Towards an understanding of the spectrum of approaches to discourse particles: introduction to the volume

There are very many studies of discourse particles on the market, and by now it is almost impossible to find one’s way through this jungle of publications. 2 For a newcomer to the field, it is furthermore often very difficult to find the bits and pieces that constitute an original model of the meanings and functions of discourse particles. Moreover, the studies available so far are hardly comparable; the approaches vary with respect to very many different aspects: the language(s) under consideration, the items taken into account, the terminology used, the functions considered, the problems focussed on, and the methodologies employed. Some kind of overview is needed that allows us to sort out the different research directions, methods, and perspectives. This collection constitutes an initial attempt to present such a path through the jungle of different approaches.