Discourse Particles

Josef Bayer

ISBN 10: 3110488825 / ISBN 13: 9783110488821

Published by De Gruyter, DE, 2016

About this Item

Particles have for the longest time been ignored by linguistic research. School-type grammars ignored them since they did not fit into pre-conceived notions of categories, and since they did not seem to enter into grammatical relations commonly discussed in the genre. Only in the last century did some publications discuss particles - and even then only from the perspective of their discourse and pragmatic functions, i.e. their dependance on certain previous contexts, and concluded that the function of particles for the grammar of sentences and their interpretation remains obscure. The current volume presents 11 new articles that take a fresh look at particles: As it turns out, particles inform many aspects of syntax and semantics, too - both diachronically and synchronically: Particles are shown to have fascinating syntactic properties with respect to projection, locality, movement and scope. Their interpretative contributions can be studied with the rigorous methods of formal semantics. Cross-linguistic and diachronic investigations shed new light on the genesis and development of these intriguing - and under-estimated - kinds of lexical elements.

Seller Inventory # LU-9783110488821

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Discourse Particles
• Publisher: De Gruyter, DE
• Publication Date: 2016
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 3110488825
• ISBN 13: 9783110488821
• Binding: Hardback
• Condition: New
• Weight: 615 grams

About this title

Synopsis

Particles have for the longest time been ignored by linguistic research. School-type grammars ignored them since they did not fit into pre-conceived notions of categories, and since they did not seem to enter into grammatical relations commonly discussed in the genre.

Only in the last century did some publications discuss particles – and even then only from the perspective of their discourse and pragmatic functions, i.e. their dependance on certain previous contexts, and concluded that the function of particles for the grammar of sentences and their interpretation remains obscure.

The current volume presents 11 new articles that take a fresh look at particles: As it turns out, particles inform many aspects of syntax and semantics, too – both diachronically and synchronically: Particles are shown to have fascinating syntactic properties with respect to projection, locality, movement and scope. Their interpretative contributions can be studied with the rigorous methods of formal semantics. Cross-linguistic and diachronic investigations shed new light on the genesis and development of these intriguing – and under-estimated – kinds of lexical elements.

About the Authors

Josef Bayer, Universität Konstanz; Volker Struckmeier, Universität Köln.

Josef Bayer, University of Konstanz, Germany; Volker Struckmeier, University of Cologne, Germany.