German and Italian modal particles and clause structure

Abstract

In this paper, I analyse German and Italian modal particles and argue that they are deficient (i.e., weak) adverbs merged with dedicated functional constituents of the Mood/Mod field. I also show that sentence-initial and sentence-final particles are not one and the same element. In particular, sentence-final particles are not (functional) heads in the left-periphery of the clause and cannot be derived by movement of their complement to their specifier. They are instead merged with functional constituents of the IP-internal Mood/Mod field, like sentence-internal particles, and their final position is derived by remnant movement of what follows the particle to a specifier higher than the particle, similarly to what happens with right-dislocated constituents. Verb-based particles are also briefly discussed. In their sentence-final use, they are shown to have the same syntax as adverb-based particles; in their sentence-initial use, they are instead merged in the CP layer.

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