Re: What do you call this?

Quoting John Cowan <cowan@...>:

> Steg Belsky scripsit:
>
> > What do you call a word like "yes" "no" and "maybe"?
>
> "Truth value marker"?
Formally, they differ from language to language.  In Old English,
_gea sie_ "yea, may it be" was an entire sentence.  In modern
English, I would call "yes" and "no" affirmative and negative
discourse particles, respectively, since they are formally outside
the domain of the clause's syntax. "Maybe" might be better termed
an adverb:

  "Yes, he can go" *"He can yes go"
  "No, he can't go" *"He can no go"
  "Maybe, he can go" "He can maybe go"

(My grammaticality judgements.)

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