The expression of additivity in the Alps: German auch, Italian anche and their counterparts in Gardenese Ladin

Additive particles (e.g. English also) usually operate on a constituent (‘domain of association’) signaling that it has to be added to a list of items already introduced in the context or inferable. In addition, they can also exhibit a more grammatical function acting as a focused constituent itself or a modal particle. In the present contribution, we aim to provide a classification of the usage patterns and main grammatical functions of the additive item also in the standard languages spoken in the alpine region of Trentino-South Tyrol, i.e. German (auch) and Italian (anche) and in a regional language, Gardenese Ladin (belonging to the Rhaeto-romance group), which displays two forms: nce and ënghe. The data show that also fulfills the same functions in all the languages investigated; however, the use of German auch is the most evenly distributed among the different functions, while Italian anche is overwhelmingly used as additive particle in the narrow sense (its original function). Finally, Gardenese shows a mixed behaviour: the use of nce resembles that of Italian anche, but ënghe is frequently used as focalised constituent, like in German. However, its use as modal particle is much more restricted than in German.