Abstract
AbstractThe article explores German discourse particles (DiPs) in rhetorical wh-questions (wh-RQs). Whileschon(roughly ‘unexpectedly’) only marks rhetorical wh-questions,denn(roughly ‘I wonder’) marks contextually arising information-seeking or rhetorical Questions under Discussion (QuDs), with or withoutschon. Sinceja(roughly ‘unquestionably’) marks shared information, it is incompatible with questions by itself, but occasionally occurs in wh-RQs left of DiPs likeschoninstead ofdenn. The results of two acceptability judgment experiments confirm thatjais strongly dispreferred in RQs, the presence ofschonimproves RQs with and withoutja, anddennhas no effect on acceptability. A follow-up study further indicated the rhetorical reading of our target questions to prevail independently from DiPs. We conclude thatjain RQs operates on the information contributed by elements likeschon, denoting roughly that the issue in question arises ‘unquestionably against expectations’. Our contexts were neutral regarding the discourse functions ofjaanddenn(side remarks vs. QuDs), unlike the contexts of the findings, from which we deduce that the markedja schon-RQs, while grammatical, require specific felicity conditions. A first attempt to confirm this experimentally was globally unsuccessful and could only reveal potential hints in an exploratory analysis.
Highlights
This paper explores a case of interaction between the German discourse particles (DiPs) ja, denn, and schonThis work is licensed244 | Y
We suggest that ja operates on the meaning of schon, forming a complex roughly meaning it is uncontroversial that the answer to Q follows from the Common Ground (CG)
We focused on combined ja and schon in rhetorical questions (RQs), the most frequent found pattern
Summary
This paper explores a case of interaction between the German discourse particles (DiPs) ja (literally ‘yes’, roughly ‘uncontroversially/unquestionably’), denn (roughly ‘I wonder’), and schon (literally ‘already’, roughly ‘against expectations’)This work is licensed244 | Y. While the meaning of schon is only compatible with RQs, denn is common in both RQs and information-seeking questions (ISQs). Ja is generally not acceptable in questions but occasionally occurs inside RQs, under specific contextual conditions and never without other DiPs, sometimes adverbs, in its scope.. We suggest that ja operates on the meaning of schon, forming a complex roughly meaning it is uncontroversial that the answer to Q follows from the Common Ground (CG).. We suggest that ja operates on the meaning of schon, forming a complex roughly meaning it is uncontroversial that the answer to Q follows from the Common Ground (CG).2 This is a non-standard interpretation of the particle combination ja schon, but applying its meaning to information independent from the at-issue meaning of an interrogative is generally the only way in which ja can occur in questions We suggest that ja operates on the meaning of schon, forming a complex roughly meaning it is uncontroversial that the answer to Q follows from the Common Ground (CG). This is a non-standard interpretation of the particle combination ja schon, but applying its meaning to information independent from the at-issue meaning of an interrogative is generally the only way in which ja can occur in questions
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