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 (functor) associated with another word or phrase in order to impart meaning. Although a particle may have an intrinsic meaning and 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 example, 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 "look up" (as in "look up this topic"), implying that one researches something rather than that one literally gazes skywards. Many languages use particles in varying amounts and for varying reasons. In Hindi, they may be used as honorifics, or to indicate emphasis or negation. In some languages, they are clearly defined; for example, in Chinese, there are three types of (; ): ''structural'', ''aspectual'', and ''modal''. ''Structural'' particles are used for grammatical relations. ''Aspectual'' particles signal grammatical aspects. ''Modal'' particles express linguistic modality. However, Polynesian languages, which are almost devoid of inflection, use particles extensively to indicate mood, tense, and case.

Modern meaning

In modern grammar, a particle is a function word that must be associated with another word or phrase to impart meaning, i.e., it does not have its own lexical definition. According to this definition, particles are a separate part of speech and are distinct from other classes of function words, such as articles, prepositions, conjunctions and adverbs. Languages vary widely in how much they use particles, some using them extensively and others more commonly using alternative devices such as prefixes/suffixes, inflection, auxiliary verbs and word order. Particles are typically words that encode grammatical categories (such as negation, mood, tense, or case), clitics, fillers or (oral) discourse markers such as ''well'', ''um'', etc. Particles are never inflected.

Afrikaans

Some commonly used particles in Afrikaans include:
* ₂: Afrikaans has a double negation system, as in:

:: The first ₁ is analysed as an adverb, while the second ₂ as a negation particle.
* : Infinitive verbs are preceded by the complementiser and the infinitival particle , e.g.

* or : Both and are genitive particles, e.g.

* and : These two particles are found in constructions like

Arabic

Particles in Arabic can take the form of a single root letter before a given word, like "" ('and'), "" ('so') and "" ('to'). However, other particles like "" (which marks a question) can be complete words as well.

Chinese

There are three types of (; particles) in Chinese: Structural, Aspectual, and Modal. Structural particles are used for grammatical relations. Aspectual particles signal grammatical aspects. Modal particles express linguistic modality. Note that particles are different from (; modal verbs) in Chinese.

English

''Particle'' is a somewhat nebulous term for a variety of small words that do not conveniently fit into other classes of words. ''The Concise Oxford Companion to the English Language'' defines a particle as a "word that does not change its form through inflection and does not fit easily into the established system of parts of speech". The term includes the "adverbial particles" like ''up'' or ''out'' in verbal idioms ( phrasal verbs) such as "look up" or "knock out"; it also includes the "infinitival particle" ''to'', the "negative particle" ''not'', the "imperative particles" ''do'' and ''let'', and sometimes "pragmatic particles" (also called "fillers" or "discourse markers") like ''oh'' and ''well''.

German

A German modal particle serves no necessary syntactical function, but expresses the speaker's attitude towards the utterance. Modal particles include and others. Some of these also appear in non-particle forms. , for example, is also the conjunction ''but''. In , "He is American, but he speaks German well," is a conjunction connecting two sentences. But in , the is a particle, with the sentence perhaps best translated as "What good German he speaks!" These particles are common in speech but rarely found in written language, except that which has a spoken quality (such as online messaging).

Hindi

There are different types of particles present in Hindi: emphatic particles, limiter particles, negation particles, affirmative particles, honorific particles, topic-marker particle and case-marking particles. Some common particles of Hindi are mentioned in the table below:

Japanese and Korean

The term ''particle'' is often used in descriptions of Japanese and Korean, where they are used to mark nouns according to their grammatical case or thematic relation in a sentence or clause. Linguistic analyses describe them as suffixes, clitics, or postpositions. There are sentence-tagging particles such as Japanese question markers.

Polynesian languages

Polynesian languages are almost devoid of inflection, and use particles extensively to indicate mood, tense, and case. Suggs, discussing the deciphering of the rongorongo script of Easter Island, describes them as all-important. In Māori for example, the versatile particle can signal the imperative mood, the vocative case, the future tense, or the subject of a sentence formed with most passive verbs. The particle signals the past imperfect tense, the object of a transitive verb or the subject of a sentence formed with "neuter verbs" (a form of passive verb), as well as the prepositions ''in'', ''at'' and ''from''.

Tokelauan

In Tokelauan, is used when describing personal names, month names, and nouns used to describe a collaborative group of people participating in something together. It also can be used when a verb does not directly precede a pronoun to describe said pronouns. Its use for pronouns is optional but mostly in this way. cannot be used if the noun it is describing follows any of the prepositions , or . A couple of the other ways unrelated to what is listed above that is used is when preceding a locative or place name. However, if is being used in this fashion, the locative or place name must be the subject of the sentence. Another particle in Tokelauan is , or sometimes . This article is used before a person's name as well as the names of months and the particle is used before pronouns when these instances are following the prepositions or . is a particle used if following the preposition .

Russian

In Russian, particles sometimes play an important role making an additional nuance for a meaning of a phrase or of a whole sentence. One example is the particle , which imparts conditional mood (subjunctive) to a verb it is applied to or to a whole sentence. Other examples are and which are usually used to emphasise or accent other words. Generally there are lots of different particles in Russian of many kinds. Some of them are complex, consisting of other particles, others are as simple as one letter ().

Turkish

In some sources, exclamations and conjunctions are also considered Turkish particles. In this article, exclamations and conjunctions will not be dealt with, but only Turkish particles. The main particles used in Turkish are:

* used with ('but').
* , another
* , since
* , one
* , only
* , regarding
* , right
* , not
* , mention
* , as much
* , until

* , due
* , so
* , before
* , informal
* , like
* , by
* , for
* , withused with ('and')
* , until
* , against
* , although or despite

* , corresponding
* , prior to
* , due to
* , beyond
* , despite
* , only
* , as if
* , then
* , row
* , to
* , alone

Particles can be used with the simple form of the names to which they are attached or in other cases. Some of particles uses with attached form, and some particles are always used after the relevant form. For examples, , , , :

* ( is nominative)
* (dative)
* (ablative)

Turkish particles according to their functions. used for 'other, another, otherwise, new, diverse, either'.
*
*

used for 'by, in comparison, about, despite'.
*
*
*

used for 'for, with, because, because of, how'.
*
*
*

See also

* Ilocano particles
* Nobiliary particle
* Okinawan particles
* Proto-Indo-European particles
* Sentence-final particle
* Uninflected word

Notes

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Grammatical Particle
Parts of speech