Abstract

This paper is concerned with combinations of modal particles (mps) in German. It is well known that such combinations are severely restricted. Constraints have been formulated that, on the one hand, concern the conditions that regulate which mps can combine at all. On the other hand, restrictions concern the question in which order the mps can combine. Focussing on the combination of ja and doch, the paper argues that the (putatively) fixed order of ja and doch is an iconic reflex in grammar. By referring to new authentic material, it argues that the order ja doch presents the unmarked order, but that linguistic contexts can be found in which the reversed (marked) order doch ja is attested. It suggests a discourse-semantic analysis which integrates the mp description by Diewald (2007) into the formal model of discourse developed in Farkas & Bruce (2010). The analysis suggested traces the difference in markedness between the two orders of ja and doch back to discourse structural requirements which have been assumed to hold in communication independently.