Connectors as emotive signs

Abstract

This chapter is a contribution to exploring the interrelations between syntactic position, semiotic status, and pragmatic function. Ways of identifying the kind of expressivity encoded by sentence-final connectors and related phenomena like the ‘et ceteras’ are discussed, focusing on German triple und ‘and so on’ from a cross-linguistic perspective. Expressivity is effected by an interplay of factors: the innovative sentence-final placement of a connector, the status of the sentence-final connector as emotive sign (Marty 1908), and its function as a general extender. This interplay leads to rigid ‘packages’ which surface in lexical entries like triple und and multiple et cetera. It is argued that und und und, like other sentence-final particles, belongs to the class of Wackernagel elements, which recently have emerged in sentence-final position. Triple und is linked to the on-going discussion of the functions of the left and right sentence peripheries.