The article puts forward a novel analysis of the German modal particle schon as a modal degree operator over propositional content. The proposed analysis offers a uniform perspective on the semantics of modal schon and its aspectual counterpart meaning ‘already’: Both particles are degree operators expressing a scale-based comparison over relevant alternatives. The alternatives are determined by focus in the case of aspectual schon (Krifka 2000), but are restricted to the polar alternatives p and ¬p in the case of modal schon. Semantically, modal schon introduces a presupposition to the effect that the circumstantial conversational background contains more factual evidence in favor of p than in favor of ¬p, thereby making modal schon the not at-issue counterpart of the overt comparative form eher ‘rather’ (Herburger & Rubinstein 2014). The analysis incorporates the basic insights from earlier analyses of modal schon in a novel way, and it also offers new insights as to the underlying workings of modality in natural language as involving propositions rather than possible worlds (Kratzer 1977, 2012).

中文翻译：

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Wird Schon Stimmen！Schon的度算子分析

这篇文章提出了德国情态粒子schon作为命题内容的情态度算子的新颖分析。所提出的分析为模态schon的语义及其方面对应的含义“已经”提供了统一的观点：两个粒子都是度运算符，表示对相关替代方案进行基于比例的比较。备选方案在方面性强直的情况下由焦点决定（Krifka 2000），但在模态性强直的情况下限于极性选择p和¬p。语义上，情态schon引入了一个预设，即环境对话背景包含更多的事实证据支持p而不是¬p，从而使情态schon不再是明显的比较形式``相当''（ Herburger＆Rubinstein 2014）。