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This paper compares the modal particle fei (Schlieben-Lange, 1979; Thoma, 2009) with the modal particle/sentence adverb aber (not to be confused with the conjunction aber, ‘but’). Intuitively, both items express some form of contrast and correction. We will show that both are special among discourse particles in the following sense: They make a contribution that is interpreted at a level distinct from the level where at-issue content (Potts, 2005) is interpreted, as is standard for modal particles (see Gutzmann, 2015 and the references therein). But more interestingly, they exclusively relate to propositions that have not entered the Common Ground via being the at-issue content of an assertion made by the addressee.
In this paper, we investigate the question of whether and how perspective taking at the linguistic level interacts with perspective taking at the level of co-speech gestures. In an experimental rating study, we compared test items clearly expressing the perspective of an individual participating in the event described by the sentence with test items which clearly express the speaker’s or narrator’s perspective. Each test item was videotaped in two different versions: In one version, the speaker performed a co-speech gesture in which she enacted the event described by the sentence from a participant’s point of view (i.e. with a character viewpoint gesture). In the other version, she performed a co-speech gesture depicting the event described by the sentence as if it was observed from a distance (i.e. with an observer viewpoint gesture). Both versions of each test item were shown to participants who then had to decide which of the two versions they find more natural. Based on the experimental results we argue that there is no general need for perspective taking on the linguistic level to be aligned with perspective taking on the gestural level. Rather, there is clear preference for the more informative gesture.