Pragmatic Uses of Well and their Bulgarian Translations

The paper is an analysis of the semantic and pragmatic properties of Well and the different transformations which Well-prefaced sentences undergo in Bulgarian. The meaning with which Well functions in a particular context is considered to be a result of the influence of the linguistic and non-linguistic environment but unlike many authors who have analysed Well and other pragmatic particles, the present study presents the hypothesis that these items have an inherent meaning of their own. The latter is regarded as a prototype which is supplemented by variable components. The method of analysis used is Predication Analysis by means of which different semantic and pragmatic meanings of the particle are identified and the adequacy of the translations is tested.