Abstract

Most research that has been done on the German modal particle eben seems to agree that the primary function of this particle is to mark the contents of an utterance as unalterable or obvious and as derivable from the context of the interaction. However, this function has in most cases been described on the basis of examples in standard German and possible dialectal variation has hardly ever been taken into consideration. By analysing several examples of written Swiss German, this paper describes a dialectal use of the modal particle eben which differs from the one that has been prevalent in previous research. Eben here seems not to express unalterability or derivability. Instead, it signals that an utterance contains information which is needed to clarify or give reasons for something that has previously been uttered. Furthermore, it is argued that the Swiss German modal particle drum/drom has a function very similar to the one of eben, whereas halt, which is mostly synonymous to eben in standard German, cannot be used this way.