From discourse markers to modal/final particles

The present article investigates a cross-linguistic correlation between the meaning/function and the position of modal/final particles. It argues that some of the modal particles and their analogs in German, French, and Japanese derive from discourse markers that have come to express some (inter)subjective meanings in a limited sentential position, and it elucidates that the position that directly follows the tensed verb group can serve to motivate the development of modal particles with (inter)subjective meanings. Referring also to English data, it further demonstrates that the utterance-final position is another site of marking intersubjective meanings.