Trotzke, AndreasMayol, Laia2022-05-252022-05-252021Trotzke A, Mayol L. Catalan focus markers as discourse particles. J. Linguist. 2021;57(4):871-905. DOI: 10.1017/S00222267200004810022-2267http://hdl.handle.net/10230/53235In this paper, we investigate focus markers in Catalan that can take on discourse-particle readings.We focus on two Catalan elements that have not been studied from a formal linguistics perspective so far: the focus adverb precisament ‘precisely’ and the focus particle també ‘also’. We demonstrate that these elements feature interpretations that we identify as a type of meaning familiar from discourse particles in languages other than Catalan. After having outlined the basic distribution and interpretative effects of these particles, we analyze the semantics and pragmatics of precisament and també within a probabilistic argumentative framework, and we then conclude the paper by comparing the observations and analyses we have pointed out for Catalan to other languages that feature a discourse-particle reading of similar focus markers.application/pdfeng© The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press. This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence )http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.info:eu-repo/semantics/articlehttp://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S0022226720000481CatalanDiscourse particlesFocus adverbsFocus particlesPragmaticsSemanticsinfo:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess