Chapter 1. On the adverbial origin of German modal particles

Abstract

All German modal particles share important common properties. However, in a diachronic perspective, their origin has often been explained by assuming that they have grammaticalized from different types of lexemes belonging to several word classes: adjectives, adverbs, conjunctions, etc. The present paper intends to dissipate some erroneous assumptions about the grammaticalization paths of modal particles and to offer a novel syntactic approach that explains their origin and development. By following and elaborating on some recent ideas, I will explore the hypothesis that modal particles have an adverbial origin and will provide corresponding evidence. In the syntactic analysis, I will claim that all modal particles originate from specific types of (strong) lower adverb(ial)s that become weak sentential adverbs under reanalysis.