Chinese particles
Both Classical Chinese and modern Chinese contain a number of grammatical particles. These can have a number of different functions depending on their placement in a sentence; however, some general roles played by particles in Chinese include indicating possession, a continuous action, completion, addition of emotion, softening of a command, and so forth.
In Mandarin, particles are known as yÇ”zhù (è¯åŠ©), zhùzì (助å—), zhùcà (助è¯/助è¾) or yÇ”cà (è¯è¯). They are part of the Classical Chinese category of "empty words," or xÅ«zì (è™›å—), along with prepositions, conjunctions, and—according to some grammarians—pronouns and adverbs; these contrast with "solid words" or shÃzì (实å—), which include verbs, nouns, adjectives, numerals and measure words.[1] (Compare the similar notion of the contrast between function words and content words.)
Classical Chinese
The function of a Chinese particle depends on its position in the sentence and on context. In many cases, the character for a Chinese particle is only used phonetically; thus, the same particle could be written with different characters that share the same sound. For example, qÃ/jÄ« (å…¶, which originally represented the word jÄ« "winnowing basket", now represented by the character 箕), a common particle in classical Chinese, has, among others, various meaning as listed below.
The following list provides examples of the functions of particles in Classical Chinese. Classical Chinese refers to the traditional style of written Chinese that is modeled on the Classics, such as Confucius' Analects. Thus, its usage of particles differs from that of vernacular and modern Chinese.[2]
Preceding syntactic element | Example sentence | Translation |
---|---|---|
qÃ/jÄ« å…¶ |
Can have various functions depending on context. | |
third-person possessive adjective: his/her/its/their | GÅng yù shà n qà shì, bì xiÄn lì qà qì. 工欲善其事,必先利其器。 | A workman who wants to do his job well has to sharpen his tools first. |
demonstrative adjective: that/those | YÇ qà rén zhÄ« dà o, huán zhì qà rén zhÄ« shÄ“n. 以其人之é“,還治其人之身。 | Punish that person (someone) with his very own tricks. |
suffix before adjective or verb | BÄ›ifÄ“ng qà liáng, yÇ” xuÄ› qà pÄng. 北風其涼,雨雪其雱。 | The northern wind is cool; the snow falls heavily. |
to express doubt, uncertainty | Wú qà hái yÄ›. JÅ«n qà wèn zhÅ« shuÇ bÄ«n. å¾å…¶é‚„也。 å›å…¶å•諸水濱。 | I had better go. You have to go to the riverside to make an inquiry, I'm afraid. |
to express hope, command | Wúzi qà wú fèi xiÄn jÅ«n zhÄ« gÅng! å¾å其無廢先å›ä¹‹åŠŸï¼ | Boy, don't ruin the accomplishment of your father! |
to form a rhetorical question | Yù jiÄzhÄ« zuì, qà wú cà hu? æ¬²åŠ ä¹‹ç½ªï¼Œå…¶ç„¡è¾ä¹Žï¼Ÿ | How could we fail to find words, when we want to accuse someone? |
zhī 之 |
Possessive marker | |
personal pronoun | Hérén zhÄ« jià n ä½•äººä¹‹åŠ | Whose sword is this? |
proper noun | DÅngfÄng zhÄ« guÄng æ±æ–¹ä¹‹å…‰ | The light of the East |
yǔ 与/與 |
Translates to: "and" (conjunction); "with" or "as with" (preposition). | |
yě 也 |
Emphatic final particle. | |
ér 而 |
Conjunction | |
hu 乎 |
Can have various functions depending on context.
| |
Phrases: question | Bù yì jÅ«nzÇ hu ä¸äº¦å›å乎 | Is this not the mark of a gentleman? |
Vernacular and modern Chinese
Written vernacular Mandarin, known in Chinese as 白è¯, refers to standard written Chinese that is based on the vernacular language used during the period between imperial China and the early 20th century.[3] 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.
Preceding syntactic element | Example sentence | Translation |
---|---|---|
bÄ å§ |
Emphatic final particle. Indicates a suggestion, or softens a command into a question. Equivalent to using a question tag like "aren't you?" or making a suggestion in the form of "let's (do something)". | |
Verbs | WÇ’men zÇ’u ba. 我们走å§ã€‚ | Let's go. |
de çš„ |
Used as a possession indicator, topic marker, nominalization. Vernacular Chinese equivalent of Classical 之. | |
Nominal (noun or pronoun): possession | ZhÄngsÄn de chÄ“ å¼ ä¸‰çš„è½¦ | Zhangsan's car. |
Adjective (stative verb): description | Pià oliang de nÇšhái æ¼‚äº®çš„å¥³å© | Pretty girl. |
Verbal phrase: relativization (creates a relative clause) | Tià owÇ” de nÇšhái è·³èˆžçš„å¥³å© | The girl who dances (dancing girl) |
dÄ›ng ç‰ |
Translates to: "for example, things like, such as, etc., and so on". Used at the end of a list. | |
Nouns | ShÄngpÇn yÇ’u dià nnÇŽo, shÇ’ujÄ«, yÃdòng yìngpán dÄ›ng dÄ›ng. 商哿œ‰ç”µè„‘,手机,移动硬盘ç‰ç‰ã€‚ | Products include computers, mobile phones, portable hard drives, et cetera. (The second ç‰ can be omitted) |
gè 个/個 |
Used as a counter, also called a measure word.(general classifier) This is the most commonly used classifier, but anywhere from a few dozen to several hundred classifiers exist in Chinese. | |
Number | YÄ« gè xiÄngjiÄo 一个香蕉 | One banana |
YÄ« xiÄ“ xiÄngjiÄo 一些香蕉 | Some bananas | |
Note: general classifier | All Chinese classifiers generally have the same usage, but different nouns use different measure words in different situations. | ie: 人(rén; person) generally uses 个(gè), but uses ä½(wèi) for polite situations, ç(bÄn) for groups of people, and 辈/輩(bèi) for generations of people, while 花(huÄ; flower) uses 支(zhÄ«) for stalks of flowers and æŸ(shù) for bundles of flowers. |
hái 还/還 |
Translates to: "also", "even", "still" | |
Verbs | WÇ’men hái yÇ’u wèixÄ«ng pÃndà o! æˆ‘ä»¬è¿˜æœ‰å«æ˜Ÿé¢‘é“ï¼ | We also have satellite television channels! |
Verbs | TÄ hái zà i shuìjià o ne. 他还在ç¡è§‰å‘¢ã€‚ | He is still sleeping. |
hé 和 |
Translates to: "and" (conjunction); "with" or "as with" (preposition). Vernacular Chinese equivalent of Classical 與. | |
Nouns: conjunction | ZhÄng SÄn hé LÇ Sì shì wÇ’men zuì cÅngmÃng de xuéshÄ“ng. å¼ ä¸‰å’ŒæŽå››æ˜¯æˆ‘ä»¬æœ€èªæ˜Žçš„å¦ç”Ÿã€‚ | Zhang San and Li Si are our most intelligent students. |
kÄ› å¯ |
Translates to: "could", "-able" | |
Verbs | NÇ kÄ›yÇ huà jiÄle. ä½ å¯ä»¥å›žå®¶äº†ã€‚ | You can go home now. |
Verbs | KÄ›'à i 坿„› | Loveable (i.e. cute) |
le 了 |
Used to indicate a completed action. Within informal language, can be alternatively replaced with 啦 la or 喽 lou. | |
Action | TÄ zÅu le 他走了 | He has gone. |
ma å—/å—Ž |
Used as a question denominator. | |
Phrases: question | NÇ jiÇŽng pÇ”tÅnghuà ma? ä½ è®²æ™®é€šè¯å—? | Do you speak Mandarin? |
shì 是 |
Used as the copula "to be"; as a topic marker. | |
Nouns | Zhège nÇšhái shì mÄ›iguó rén. è¿™ä¸ªå¥³å©æ˜¯ç¾Žå›½äººã€‚ | This girl is an American. |
yě 也 |
Translates to: "also" | |
Nouns | WÇ’ yÄ›shì xuéshÄ“ng. 我也是å¦ç”Ÿã€‚ | I am also a student. |
zhe ç€ |
Used to indicate a continuing action. | |
Action | TÄ shuìzhejià o shà yÇ’urén qiÄomén ä»–ç¡ç€è§‰æ—¶æœ‰äººæ•²é—¨ | Someone knocked while he was sleeping. |
zhÇ åª |
Translates to: "only, just" | |
Nouns | ZhÇyÇ’u chéngrén kÄ›yÇ rù nèi. åªæœ‰æˆäººå¯ä»¥å…¥å†…。 | Only adults are permitted to enter. |
Studies
Lu Yiwei (盧以緯) produced the first book devoted to studies of the Chinese particles, Speech Helpers (語助), in the period of the Yuan Dynasty (1271–1368). More important works concerning the particles followed, including Some Notes on the Helping Words (助å—辨略) by Liu Qi (劉淇) and Explanations of the Articles Found in the Classics (經傳釋詞) by Wang Yinzhi (王引之), both published during the Qing Dynasty (1644–1911). These works focus on the particles found in the Confucius classics, paying little attention to the particles used in the vernacular literature. The first work covering the particles found in the vernacular literature, Compilation and Explanations of the Colloquial Terms Found in Classical Poetry and Operas (詩詞曲語è¾å½™é‡‹) by Zhang Xiang (張相), appeared posthumously in 1953.
See also
- Chinese pronouns
- Chinese adjectives
- Chinese verbs
- Chinese grammar
- Classical Chinese grammar
- Okinawan particles
- Japanese particles
- Korean particles
References
Footnotes
Additional reading
- Dobson, W. A. C. H. (1974). A Dictionary of the Chinese Particles. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.
- He Jiuying 何ä¹ç›ˆ (1995a). Zhongguo gudai yuyanxue shi (ä¸å›¯å¤ä»£è¯è¨€å¦å² "A history of ancient Chinese linguistics"). Guangzhou: Guangdong jiaoyu chubanshe.
- _____ (1995b). Zhongguo xiandai yuyanxue shi (ä¸å›¯çް代è¯è¨€å¦å² "A history of modern Chinese linguistics"). Guangzhou: Guangdong jiaoyu chubanshe.
- Wang Li 王力 (ed.) (2000). Wang Li guhanyu zidian (çŽ‹åŠ›å¤æ¼¢èªžå—å…¸ "A character dictionary of classical Chinese, chiefly edited by Wang Li"). Beijing: Zhonghua Book Company.
- Yip Po-Ching & Don Rimmington (2004). Chinese: A Comprehensive Grammar. London; New York: Routledge.