This paper investigates the use of modal particles in spoken Dutch imperatives. Two types of particles are differentiated: mitigating, which are often used as a politeness strategy, and reinforcing, which add extra force to the utterance (Vismans 1994). Our findings show that in Netherlandic Dutch, the use of mitigating particles is determined by the type of occupation that the speaker has: Speakers in service-oriented occupations use mitigating particles significantly more often than speakers in nonservice-oriented occupations, and it is argued that this is a function of their need to be more polite in their role as a service provider. Since the data do not come from the speakers’ workplace interactions but from informal conversations with friends and family, it is suggested that speech patterns of speakers’ professional and private language practices influence each other. The effect of occupation is not observed in Belgian Dutch, however, where mitigating particles are significantly less frequent. Moreover, an important methodological consideration arises from this analysis: There is the need for researchers to examine the data beyond the standard sociolinguistic categorizations made available by large corpora.

中文翻译：

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在荷兰语和比利时荷兰语命令式中使用模态粒子

本文研究了口语荷兰语祈使句中情态助词的使用。区分了两种类型的助词：减轻，通常用作礼貌策略，以及加强，为话语增加额外的力量（Visman 1994）。我们的研究结果表明，在荷兰语中，缓和粒子的使用取决于说话者的职业类型：服务型职业的说话者使用缓和粒子的频率明显高于非服务型职业的说话者，有人认为这是他们作为服务提供者需要更有礼貌的一个功能。由于数据不是来自演讲者的工作场所互动，而是来自与朋友和家人的非正式对话，建议说话者的专业和私人语言实践的言语模式相互影响。然而，在比利时荷兰语中没有观察到占用的影响，其中缓解粒子的频率明显较低。此外，该分析产生了一个重要的方法论考虑：研究人员需要检查超出大型语料库提供的标准社会语言学分类的数据。