Pragmatic Functions of Additive Constructions in Present German

Abstract

The transition from structuralism to pragmalinguistics in the second half of the 20th century redefined linguistic inquiry, highlighting speaker intention and the communicative context. Although pragmatics gained substantial attention, the pragmatic functions of additive (appendix) constructions in modern German, especially in discourse contexts, remain insufficiently explored. Previous studies often emphasized syntactic or semantic aspects, overlooking the specific communicative roles of adverbial constructions in achieving clarity, emotional emphasis, and social alignment. This study aims to analyze the pragmatic characteristics of adverbial constructions in German literary and official texts, focusing on their functional contributions to communication. The findings reveal that additive constructions enhance discourse coherence, emphasize emotional nuances, demonstrate politeness, and assist in social identity expression. Their strategic positioning improves the listener’s understanding and strengthens interpersonal communication. Unlike earlier research, this study integrates a pragmatic-disursive perspective, showing how additive constructions serve both micro-level sentence functions and macro-level discourse organization, particularly reflecting speaker intentions and socio-pragmatic variability across different registers. These insights emphasize the necessity of integrating pragmatic competence into language teaching and discourse analysis, suggesting that a deeper understanding of additive constructions can enhance learners’ communicative efficiency and sociolinguistic sensitivity in German language acquisition.