On the Meaning of "adain" ‘still’ and its Use as a Discourse Marker

Abstract

This paper contributes to the study of "adain" ‘still’ in Modern Hebrew by highlighting its use as a discourse marker in naturalistic exchanges. Syntactic-semantic annotations of the occurrences of "adain" in a spoken corpus reveal uses that serve to structure a concessive discourse, including anaphoric reference to propositions under negotiation by the interlocutors. This discursive use is related to better known uses of "adain" as an aspectual-temporal adverb, on the one hand, and as a concessive adverb on the other hand. The novel discursive use presented in this paper allows for a comparison to Hebrew "od" 'another, more, moreover', arguing against its assumed synonymy with "adain" 'still' and raising challenges for a theory of semantic change that is based on the semanticization of pragmatic inferences.