Modal particles indexing common ground in two different registers

Abstract

This article examines how the two Swedish modal particles ju (approx. ‘as both you and I think/know’) and väl (approx. ‘this is an appropriate description of the circumstances’) are used to index different aspects of common ground (Diewald & Fischer 1998; Diewald 2006; Fischer 2007). It addresses the question of what aspects of common ground are indexed by these modal particles and how the indexical information about the argumentative situation is stored: Is it encoded in some kind of construction (Goldberg 1995) or is it organized in frames (Fillmore 2006 [1982])? By analyzing the indexical function of modal particles in terms of different aspects of common ground (Clark 1996) in two different registers, namely caregiver–child interaction and teenager interaction, we suggest that these aspects can be thought of as a sub-frame common ground within a communicative background frame (Fischer 2006); the aspects of common ground to which the speakers appeal to in different situations are organized and stored in the sub-frame.