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Modal particles in causal clauses

The case of German weil wohl
Authors: Mathias Schenner; Frank Sode;

Modal particles in causal clauses

Abstract

It is well-known that modal particles are not only licensed in root clauses, but also in a proper subset of embedded clauses. However, most existing accounts are primarily concerned with syntactic licensing conditions of modal particles in embedded clauses, while their semantic aspects remain relatively unexplored. This article focuses on a particularly intriguing set of cases in which the commitment-weakening German modal particle wohl occurs in veridical contexts created by the causal connective weil, as in Er hat ein schlechtes Gewissen, weil er wohl gelogen hat. We argue that this combination gives rise to a rather complex interpretation that is unexpected given standard assumptions about modal particles and causal clauses, schematically ‘p and assume(speaker)(q) and (if q then cause(q)(p))’ for sentences of the form ‘p weil wohl q’, and we sketch a possible route for compositional interpretation of these constructions in a dynamic framework based on speaker commitments.

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selected citations
These citations are derived from selected sources.
This is an alternative to the "Influence" indicator, which also reflects the overall/total impact of an article in the research community at large, based on the underlying citation network (diachronically).
BIP!Citations provided by BIP!
popularity
This indicator reflects the "current" impact/attention (the "hype") of an article in the research community at large, based on the underlying citation network.
BIP!Popularity provided by BIP!
influence
This indicator reflects the overall/total impact of an article in the research community at large, based on the underlying citation network (diachronically).
BIP!Influence provided by BIP!
impulse
This indicator reflects the initial momentum of an article directly after its publication, based on the underlying citation network.
BIP!Impulse provided by BIP!
3
Average
Average
Average
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