The Real, the Apparent, and What is <i>eigentlich</i>

Abstract

In this paper, I will propose a uniform analysis for adjectival and
 certain instances of adverbial eigentlich. The analysis rests
 on the assumption that eigentlich contrasts the nominal
 content of a concept C with a contextually given notion of
 phenomenological evidence for C-hood. eigentlich
 offers the semantic frame to refer to two ways of C-hood which
 are usually supplied by context. In the adjectival use, the discourse
 content should provide an N exemplar in the true sense (an
 eigentliches N) along with an apparent N, thereby
 proving the two notions to be different. In the adverbial use, the
 message conveyed is usually that the actual world nominally
 satisfies some proposition p (eigentlich, p) while
 the actual world looks as if a contrasting proposition
 q were the case. The analysis improves on earlier accounts in
 German descriptive linguistics in that it offers a fully compositional
 account of the semantic and pragmatic contribution of
 eigentlich in a wide variety of constructions, including
 focus, contrastive topic and questions. The analysis proposes a
 delineation of eigentlich as an emotive marker which differs
 from the content use in prosody, syntax, focus sensitivity and meaning.