Ich gebe eine kurze Erklärung der grundlegenden Funktion von doch und zeige an authentischen Daten, wie konkrete Verwendungsfälle auch ohne Wortartzuweisung verstanden werden können. Darüber hinaus empfehle ich, auch Sprachlernern den Umgang mit abstrakten Grundbedeutungen der Partikeln zu vermitteln.

The German expression doch serves as an example of the problems in word classification, specifically for words without lexical meaning(s) and without morphological features. The particle is commonly treated at least as a conjunction, an adverb, and a modal particle. Some other word classes are discussed. Recent tendencies to split up particles like doch and to thereby destroy their unity are criticised.

I will present a short explanation of the basic function of doch and show how to interpret different applications of the word, using authentic examples. In addition, I recommend that one not confuse language learners by telling them to distinguish different word classes, but to show them how to work with abstract semantic functions.