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. Alth ...

s, 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 Traditional grammar (also known as classical grammar) is a framework for the description of the structure of a language or group of languages. The roots of traditional grammar are in the work of classical Greek and Latin philologists. The forma ...

. Both

Classical Chinese Classical Chinese is the language in which the classics of Chinese literature were written, from . For millennia thereafter, the written Chinese used in these works was imitated and iterated upon by scholars in a form now called Literary ...

and

Modern Standard Chinese Standard Chinese ( zh, s=现代标准汉语, t=現代標準漢語, p=Xiàndài biāozhǔn hànyǔ, l=modern standard Han speech) is a modern Standard language, standard form of Mandarin Chinese that was first codified during the Republic of ...

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 The Yuan dynasty ( ; zh, c=元朝, p=Yuáncháo), officially the Great Yuan (; Mongolian language, Mongolian: , , literally 'Great Yuan State'), was a Mongol-led imperial dynasty of China and a successor state to the Mongol Empire after Div ...

(1271–1368). Later important works include (Some Notes on the Helping Words) by Liu Qi () and (Explanations of the Articles Found in the Classics) by Wang Yin-Zhi (), both published during the

Qing dynasty The Qing dynasty ( ), officially the Great Qing, was a Manchu-led Dynasties of China, imperial dynasty of China and an early modern empire in East Asia. The last imperial dynasty in Chinese history, the Qing dynasty was preceded by the ...

(1644–1911). These works focus on particles in the Confucius classics. Particles used in the vernacular literature did not draw much attention. The first work covering the particles found in the vernacular literature, (Compilation and Explanations of the Colloquial Terms Found in Classical Poetry and Operas) by Zhang Xiang (), appeared posthumously in 1953.

Linguistic sketch

Linguists often categorise Chinese particles into the following types: *Structural particle ():刘月华, 潘文娱, & 故韡 iu Yue-Hua, Pan Wen-Yu, Gu Wei (2004)。实用现代汉语语法(增订本)。北京：商务印书馆。 This class of particles concern syntactic relations. The particles can be distinguished only in written form because they are usually pronounced the same. ** is used to mark adverbials (). E.g.: (ānjìng dì/de shuì zháo le) 'fell asleep quietly' ** is used to mark verb complements (). E.g.: (xuéxí dé/de hěn rènzhēn) 'study very hard' **, according to traditional analysis, is used to mark attributive (). It is often analysed as a nominaliser. E.g.: (shū dè/de fēngmiàn hěn piàoliang) '(the) cover of the book (is) very beautiful' *Aspectual particle (): Commonly dubbed aspect markers ( or ), the particles signal

grammatical aspect In linguistics, aspect is a grammatical category that expresses how a verbal action, event, or state, extends over time. For instance, perfective aspect is used in referring to an event conceived as bounded and unitary, without reference t ...

. The most renowned ones are the perfective , durative , durative , and experiential .^{: p. 185} *Modal particle (): Often called sentence-final particles (), the particles signal linguistic modality. Common ones include , , , and .^{: p. 238} Particles like and remain disputable since no satisfactory analysis is present.

Illustrations

In classical Chinese

The function of a Chinese particle depends on its position in the sentence and on context. In many cases, the character used for a particle is a phonetic loan; therefore, the same particle could be written with different characters that share the same sound. For example, ''qí/jī'' (, which originally represented the word jī "winnowing basket", now represented by the character ), a common particle in

classical Chinese Classical Chinese is the language in which the classics of Chinese literature were written, from . For millennia thereafter, the written Chinese used in these works was imitated and iterated upon by scholars in a form now called Literary ...

, has, among others, various meaning as listed below. The following list provides examples of the functions of particles in

. Classical Chinese refers to the traditional style of written Chinese that is modelled on the Classics, such as

Confucius Confucius (; pinyin: ; ; ), born Kong Qiu (), was a Chinese philosopher of the Spring and Autumn period who is traditionally considered the paragon of Chinese sages. Much of the shared cultural heritage of the Sinosphere originates in the phil ...

's '' Analects''. Thus, its usage of particles differs from that of modern

varieties of Chinese There are hundreds of local Chinese language varieties forming a branch of the Sino-Tibetan languages, Sino-Tibetan language family, many of which are not Mutual intelligibility, mutually intelligible. Variation is particularly strong in the m ...

. Norman, Jerry. (1988). ''Chinese''. Cambridge University Press. . pp. xi, 83.

In modern varieties of Chinese

Baihua

Written vernacular Chinese (), refers to written Chinese that is based on the vernacular language used during the period between imperial China and the early 20th century. Mey, Jacob L. (1998). Concise Encyclopedia of Pragmatics (p. 221). Elsevier. The use of particles in vernacular Chinese differs from that of Classical Chinese, as can be seen in the following examples. Usage of particles in modern Standard Chinese is similar to that illustrated here.

Min Chinese

Hakka Chinese

Yue Chinese

References

: Note that particles are different from zhùdòngcí (助動詞; modal verbs or modal auxiliaries) in Chinese. {{reflist