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The middle-field restriction of Germanic modal particles

A historical-comparative solution to Abraham’s paradox

 | Georg-August-Universität Göttingen
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Available under the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) 4.0 license.

For any use beyond this license, please contact the publisher at rights@benjamins.nl.

Open Access publication of this article was funded through a Transformative Agreement with University of Göttingen.

Published online: 16 December 2025
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https://doi.org/10.1075/elt.00060.con
Abstract
Modal particles are often considered a distinctive feature of Germanic languages with V2 word order and are typically confined to the middle field. Previous research has largely addressed their semantic and pragmatic development, usually within individual languages. This squib shifts the focus to syntax, offering a comparative Germanic perspective on the emergence and structural behavior of modal particles and examining their interaction with the V2 property.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.The emergence of particles in Old Germanic languages
    • 2.1East Germanic: Gothic
    • 2.2West Germanic: German, Dutch, and English
    • 2.3North Germanic languages
  • 3.On the syntactic dimension of pragmaticalization
    • 3.1From a C-particle to a I-particle system
    • 3.2The emergence of new I-particles
    • 3.3Modal particles and V2
  • Conclusion
  • Notes
  • Primary sources
  • References
References (75)
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