Chapter 5
Outer particles vs tag particles
A distinction in homophony
This article aims to draw a syntactic analysis that accounts for the differing properties of two sets of
discourse particles: Outer (or Final) Particles (OutPs) and Tag Particles (TagPs). In recent years, researchers have
built a syntactic model to accommodate OutPs (Haegeman 2014; Wiltschko & Heim 2016; a.o.), but TagPs have received little attention. In
order to highlight the different nature of these two sets of particles, I will focus on two segmentally homophonous
Basque particles: alaOutP and alaTag. After discussing
their distinct prosodic, syntactic and pragmatic properties, I will argue that these particles show structural
differences: while OutPs merge in the right periphery of the clause, TagPs are intransitive X0s and head
their own Speech Act Phrase (SAP).
Article outline
- 1.Introduction
- 2.Introduction to discourse particles
- 2.1Syntactic models for discourse particles: An overview
- 2.2General overview of Basque particles
- 3.Appearances are deceptive
- 3.1Intonation
- 3.2Word order and syntax
- 3.3Pragmatics
- 3.4Interim summary
- 4.Accommodating tagPs in syntax
- 4.1Previous accounts of the syntax of tagPs
- 4.2Proposal
- 5.Conclusions
-
Notes
-
References
-
Corpus references
References (41)
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