Die Übersetzung von Modalpartikeln als Indiz ihres Grammatikalisierungsgrades: die französischen Pendants von denn und eigentlich

Abstract

In this paper, we consider the way modal particles are translated as an indication of their degree of grammaticalization. More in particular, the exemplar case studied here is the French translation of the German particles denn and eigentlich. Starting from a literary translation corpus, we will list five tendencies in the distribution of the translation equivalents which may indicate that denn has gone further already on the pathway of grammaticalization than has eigentlich. Thereby, we will focus on the meaning aspects of the grammaticalization process (persistence, bleaching, new meaning extension).