On etwa as a modal particle at the syntax-semantics interface

Abstract

This paper deals with a less-researched modal particle of German, specifically etwa. Although the particle appears in different clause types, it will be shown to be generally more constrained from an illocutionary point of view. Drawing on observations in the literature that the presence of the particle consistently characterizes the propositional content of an utterance as unexpected or undesirable, it will be argued that assuming a FALSUM operator is necessary to account for the syntactic licensing of the modal particle.