Temporaalisesta adverbista diskurssipartikkeliksi

• Auli Hakulinen
• Mirja Saari

Avainsanat: adverbi, diskurssipartikkelit, kieliopillistuminen, partikkelit, ruotsi

Abstrakti

From temporal adverb to discourse particle (englanti)

1995 (99)

Auli Hakulinen (University of Helsinki; fi) Mirja Saari (University of Helsinki; fi)

From temporal adverb to discourse particle

The authors discuss the conversational relevance and the interpretation of two discourse particles, Finnish nyt and FinlandSwedish nu. These display strikingly similar behaviour, approximating to yet diverging from the use of the English particle now. There is also a clear difference in the use of the non-temporal particle between the Swedish usage in Finland and that in Sweden.

In the beginning of the analysis, there is a review of the conventionalized uses of the particles nyt and nu as presented in modern lexicons. From there, the authors go on to analyse examples from everyday conversations, trying to locate the more diffuse origins of these coined usages. At several points throughout the paper, the argument touches on the issue of grammaticalization; with respect to this particle, the interesting issue is the interpersonal aspect of grammaticalization.

On the basis of data derived from only two languages, and from some observations on biblical texts, it is too early to specify a possible common meaning for the clearly temporal adverb and the homonymous discourse particle. What can be shown, however, is the growing distance between the spoken and written variants of Finnish and FinlandSwedish.