Modal particles (MPs) are adverbial elements that operate in the discourse-pragmatic domain. Their defining properties have been intensively debated over the last forty years: research on modal particles has investigated their formal and functional features, their categorization as a coherent class of elements, their relationship with other discourse-pragmatic elements and their cross-linguistic distribution (see Degand, Cornille & Pietrandrea 2013 and Fedriani & Sansò 2017 for recent overviews on these issues).

Modal particles are often assumed to be a language-specific class: their presence is widely recognized in some languages (notably German, Dutch, Danish and Swedish), but questioned for others. German represents by far the best researched language in this sense: the very first studies on modal particles, much of the subsequent research and – more in general – the major coordinates of this research field have been mainly based on German data (see Weydt 1969, 1979; Abraham 1991; Meibauer 1994; Bayer & Struckmeier 2017 among many others). The Romance situation looks quite different. Despite some well-studied examples (see for instance Hansen 1998 on Fr. bien; Waltereit 2004, 2020 on Fr. quand même), modal particles have not been extensively studied in Romance languages and – perhaps more importantly – no Romance language seems to display a coherent paradigm of modal particles comparable to what can be found in German. Nevertheless, adverbial elements that display modal-particle-like functions can be found in most Romance languages (Waltereit 2006; Coniglio 2008; Torrent 2011; Meisnitzer 2012; Squartini 2014; Remberger 2021).

In this respect, the issue of what functions modal particles exactly express is of particular interest: despite many proposals and diverging ideas (see the overview in Waltereit 2001; see also Diewald 2013), we still lack a unifying perspective on the functions expressed by these elements as well as a label that brings them together in a single theoretical category (assuming this is necessary). Therefore, the grammatical status of modal particles and their functional range remain still rather elusive. This fact makes it even more difficult to carry out comparative research and to identify convincing examples of modal particles in languages where their presence is under question.

Given this background, the present workshop aims at further stimulating the research on modal particles in Romance languages, by discussing and elucidating the presence and the properties of MPs in this language family. On the one hand, we hope that the discussion will lead to greater clarity on the distribution of modal particles in Romance languages, as well as on their formal and functional features. On the other hand, by addressing the issue of the functions expressed by MPs from a Romance perspective (that is, to some extent, from a marginal perspective) we hope to spark discussion on what categories can be effectively used for cross-linguistic research on MPs.

We invite contributions on modal particles in Romance languages, including dialects and non-standard varieties: case studies on single elements, papers that adopt a comparative approach and papers that address relevant theoretical issues are all welcomed.
We would encourage participants to let themselves be guided, in their contributions, by some of the following questions:

― To what extent can specific elements of Romance languages be considered modal particles?
― What are their defining formal features?
― Do they show any syntactic and positional constraints?
― What are their defining functional features?
― Do they show any coexistence of semantic and pragmatic values?
― In what grammatical domains do Romance MPs operate?
― What role does context play in their behavior?
― What descriptive and analytical categories do we need to account for the functions expressed by MPs in Romance?
― What kind of data and methodological approaches are best suited to carry out research on MPs in Romance?

(please see the conference website for the full call for papers and references)

Abstract submission

• Please send your anonymous abstracts (max. 500 words, excluding references) to marco.favaro@edu.ulisboa.pt by 15 January 2023.
• Each abstract will be reviewed by two members of the Scientific committee. Notifications of acceptance will be sent in early March 2023.
• The talks will be 30 minutes long, followed by 15 minutes for discussion. The workshop will be held in English.