Cover not available
Part of
Grammar and Cognition: Dualistic models of language structure and language processing
Edited by Alexander Haselow and Gunther Kaltenböck
[Human Cognitive Processing 70] 2020
► pp. 159–190

Chapter 5
Dichotomous or continuous?

Final particles and a dualistic conception of grammar

| Hokkaido University of Education
| Fuji Women’s University

This article demonstrates that final particles (more broadly markers) in four East Asian languages (Japanese, Korean, Chinese, and Mongolian) and three West European languages (English, Spanish, and German) follow a similar semantic/discourse-functional ordering principle when they occur in sequence: more intersubjective particles follow more subjective or less intersubjective particles. These particles can be largely classified into two types: sentence-final and utterance-final types. A detailed description of both types in languages like Japanese reveals that the sentence-final type has some properties of both domains postulated in a dualistic conception of grammar (thetical grammar and sentence grammar, inter alia, in Kaltenböck et al. (2011) and Heine et al. (2013); macrogrammar and microgrammar in Haselow (2016a) among others). Japanese sentence-final particles, par excellence, are microgrammartical and sentence-grammatical elements on formal grounds but macrogrammatical and thetical-grammatical elements in functional terms. This fact requires us to recognize that the two domains do not comprise a dichotomy but form a continuum to a greater degree than assumed thus far.

Keywords: sentence-final, utterance-final, macrogrammar, microgrammar, thetical grammar, sentence grammar
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Sequences of sentence-final particles in East Asian languages
    • 2.1Japanese sentence-final particles and their ordering principle
    • 2.2Sentence-final particle sequences in Korean, Chinese, and Mongolian
    • 2.3“Grammatical” aspects of sentence-final particles
  • 3.Final particle sequences in West European languages
    • 3.1English final particles (pragmatic markers) and their sequences
    • 3.2Sequence of final pragmatic markers in Spanish
    • 3.3Final-particle sequences in German
    • 3.4Syntactic rather than morphological regulation of final particles
  • 4.Further testimony to continuity in dualistic conceptions of grammar
    • 4.1Syntactic regulation and morphological integration
    • 4.2Utterance-final particles and “final field” in Japanese
    • 4.3Ordering principle and degree of morphosyntactic integration
  • 5.Final particles in dualistic conceptions of grammar
  • 6.Conclusion
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 12 November 2020
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/hcp.70.05izu
References
Clark, H., & Brennan, S. A.
1991 Grounding in communication. In Resnick, L. B., Levine, J. M., & Teasley, S. D. (Eds.), Perspectives on socially shared cognition (127–149). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Diewald, G.
2006 Discourse particles and modal particles as grammatical elements. In Fischer, K. (Ed.), Approaches to discourse particles (403–425). Amsterdam: Elsevier.Google Scholar
2013 ‘Same same but different’ – modal particles, discourse markers and the art (and purpose) of categorization. In Degand, L., Cornillie, B., & Pietrandrea, P. (Eds.), Discourse markers and modal particles: categorization and description (19–46). Amsterdam & Philadelphia: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Fischer, K., & Alm, M.
2013 A radical construction grammar perspective on the modal particle-discourse particle distinction. In Degand, L., Cornillie, B. & Pietrandrea, P. (Eds.), Discourse markers and modal particles: categorization and description (47–87). Amsterdam & Phila- delphia: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Fujiwara, Y.
1993 Gengo ruikeiron to bunmatsushi [Linguistic typology and sentence-final particles]. Tokyo: Miyai Shoten.Google Scholar
Givón, T.
1979 On understanding grammar. New York: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Günthner, S.
2011 Between emergence and sedimentation: projecting constructions in German interactions. Auer, P., & Pfänder, S. (Eds.), Constructions: Emergent and emerging (156–185). Berlin & Boston: De Gruyter. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Haselow, A.
2011 Discourse marker and modal particle: the functions of utterance-final then in spoken English. Journal of Pragmatics, 43, 3603–3623. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2012 Subjectivity, intersubjectivity and the negotiation of common ground in spoken discourse: final particles in English. Language and Communication, 32, 182–204. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2015 Final particles in spoken German. In Hancil, S., Haselow, A., & Post, M. (Eds.), Final particles (77–197). Berlin & Boston: De Gruyter Mouton.Google Scholar
2016a A processual view on grammar: macrogrammar and the final field in spoken syntax. Language Sciences, 54, 77–101. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2016b Intensifying adverbs ‘outside the clause’: a cognitive analysis. In Kaltenböck, G., Keizer, E., & Lohmann, A. (Eds.), Outside the clause: Form and function of extra-clausal constituents (379–416). Amsterdam & Philadelphia: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2019 Discourse marker sequences: insights into the serial order of communicative tasks in real-time turn production. Journal of Pragmatics, 149, 1–18. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Heine, B., Claudi, U., & Hünnemeyer, F.
1991 Grammaticalization : A conceptual framework. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Heine, B., Kaltenböck, G., Kuteva, T., & Long, H.
2013 An outline of discourse grammar. In Jany, C., & Bischoff, S. (Eds.). Functional approaches to language (155–206). Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Heine, B., Kuteva, T., & Kaltenböck, G.
2014 Discourse grammar, the dual process model, and brain lateralization: some correlations. Language and Cognition, 6, 146–180. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Heine, B., Kaltenböck, G., & Kuteva, T.
2015 Some observations on the evolution of final particles. In Hancil, S., Haselow, A., & Post, M. (Eds.), Final particles (111–140). Berlin & Boston: De Gruyter Mouton.Google Scholar
Heine, B.
2018 On the dualistic nature of discourse processing: linguistic and neurolinguistic observations. Working paper, prepared for the International Workshop One Brain – Two Grammars? Examining dualistic approaches to grammar and cognition, Rostock, 1–2 March 2018.
Huddleston, R., & Pullum, G. K.
2002 The Cambridge grammar of the English language. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Izutsu, M. N., & Izutsu, K.
2014 “ ‘Leap’ or ‘continuum’?: grammaticalization pathways from conjunctions to sentence-final particles.” In Borkent, M., Dancygier, B., & Hinnell, J. (Eds.), Language and the creative mind (83–99). Stanford: CSLI.Google Scholar
2017 Regularity outside argument structure: sequential ordering in final position. A paper presented at IPrA 15, Belfast, Northern Ireland.
2019  Very simple, though, isn’t it?: pragmatic marker sequencing at right periphery. A paper to be presented at IPrA 16, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hon Kong.
Jin, G.
2009 Mongorugo no shujoshi no shosetsu nitsuite: kopasu ni motozuku kijutsuteki kenkyu [On the sequential ordering of Mongolian final particles: a corpus-based descriptive study]. In Tomimori, N., Minegishi, M., & Kawaguchi, Y. (Eds.), Kopasu o mochiita gengo kenkyu no kanosei [Potentials of corpus-based studies] (129–147). Tokyo University of Foreign Studies.Google Scholar
Kaltenböck, G., Heine, B., & Kuteva, T.
2011 On thetical grammar. Studies in Language, 35, 852–897. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Kaltenböck, G., & Heine, B.
2014 Sentence grammar vs. thetical grammar: two competing domains? MacWhinney, B., Malchukov, A., & Moravcsik, E. (Eds.), Competing motivations in grammar and usage (348–363). Oxford: Oxford University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Klausenburger, J.
1979 Morphologization: Studies in Latin and Romance morphophonology. Tübingen: Max Niemeyer Verlag. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Lehmann, C.
1985 Grammaticalization: synchronic variation and diachronic change. Lingua e stile, 20, 303–318.Google Scholar
Li, C. N., & Thompson, S. A.
1981 Mandarin Chinese: A functional reference grammar. Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Lindner, K.
1991 ‘Wir sind ja doch alte Bekannte’: the use of German ja and doch as modal particles. In Abraham, W. (Ed.), Discourse particles: Descriptive and theoretical investigations on the logical, syntactic, and pragmatic properties of discourse particles in German (163–201). Amsterdam & Philadelphia: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Lohmann, A., & Koops, C.
2016 Aspects of discourse marker sequencing: empirical challenges and theoretical implications. In Kaltenböck, G., Keizer, E., & Lohmann, A. (Eds.), Outside the clause: Form and function of extra-clausal constituents (417–445). Amsterdam & Philadelphia: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Matsumura, A.
(Ed.) 1971 Nihon bunpo daijiten [An unabridged dictionary of Japanese grammar]. Tokyo: Meijishoin.Google Scholar
Minami, F.
1993 Gendai nihongo bunpo no rinkaku [An outline of present-day Japanese]. Tokyo: Taishukan Shoten.Google Scholar
Noda, H.
1997 “No(da)” no Kino [Functions of no(da)]. Tokyo: Kurosio.Google Scholar
Paik, P. J.
2007 Wegugeo roseo eui hangugeo munbeob sajeon [A reference grammar of Korean as a foreign language]. Seoul: Hau.Google Scholar
Paul, W.
2014 Why particles are not particular: sentence-final particles in Chinese as heads of a split CP. Studia Linguistica 68(1), 77–115. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Saji, K.
1957 Syujoshi-no kino [Functions of final particles]. Kokugo Kokubun 26(7), 23–31.Google Scholar
Shibatani, M.
1990 The languages of Japan. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Shinzato, R.
2007 (Inter)subjectification, Japanese syntax and syntactic scope increase. Journal of Historical Pragmatics 8(2), 171–206. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Shinzato, R., & Masuda, K.
2009 Morphophonological variability and form-function regularity: a usage-based approach to the Japanese modal adverb yahari/yappari/yappa . Language Sciences, 31, 813–836. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Simpson, A.
2014 Sentence-final particles. In Huang, C. T. J., Li, Y. H. A., & Simpson, A. (Eds.), The handbook of Chinese linguistics (156–179). Hoboken, NJ: Wiley-Blackwell. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Sohn, H.-M.
1999 The Korean language. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Tottie, G., & Hoffmann, S.
2006 Tag questions in British and American English. Journal of English Linguistics 34(4), 283–311. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Watanabe, M.
1974 Kokugo bunporon [A grammatical theory of Japanese]. Tokyo: Kasamashoin.Google Scholar
Yamakoshi, Y.
2012 Kuwashiku wakaru mongorugo bunpo [A detailed Mongolian grammar]. Tokyo: Hakusuisha.Google Scholar
Yap, F. H., Yang, Y., & Wong, T.-S.
2014 On the development of sentence final particles (and utterance tags) in Chinese. In Beeching, K., & Detges, U. (Eds.), Discourse functions at the left and right periphery: Crosslinguistic investigations of language use and language change (179–220). Leiden & Boston: Brill. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Cited by

Cited by 2 other publications

Izutsu, Katsunobu & Mitsuko Narita Izutsu
2021. Chapter 3. Presentation followed by negotiation. In Pragmatic Markers and Peripheries [Pragmatics & Beyond New Series, 325], ► pp. 77 ff. DOI logo
Izutsu, Mitsuko Narita & Katsunobu Izutsu
2021. On and off the common ground: Japanese final particles as (un)grounding devices. Lingua Posnaniensis 63:2 ► pp. 7 ff. DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 15 april 2024. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.