Zur syntaktischen Distribution der Modalpartikeln im Deutschen

Abstract

In the literature (e.g. Kriwonossow 1977, Hentschel 1986, Thurmair 1989, Meibauer 1994) the syntactic features of German modal particles have often been discussed, but the question of their syntactic aspects still remains open. Even though there is a widely-held consensus that German modal particles can only occur in the Middle Field, the principles ruling their distribution within this field are not clear. After a summary of the current state of research, focussing on those studies that have investigated the relation between the position of modal particles and the theme-rheme structure, this article presents an analysis of the distribution of German modal particles in the constituent order of the Middle Field in example sentences taken from a German crime story. The results of this analysis show that a pure syntactic approach cannot explain modal particles’ movements within the Middle Field so that a new approach based on the interaction between Syntax and Prosody is needed.