The non-standard German response item sowieso

Abstract

In this paper, we examine the German non-standard response item sowieso, which, we argue, is used to indicate that a positive response to a question or agreement with an assertion is obvious. In its primary usage, sowieso occurs as an adverb indicating that the host clause is true for a reason not inferable from the immediate discourse context. We explore how the meaning of sowieso as a response item is connected to its adverbial use. We propose that the different uses of sowieso are connected via the notion of comparative causal efficacy. In the standard adverbial case, sowieso compares possible reasons for its host clause. As a response item, however, it compares possible reasons for its host clause with possible reasons for relevant alternatives, yielding the result that the host clause proposition emerges as the most compelling among its competitors.