 2004) to the hearer (also cf. Franck 1980). The purpose of such instructions is to integrate an utterance into the current discourse context (also cf. Thurmair 1989). What these meaning types have in common is that they essentially concern common ground management (cf. Repp 2013). Modal particles indicate how a proposition relates to the common ground, and how the common ground is to be developed – by pointing to common or individual knowledge, to epistemic states and to expectations of the interlocutors. Common ground management creates and/or enhances discourse coherence and thus serves smooth communication. For discourses to be coherent they must have a structure. Discourse structure is usually assumed to be hierarchical, and it is assumed that discourse units must be related to other discourse units by discourse relations in a meaningful way (Mann & Thompson 1988; Asher & Lascarides 2003; Hobbs 1985; Sanders, Spooren & Noordman 1992). If, and if so how, modal particles interact with, and contribute to, discourse structure is largely unknown.2 The goal of the present paper is to explore the interaction of modal particles and discourse structure by investigating the interplay of modal particles and discourse relations, and thus to contribute to a better understanding of the role that the particles fulfil in the creation of discourse coherence.