Resumen de Dimmi un po’ – Zur Bedeutungsstruktur von un po’ als Modalpartikel im Italienischen

Verena Thaler, Paul Mayr

• This article aims to analyze the adverbial expression un po’, which shows different syntactic uses in contemporary Italian (e.g. pseudo-partitive quantifier, degree adverb and pragmatic particle), from an interactional and illocutionary perspective. The analysis focuses on its use as a pragmatic particle and argues that its meaning can be described as a specific form of modification of the illocutionary force of the utterance. Based on a qualitative analysis of examples from oral corpora (C-ORAL-ROM and KIParla), it will be shown that at least four types of use of this particle can be identified, all of which are characterized by a common semantic feature that is also inherent in the other uses of un po’: [INCOMPLETENESS]. The purpose of this paper is to show the pragmatic properties of this archiseme in interactional contexts. In addition, the formal and functional criteria for modal particles will be used to examine the potential of un po’ as a promising candidate for this word class in Italian.