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The Intensifying Function of Modal Particles and Modal Elements in a Cross-Linguistic Perspective
(2015)
The aim of this paper is to analyze the intensifying function of German modal particles and equivalent modal expressions in Croatian and English. Our hypothesis is that some modal particles in German and their functional equivalents in Croatian and English can express different degrees of intensity and types of intensification. The presented study comprises two parts. First, the use of intensifying modal particles by a group of speakers of L1 Croatian and L2 German/English is investigated. On the basis of the results obtained, and by means of a previously conducted corpus analysis (cf. Kresić and Batinić 2014), an intensification scale with respect to the inventory of German modal particles and corresponding particles in Croatian as well as equivalent English expressions is suggested. Some German and Croatian modal particles and equivalent modal elements in English can be classified on the upper and partially on the lower part of the proposed intensification scale when compared to the norm, i.e. an utterance unmarked by a modal particle.
Sentences with doubly center-embedded relative clauses in which a verb phrase (VP) is missing are sometimes perceived as grammatical, thus giving rise to an illusion of grammaticality. In this paper, we provide a new account of why missing-VP sentences, which are both complex and ungrammatical, lead to an illusion of grammaticality, the so-called missing-VP effect. We propose that the missing-VP effect in particular, and processing difficulties with multiply center-embedded clauses more generally, are best understood as resulting from interference during cue-based retrieval. When processing a sentence with double center-embedding, a retrieval error due to interference can cause the verb of an embedded clause to be erroneously attached into a higher clause. This can lead to an illusion of grammaticality in the case of missing-VP sentences and to processing complexity in the case of complete sentences with double center-embedding. Evidence for an interference account of the missing-VP effect comes from experiments that have investigated the missing-VP effect in German using a speeded grammaticality judgments procedure. We review this evidence and then present two new experiments that show that the missing-VP effect can be found in German also with less restricting procedures. One experiment was a questionnaire study which required grammaticality judgments from participants without imposing any time constraints. The second experiment used a self-paced reading procedure and did not require any judgments. Both experiments confirm the prior findings of missing-VP effects in German and also show that the missing-VP effect is subject to a primacy effect as known from the memory literature. Based on this evidence, we argue that an account of missing-VP effects in terms of interference during cue-based retrieval is superior to accounts in terms of limited memory resources or in terms of experience with embedded structures.