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.[1] Both Classical Chinese and Modern Standard Chinese make use of particles. In Chinese, particles are known as zhùcí (simplified Chinese: 助词; traditional Chinese: 助詞) or yǔzhùcí (语助词; 語助詞).[1] They belong to function words (虚词; 虛詞; xūcí). In other words, they have no lexical meaning, but are used to indicate certain grammatical information. This contrasts with content words (实词; 實詞; shící).[2] Particles in Chinese usually take the neutral tone.[3]: p. 238

  1. ^ Crystal, David. (2008). A Dictionary of Linguistics and Phonetics (Sixth ed., p. 352). Malden, MA: Blackwell.
  2. ^ Pollard, David E. "Empty words: modal adverbs." An encyclopaedia of translation: Chinese-English, English-Chinese (1995): p. 216
  3. ^ Li, Charles N. & Thompson, Sandra A. (1989). Mandarin Chinese: A Functional Reference Grammar. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press. ISBN 978-0520042865