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Gisella Ferraresi: Wandel in den Kohärenzstrategien des Deutschen am Beispiel der Adverbkonnektoren

This article discusses adverbial connectors first from a synchronic and then a diachronic perspective. The primary focus is on the various functions that such elements perform in different syntactic positions. These are dependent on (among other things) sentence type, due to the fact that adverbial connectors modalize the sentence they introduce. Adverbial connectors placed in the prefield following another constituent (Nacherstposition), for instance, mark a contrastive topic. An examination of German in earlier periods reveals that e.g. an adverb like allerdings appears in the prefield relatively recently. The function of contrastive topic marking was performed by adverbial connectors placed before other elements in the prefield (Vorerstposition). In contemporary German, this position serves to introduce or contrast utterances, which can contain different types of sentences.