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Chinese Particles
Grammatical particles, or simply ''particles'', are words that convey certain grammatical meanings. The term is often applied to words that are difficult to classify according to traditional grammar. Both Classical Chinese and Modern Standard Chinese make use of particles. In Chinese, particles are known as () or (). They belong to function words (). In other words, they have no lexical meaning, but are used to indicate certain grammatical information. This contrasts with content words (). Particles in Chinese usually take the neutral tone.Li, Charles N. & Thompson, Sandra A. (1989). ''Mandarin Chinese: A Functional Reference Grammar''. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press. : p. 238 Studies by earlier authors The first book devoted to the study of Chinese particles, , was written by Lu Yi-Wei () in the period of the Yuan Dynasty (1271–1368). Later important works include (Some Notes on the Helping Words) by Liu Qi () and (Explanations of the Articles Found in the Cla ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Grammatical Particle
In grammar, the term ''particle'' (abbreviated ) has a traditional meaning, as a part of speech that cannot be inflected, and a modern meaning, as a function word associated with another word or phrase, generally in order to impart meaning. Although a particle may have an intrinsic meaning, and indeed may fit into other grammatical categories, the fundamental idea of the particle is to add context to the sentence, expressing a mood or indicating a specific action. In English, for instance, the phrase "oh well" has no purpose in speech other than to convey a mood. The word 'up' would be a particle in the phrase to 'look up' (as in the phrase ''"''look up this topic''"''), implying that one researches something, rather than literally gazing skywards. Many languages use particles, in varying amounts and for varying reasons. In Hindi, for instance, they may be used as honorifics, or to indicate emphasis or negation. In some languages they are more clearly defined, such as Chinese, whic ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jerry Norman (sinologist)
Jerry Lee Norman (July 16, 1936July 7, 2012) was an American sinologist and linguist known for his studies of Chinese dialects and historical phonology, particularly on the Min Chinese dialects, and also of the Manchu language. Norman had a large impact on Chinese linguistics, and was largely responsible for the identification of the importance of the Min Chinese dialects in linguistic research into Old Chinese. Life and career Jerry Norman was born on July 16, 1936, in Watsonville, California. His family were migrant farmers who had fled the Dust Bowl conditions of Oklahoma in the mid-1930s. Norman entered the University of Chicago in the autumn of 1954 and majored in Russian, but was forced to withdraw after two years because of financial problems. He was briefly a Catholic novitiate, then joined the U.S. Army and began studying at the Defense Language Institute Foreign Language Center in Monterey, California, where he was first introduced to the Chinese language. After co ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Korean Particles ...
Korean postpositions, or particles, are suffixes or short words in Korean grammar that immediately follow a noun or pronoun. This article uses the Revised Romanization of Korean to show pronunciation. The hangul versions in the official orthographic form are given underneath. References * * * {{Portal bar, Language postpositions Prepositions and postpositions, together called adpositions (or broadly, in traditional grammar, simply prepositions), are a class of words used to express spatial or temporal relations (''in'', ''under'', ''towards'', ''before'') or mark various ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Japanese Particles
Japanese particles, or , are suffixes or short words in Japanese grammar that immediately follow the modified noun, verb, adjective, or sentence. Their grammatical range can indicate various meanings and functions, such as speaker affect and assertiveness. Orthography and diction Japanese particles are written in hiragana in modern Japanese, though some of them also have kanji forms ( or for ''te'' ; for ''ni'' ; or for ''o'' ; and for ''wa'' ). Particles follow the same rules of phonetic transcription as all Japanese words, with the exception of (written ''ha'', pronounced ''wa'' as a particle), (written ''he'', pronounced ''e'') and (written using a hiragana character with no other use in modern Japanese, originally assigned as ''wo'', now usually pronounced ''o'', though some speakers render it as ''wo''). These exceptions are a relic of historical kana usage. Types of particles There are eight types of particles, depending on what function they serve. : : ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Okinawan Language
The Okinawan language (, , , ) or Central Okinawan, is a Northern Ryukyuan languages, Ryukyuan language spoken primarily in the southern half of the Okinawa Island, island of Okinawa, as well as in the surrounding islands of Kerama Islands, Kerama, Kumejima, Okinawa, Kumejima, Tonaki, Okinawa, Tonaki, Aguni, Okinawa, Aguni and a number of smaller peripheral islands. Central Okinawan distinguishes itself from the speech of Northern Okinawa, which is classified independently as the Kunigami language. Both languages are listed by UNESCO as Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger, endangered. Though Okinawan encompasses a number of local dialects, the Shuri, Okinawa, Shuri–Naha variant is generally recognized as the ''de facto'' standard, as it had been used as the official language of the Ryukyu Kingdom since the reign of King Shō Shin (1477–1526). Moreover, as the former capital of Shuri was built around the royal palace, the language used by the royal court became the regio ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Classical Chinese Grammar
Classical Chinese grammar is the grammar of Classical Chinese, a term that first and foremost refers to the written language of the classical period of Chinese literature, from the end of the Spring and Autumn period (early 5th century BC) to the foundation of the Qin Dynasty (221 BC), or in a broader sense, to the end of the Han Dynasty (AD 220). The term "Classical Chinese" is also often used for the higher language register used in writing during most of the following centuries (a register generally referred to by sinologists as "Literary Chinese"); however, this article focuses on the grammar used in the classical period. The present article uses modern Mandarin character readings following common practice among scholars, even though it is also possible to read Classical Chinese using the literary readings of other modern Chinese varieties (as commonly done in Hong Kong, where Cantonese readings are generally used), or even using a reconstruction of character readings belongin ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chinese Grammar
The grammar of Standard Chinese or Mandarin shares many features with other varieties of Chinese. The language almost entirely lacks inflection; words typically have only one grammatical form. Categories such as number (singular or plural) and verb tense are frequently not expressed by any grammatical means, but there are several particles that serve to express verbal aspect and, to some extent, mood. The basic word order is subject–verb–object (SVO), as in English. Otherwise, Chinese is chiefly a head-final language, meaning that modifiers precede the words that they modify. In a noun phrase, for example, the head noun comes last, and all modifiers, including relative clauses, come in front of it. This phenomenon however is more typically found in subject–object–verb languages, such as Turkish and Japanese. Chinese frequently uses serial verb constructions, which involve two or more verbs or verb phrases in sequence. Chinese prepositions behave similarly to seriali ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chinese Verbs
The grammar of Standard Chinese or Mandarin shares many features with other varieties of Chinese. The language almost entirely lacks inflection; words typically have only one grammatical form. Categories such as number (singular or plural) and verb tense are frequently not expressed by any grammatical means, but there are several particles that serve to express verbal aspect and, to some extent, mood. The basic word order is subject–verb–object (SVO), as in English. Otherwise, Chinese is chiefly a head-final language, meaning that modifiers precede the words that they modify. In a noun phrase, for example, the head noun comes last, and all modifiers, including relative clauses, come in front of it. This phenomenon however is more typically found in subject–object–verb languages, such as Turkish and Japanese. Chinese frequently uses serial verb constructions, which involve two or more verbs or verb phrases in sequence. Chinese prepositions behave similarly to seriali ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chinese Adjectives
Chinese adjectives () differ from adjectives in English in that they can be used as verbs (for example ; "sky black ") and thus linguists sometimes prefer to use the terms static or stative verb to describe them. Attributive (before nouns) When a noun is modified using an adjective, the associative particle ''de'' is inserted between the adjective and the noun. For example, ''gāo xìng hái zi'' "happy child". is sometimes omitted to reduce repetitiveness (''e.g.'', two or more instances of within a sentence); it is also omitted in some established adjective-noun pairs to improve sentence flow (e.g., the TV show in China). It is also more typical to omit when a single-syllable adjective is used than for a multi-syllable adjective (e.g., compare () with ). In general, there are no strict rules regarding when can be omitted; however, some adjectives and adjective-noun pairs are more often seen without the associative particle than others. Some examples: * （）— " ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chinese Pronouns
Chinese pronouns ( or ) differ somewhat from pronouns in English and other Indo-European languages. For instance, there is no differentiation in the spoken language between "he", "she" and "it" (though a written difference was introduced after contact with the West), and pronouns are not inflected to indicate whether they are the subject or object of a sentence. Mandarin Chinese further lacks a distinction between the possessive adjective ("my") and possessive pronoun ("mine"); both are formed by appending the particle ''de''. Pronouns in Chinese are often substituted by honorific alternatives. Personal pronouns In Mandarin : :* The character to indicate plurality is (men) in Traditional Chinese characters, and is in simplified. :** can be either inclusive or exclusive, depending on the circumstance where it is used. :†Used to indicate 'you and I' (two people) only, and can only be used as a subject (not an object); in all other cases ''wǒmen'' is used. This form has fa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chinese Exclamative Particles
The Chinese language involves a number of spoken exclamative words and written onomatopoeia which are used in everyday speech and informal writing. Such "exclamations" have their own Chinese character, but they are rarely used in formal written documents. Rather, they are found in movie subtitles, music lyrics, informal literature and on internet forums. Many exclamatives contain the 口 mouth radical. Use of exclamative particles Exclamative particles are used as a method of recording aspects of human speech which may not be based entirely on meaning and definition. Specific characters are used to record exclamations, as with any other form of Chinese vocabulary, some characters exclusively representing the expression (such as 哼), others sharing characters with alternate words and meanings (such as 可). As with all Chinese characters, exclamative particles span only one syllable, and are formed in the same structure as other Chinese words (for example, words in Mandarin Chinese ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Copula (linguistics)
In linguistics, a copula (plural: copulas or copulae; abbreviated ) is a word or phrase that links the subject of a sentence to a subject complement, such as the word ''is'' in the sentence "The sky is blue" or the phrase ''was not being'' in the sentence "It was not being co-operative." The word ''copula'' derives from the Latin noun for a "link" or "tie" that connects two different things. A copula is often a verb or a verb-like word, though this is not universally the case. A verb that is a copula is sometimes called a copulative or copular verb. In English primary education grammar courses, a copula is often called a linking verb. In other languages, copulas show more resemblances to pronouns, as in Classical Chinese and Guarani, or may take the form of suffixes attached to a noun, as in Korean, Beja, and Inuit languages. Most languages have one main copula, although some (like Spanish, Portuguese and Thai) have more than one, while others have none. In the case of Eng ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
