Re: disfluencies/editing expressions

On Fri, 3 Sep 2004 18:01:35 +0200, Carsten Becker
<naranoieati@...> wrote:

>Where we're on the topic of filling words and such, what
>would German "ja" (yes) and "doch" (no English equivalent!)
>in sentences like "Ich *kenne* dich doch!" or "*Dich* habe
>ich ja schon lange nicht mehr gesehen!" be translated as in
>English? "do VERB" resp. with "VERBsn't it?" and "VERBs
>it?" maybe? Note that the use of these words is rather
>colloquial.
This class of words is a specific to German. A characteristic of these words
is that they can't be translated. Other examples are _denn, schon, mal,
wohl_. They're called _Abtönungspartikel_ because they're function is to
gradate or colour or add a flavour to the meaning of the entire sentence as
a whole. Their syntactical function is the sentence focus.

Diese Wörter tönen ja die Bedeutung ab.
These words affect "ja" the meaning (part of verb).
Approximate translation: 'These words affect the MEANING (we all know it).'

Diese Wörter tönen die Bedeutung ja ab.
These words affect the meaning "ja" (part of verb).
Approximate translation: 'These words AFFECT the meaning (we all know it).'


I don't agree that these words aren't but colloquial. The use of the term
'fillin word' is the traditionalist point of view which ignores the meaning
of these words. Research on them hasn't started but in the Seventies, and in
the Eighties there was a big deal of research on them (so it'll take some
more decades until they'll be taught in the Gymnasien).


>In questions I find myself and other people in my
>environment frequently using the word
>"eigentlich" (actually, in fact): "Was hast'n du'n da
>eigentlich für'n Buch?". What I find interesting about this
>example, too, is the double use of "denn", which itself has
>no meaning either, actually. "Denn" is reduced to 'n. One
>'n is put after the verb, the other one I usually put after
>the personal pronoun of the addressee. The third 'n in the
>example above is the reduction of "ein" (sg neu. indef.
>art.).
>And as for the usual filler, this is "äh" or "ähm".
This is something very different from an 'Abtönungspartikel'.


g_0ry@_ˆs:
j. 'mach' wust

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