Also darüber lässt sich ja streiten! : Die Analyse von "also" in der Diskussion zu Diskurs- und Modalpartikeln
(2007) In Lunder germanistische Forschungen 69.- Abstract
- This thesis explores the relationship between the position, function and semantics of the German particle "also" (?so?). Traditionally, "also" is classified as a conjunctional adverb because it can fill the position in front of the finite verb in the German clause, the so-called "Vorfeld" (?pre-field?). In this position, it has a meaning similar to that of a conjunction but a distribution similar to that of an adverb. In other positions, however, the classification of "also" is less certain. This holds especially for "also" in the utterance- and sentence initial position typical of discourse particles but also for the use of "also" in the utterance- and sentence medial position typical of modal particles.
The main... (More) - This thesis explores the relationship between the position, function and semantics of the German particle "also" (?so?). Traditionally, "also" is classified as a conjunctional adverb because it can fill the position in front of the finite verb in the German clause, the so-called "Vorfeld" (?pre-field?). In this position, it has a meaning similar to that of a conjunction but a distribution similar to that of an adverb. In other positions, however, the classification of "also" is less certain. This holds especially for "also" in the utterance- and sentence initial position typical of discourse particles but also for the use of "also" in the utterance- and sentence medial position typical of modal particles.
The main purpose of this thesis is to investigate whether the position itself has an impact on the actual function of a particle, such as "also". The discussion concentrates on the functions of "also" in utterance-initial and utterance-medial position. The results of the discussion relate to the definitions of the three particle classes mentioned above.
The analysis of a corpus of authentic, spoken German shows that the utterance- and sentence initial occurrences of "also" fulfill discourse organizational and discourse segmenting functions and that they can thus be described as discourse particles. In contrast, utterance- and sentence medial occurrences of "also" have an entirely different function: they signal that their host units convey information that belongs to the so-called common ground, which consists of information and assumptions that the interlocutors consider to be shared information. Thus, the position of "also" within the sentence/utterance has indeed an impact on its interpretation.
The question then arises, in what way the functions of "also" are related to its meaning. It is argued that a core meaning can be detected in all occurrences of "also". It is suggested that the lexical entry of "also" should only contain this invariant, abstract core meaning since the choice of position may provide the hearer with the necessary cues for determining the function of "also" in the actual context of use. The semantic analysis also questions the genuinely semantic method for testing for word class membership of "also" and other particles, which is based on the tacit assumption that the "Vorfeld"-use of the particle will reveal the purest version of its meaning. I suggest that this test is problematic and does not necessarily reveal the most typical ?meaning? of "also". (Less) - Abstract (Swedish)
- Popular Abstract in Swedish
I den här avhandlingen utforskas förhållandet mellan position, funktion och betydelse hos den tyska partikeln ?also? (?alltså?). I den tyska grammatiken har ?also? traditionellt sett klassificerats som ett konjunktionellt adverb eftersom det ensamt kan fylla positionen före det finita verbet i en tysk sats, den så kallade ?Vorfeld?-positionen (?fundamentet?). När ?also? står i den här positionen påminner det till betydelsen om en konjunktion medan det till distributionen liknar ett adverb. I andra satspositioner är klassifikationen av ?also? emellertid inte lika självklar. Detta gäller framför allt när ?also? står i den yttrande- och satsinitiala position som är typisk för diskurspartiklar, men... (More) - Popular Abstract in Swedish
I den här avhandlingen utforskas förhållandet mellan position, funktion och betydelse hos den tyska partikeln ?also? (?alltså?). I den tyska grammatiken har ?also? traditionellt sett klassificerats som ett konjunktionellt adverb eftersom det ensamt kan fylla positionen före det finita verbet i en tysk sats, den så kallade ?Vorfeld?-positionen (?fundamentet?). När ?also? står i den här positionen påminner det till betydelsen om en konjunktion medan det till distributionen liknar ett adverb. I andra satspositioner är klassifikationen av ?also? emellertid inte lika självklar. Detta gäller framför allt när ?also? står i den yttrande- och satsinitiala position som är typisk för diskurspartiklar, men också när ?also? används i den yttrande- och satsinitiala position som annars är typisk för modalpartiklar.
Den här avhandlingen syftar till att undersöka om själva positionen hos en partikel som ?also? har något inflytande över dess funktion i kontexten. Diskussionen är koncentrerad till funktionerna hos ?also? i den initiala och den mediala yttrandepositionen. Resultatet av diskussionen relateras till definitionen av de tre partikelordklasser som nämndes ovan.
Vid analysen av en korpus bestående av autentiskt tyskt talspråk visade det sig att de fall av ?also? som står i den initiala positionen i ett yttrande/sats har organisatoriska och diskurssegmenterande funktioner och därför kan beskrivas som diskurspartiklar. De yttrande- och satsmediala fallen av ?also? har däremot en helt annan funktion: de signalerar att den språkliga enhet som de hör till förmedlar information som härrör från de samtalandes så kallade ?common ground?. Denna består av information och antaganden som samtalspartnerna förutsätter att de har gemensam kännedom om. Positionen hos ?also? i satsen/yttrandet har alltså verkligen betydelse för dess tolkning.
Detta resultat ledde i sin tur till frågan om hur funktionerna hos ?also? förhåller sig till dess betydelse. Jag argumenterar för att man i alla de olika användningarna av ?also? kan identifiera en gemensam kärnbetydelse. Trots att denna oföränderliga kärnbetydelse ligger på en mycket abstrakt beskrivningsnivå skulle den kunna tjänstgöra som den fullständiga betydelseangivelsen för ?also? i lexikon, eftersom valet av position därutöver kan förse lyssnaren med tillräcklig information om i vilken funktion ?also? uppträder i den faktiska kontexten. Den semantiska analysen ifrågasätter även den semantiskt baserade metod som används för att testa ordklasstillhörigheten för ?also? och andra partikelord. Denna testmetod vilar nämligen på det outtalade antagandet att man genom att ställa partikelorden i fundamentet kommer den renaste formen av deras betydelse närmast. Jag menar att det här testet är problematiskt och inte nödvändigtvis avslöjar den mest typiska ?betydelsen? hos ?also?. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
https://lup.lub.lu.se/record/26828
- author
- Alm, Maria LU
- supervisor
- opponent
-
- Prof. Diewald, Gabriele, Leibniz Universität Hannover
- organization
- publishing date
- 2007
- type
- Thesis
- publication status
- published
- subject
- keywords
- also, spoken language, discourse particles, modal particles, conjuntional adverbs, conversation analysis, construction grammar, monosemy, Linguistics, polysemy, German, Allmän språkvetenskap/Lingvistik, German language and literatur, Tyska (språk och litteratur)
- in
- Lunder germanistische Forschungen
- volume
- 69
- pages
- 168 pages
- publisher
- Almqvist & Wiksell International
- defense location
- Sal L403, Lingvisthuset, Språk- och litteraturcentrum, Helgonabacken 12, Lund
- defense date
- 2007-06-16 10:15:00
- ISSN
- 0348-2146
- ISBN
- 978-91-22-02173-5
- language
- German
- LU publication?
- yes
- id
- b51ea2ad-4a88-45e2-9a50-1bd1cfb7dc53 (old id 26828)
- date added to LUP
- 2016-04-01 15:24:21
- date last changed
- 2019-05-22 06:58:12
@phdthesis{b51ea2ad-4a88-45e2-9a50-1bd1cfb7dc53,
abstract = {{This thesis explores the relationship between the position, function and semantics of the German particle "also" (?so?). Traditionally, "also" is classified as a conjunctional adverb because it can fill the position in front of the finite verb in the German clause, the so-called "Vorfeld" (?pre-field?). In this position, it has a meaning similar to that of a conjunction but a distribution similar to that of an adverb. In other positions, however, the classification of "also" is less certain. This holds especially for "also" in the utterance- and sentence initial position typical of discourse particles but also for the use of "also" in the utterance- and sentence medial position typical of modal particles.<br/><br>
<br/><br>
The main purpose of this thesis is to investigate whether the position itself has an impact on the actual function of a particle, such as "also". The discussion concentrates on the functions of "also" in utterance-initial and utterance-medial position. The results of the discussion relate to the definitions of the three particle classes mentioned above.<br/><br>
<br/><br>
The analysis of a corpus of authentic, spoken German shows that the utterance- and sentence initial occurrences of "also" fulfill discourse organizational and discourse segmenting functions and that they can thus be described as discourse particles. In contrast, utterance- and sentence medial occurrences of "also" have an entirely different function: they signal that their host units convey information that belongs to the so-called common ground, which consists of information and assumptions that the interlocutors consider to be shared information. Thus, the position of "also" within the sentence/utterance has indeed an impact on its interpretation.<br/><br>
<br/><br>
The question then arises, in what way the functions of "also" are related to its meaning. It is argued that a core meaning can be detected in all occurrences of "also". It is suggested that the lexical entry of "also" should only contain this invariant, abstract core meaning since the choice of position may provide the hearer with the necessary cues for determining the function of "also" in the actual context of use. The semantic analysis also questions the genuinely semantic method for testing for word class membership of "also" and other particles, which is based on the tacit assumption that the "Vorfeld"-use of the particle will reveal the purest version of its meaning. I suggest that this test is problematic and does not necessarily reveal the most typical ?meaning? of "also".}},
author = {{Alm, Maria}},
isbn = {{978-91-22-02173-5}},
issn = {{0348-2146}},
keywords = {{also; spoken language; discourse particles; modal particles; conjuntional adverbs; conversation analysis; construction grammar; monosemy; Linguistics; polysemy; German; Allmän språkvetenskap/Lingvistik; German language and literatur; Tyska (språk och litteratur)}},
language = {{ger}},
publisher = {{Almqvist & Wiksell International}},
school = {{Lund University}},
series = {{Lunder germanistische Forschungen}},
title = {{Also darüber lässt sich ja streiten! : Die Analyse von "also" in der Diskussion zu Diskurs- und Modalpartikeln}},
volume = {{69}},
year = {{2007}},
}