Revisiting presentative particles: a multimodal study of the Hebrew particle hine

The present study explores the Israeli Hebrew particle hine, traditionally classified as a presentative particle, through a pragmatic-interactional lens using mostly video-recorded data. Our findings challenge the conventional view that hine primarily serves to draw attention to a referent. Instead, we argue that hine indicates a change in the speaker’s or interlocutor’s (or both) perceptual access to a relevant entity within the interaction’s immediate context. Indicating such a shift in awareness aligns hine more closely with change-of-state tokens. Additionally, as the perceptual access indicated by hine often involves the fulfillment of an expectation to perceive a relevant entity, the particle hine can be considered a resultative particle. Finally, the association with the mode of access to information links the use of hine with the notion of direct evidentiality. Consequently, we propose reclassifying hine as a resultative-evidential change-of-state marker, suggesting a re-evaluation in the study of presentative particles.