For the purpose of a contrastive analysis only distinctive formal elements and functions are to be considered. The latter are ‘lexical or syntactic disambiguation’, ‘syntactic characterization’ and ‘communicative differentiation’. In German, modal particles and intonation render expressive functions which are conveyed in English by intonation only. The differing punctuation systems of English and German have to be considered as a source of interference besides limited differences between the English and the German intonat