Modal Particles in German

New Directions in Modeling Their Combinatorial Behavior via Quantitative Analysis

Bibliographic Data

ID19477668
AuthorsArne Lohmann (0000-0002-5643-9819, Leipzig University), Christian Koops (0000-0001-8837-6464, University of New Mexico)
Year2026
Volume38
Issue2
Pages165-189
Publication date2026-06-01
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of Germanic Linguistics (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1470-5427 • E-ISSN: 1475-3014
PublisherCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1017/s1470542726100245
OpenAlexW7161971397
LanguageEN
References cited15

Research on German modal particles (MPs) has long noted their tendency to occur in combination with one another. Prior studies have investigated this phenomenon relying mostly on qualitative and introspective methods. The present article demonstrates the benefits of employing quantitative methods to investigate MP combinations. In a corpus-linguistic study of spoken German, we address the question of ordering tendencies within these sequences, as well as the question of co-occurrence, that is, which MPs exhibit a tendency to combine with which others. Based on the results obtained we point out how longstanding questions on MP combinations may profit from the quantitative methods employed

Introspection · Modal · Phenomenon · Qualitative analysis · Linguistic research and analysis · Linguistic Variation and Morphology · Syntax, Semantics, Linguistic Variation

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