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" is 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:

  • <sub>2</sub>: Afrikaans has a double negation system, as in:

:: The first <sub>1</sub> is analysed as an adverb, while the second <sub>2</sub> 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. 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:

{| class="wikitable mw-collapsible mw-collapsed"

| colspan="4" |Hindi particles

|-

!Type

!Particles

! scope=col style="width: 33%" | Notes

!Sentences

|-

!Emphatic

Particles () and () have rather restricted positions in a sentence and can usually only appear around the verb in subjunctive mood or imperative form, respectively.

|

  1. ()
  2. One shouldn't do [like] that.
  3. ()
  4. It'll be good if it doesn't happen [like that].
  5. ()
  6. Don't do it, man!

|-

!Affirmative

Particles

|

  • () — "yes"
  • () — "honorific yes"
  • () — "emphatic yes"
  • () — "emphatic yes"

|

|

  1. ()
  2. Yes, I (will) do it.
  3. ()
  4. Yes, and you (formal)?
  5. ()
  6. Yes sure, I will do it.
  7. ()
  8. (I already said) yes! I have done it.

|-

!Honorific

Particles

|

  • () — "honour giving particle"

|It comes after a noun and gives the noun an honorific value.

Compare with the honorific particles in Japanese, e.g. and .

|

  1. ()
  2. How is Mr. Rahul?

|-

!Topic Marker

Particles

|

  • (to) — "topic marker"

| is used to mark the topic in the sentence which is often not the same the subject of a sentence. It indicates either presuppositionally shared information or shift in thematic orientation. It has a rather flexible position in a sentence; it always goes after the topic of the sentence, even if that topic contains other particles.

|

  1. ()
  2. [Speaking of] Neha [she] is good.
  3. ()
  4. You "sure are" good but not that much.

|-

!Question Marker

Particles

|

  • () — "question marker"
  • () — "doubt / confirmatory marker"

|The question-marker can come at the beginning or the end of a sentence as its default position but can also appear in between the sentence if it cannot also be interpreted as its non-particle meaning of "what" at a mid position in the sentence. can only come at the end of a sentence and nowhere else. It conveys that the asker is in doubt or is seeking for a confirmation.

|

  1. ()
  2. Does he sing?
  3. ()
  4. It should be done like this, no?
  5. ()
  6. [Are you sure that] we do this? / we are doing this?

|-

!Case Marker

Particles

|

  • () — "dative marker" & "accusative marker"
  • () — "ablative marker" & "instrumental marker"
  • () — "ergative marker"
  • () — "genitive marker"
  • () — "locative marker" "in / inside"
  • () — "locative marker" "on / at"
  • () — "locative marker" "up to, until, as far as"
  • () — "semblative marker" "like, -ish, -esque"

|The case marking particles require the noun to be declined to be in their oblique case forms. However, these markers themselves (except for one) can inflect and change forms depending on the gender of the noun they modify.

{| class="wikitable mw-collapsible"

|-

|Case

|Hindi

|-

|ergative

| ()

|-

|accusative

| rowspan="2" | ()

|-

|dative

|-

|instrumental

| rowspan="2" | ()

|-

|ablative

|-

|genitive

| ()

|-

|inessive

| ()

|-

|adessive

| ()

|-

|terminative

| ()

|-

|semblative

| ()

|}

|

  1. ()
  2. He/she hit him/her with it.
  3. ()
  4. Is it his?
  5. ()
  6. Take it out from that a keep it on this.
  7. ()
  8. It must be inside it.
  9. ()
  10. Pour it on that.
  11. ()
  12. No one's like me.
  13. ()
  14. Do it until four o'clock.

|}

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 Rapa Nui, 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.

  • , another
  • , since
  • , one
  • , only
  • , regarding
  • , right
  • , not
  • , mention
  • , as much
  • , until
  • , due
  • , so
  • , before
  • , informal
  • , like
  • , by
  • , for
  • , with
  • , 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