Conjunctional functions of Danish particles

Abstract

The article presents an analysis of conjunctional functions of Danish modal particles, which confirms the unidirectional process of the functional-semantic evolution adverb — particle — conjunction. The particles nok ‘most likely’, vel ‘probably’, vist ‘seemingly’ have adverbial pairs nok ‘enough’, vel ‘well’, vist ‘exactly’. When in an initial stressed position of the first part of a compound sentence, these articles form a contactdistal connection with the adversative conjunction men ‘but’ and come into concessiveadversative relations with it, each of the articles contributing a special meaning and modality. The particle nu corresponds to the temporal adverb nu, which has a relative meaning ‘now, not some other time’. The pragmasemantic invariant of the particle can be defined as evaluated mismatch of the real situation and the norm, the usual state of affairs or what someone else argues or suggests. An unstressed initial position of the particle nu in a compound sentence with the adversative conjunction men ‘but’ in the second part does not change the word order in its first part. However the article acquires conjunctional functions in this case, and the concessive-adversative relations formed as Nu X, men Y have the meaning ‘Actually X, but Y’. When it happens to be in the initial position of a subordinate clause the particle nu becomes conjunction, whose semantics can be conveyed by Russian concessive conjunctions ’raz, kol’ skoro’ (English concessive conjunctions as, as long as).