Typically short and indeclinable word with a grammatical function but no clear part of speech
Ingrammar, the termparticle (abbreviatedPTCL) has a traditional meaning, as apart of speech that cannot beinflected, and a modern meaning, as afunction 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 ofzhùcí (助詞;'particles'):structural,aspectual, andmodal.Structural particles are used forgrammatical relations.Aspectual particles signalgrammatical aspects.Modal particles expresslinguistic modality.
However,Polynesian languages, which are almost devoid of inflection, use particles extensively to indicate mood, tense, and case.
In modern grammar, aparticle is afunction 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 separatepart of speech and are distinct from otherclasses of function words, such asarticles,prepositions,conjunctions andadverbs. 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 encodegrammatical categories (such asnegation,mood,tense, orcase),clitics,fillers or (oral)discourse markers such aswell,um, etc. Particles are neverinflected.[1]
Particles in Arabic can take the form of a single root letter before a given word, like "-و" ('and'), "-ف" ('so') and "-ل" ('to'). However, other particles like "هل" (which marks a question) can be complete words as well.[2]
There are three types of zhùcí (助詞; particles) in Chinese: Structural, Aspectual, and Modal. Structural particles are used forgrammatical relations. Aspectual particles signalgrammatical aspects. Modal particles expresslinguistic modality. Note that particles are different from zhùdòngcí (助動詞; modal verbs) in Chinese.
Particle is a somewhat nebulous term for a variety of small words that do not conveniently fit into other classes of words.[3]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".[4] The term includes the "adverbial particles" likeup orout 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 andlet, and sometimes "pragmatic particles" (also called "fillers" or "discourse markers") likeoh andwell.[4]
AGerman modal particle serves no necessary syntactical function, but expresses the speaker's attitude towards the utterance. Modal particles includeja, halt, doch, aber, denn, schon and others. Some of these also appear in non-particle forms.Aber, for example, is also the conjunctionbut. InEr ist Amerikaner,aber er spricht gut Deutsch, "He is American,but he speaks German well,"aber is a conjunction connecting two sentences. But inEr sprichtaber gut Deutsch!, theaber is a particle, with the sentence perhaps best translated as "What good German he speaks!"[5] These particles are common in speech but rarely found in written language, except that which has a spoken quality (such as online messaging).[6][7][8]
There are different types of particles present inHindi: emphatic particles, limiter particles, negation particles, affirmative particles, honorific particles, topic-marker particle and case-marking particles.[9] Some common particles of Hindi are mentioned in the table below:
मात्र (mātr) comes before a noun it modifies, and comes after a noun or verb or adverb when the meaning of "just/mere" is conveyed.
नारंगीमात्र दो हैं अपने पास। (nārangīmātr do hè̃ apne pās.)
We havemerely two oranges.
Negation
Particles
नहीं (nahī̃) — Indicative Negation
न / ना (na / nā) — Subjunctive Negation
मत (mat) — Imperative Negation
नहीं (nahī̃) can have multiple positions in the same sentence while still conveying the same meaning. By default, it comes before the main verb of the sentence (or after the verb to emphasise). Usually, it doesn't appear at the end of a sentence and also at the beginning if the sentence starts with a noun.[10]न (na) andमत (mat) have rather restricted positions in a sentence and can usually only appear around the verb in subjunctive mood or imperative form, respectively.
तो 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.[12][13] 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.
नेहातो अच्छी है। (nehāto acchī hai.)
[Speaking of] Neha [she] is good.
तुम अच्छीतो हो पर उतनी नहीं। (tum acchīto ho par utnī nahī̃.)
You"sure are" good but not that much.
Question Marker
Particles
क्या (kyā) — "question marker"
ना (nā) — "doubt / confirmatory marker"
Thequestion-markerक्या 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.[14]ना 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.[15]
वो गाता हैक्या? (vo gātā haikyā?)
Does he sing?
ऐसा करना होता हैना? (aisā karnā hota hainā?)
It should be done like this,no?
ऐसा करेंना? (aisā karē̃nā?)
[Are you sure that] we do this? / we are doing this?
The case marking particles require the noun to be declined to be in their oblique case forms. However, these markers themselves (except for one)[clarification needed] can inflect and change forms depending on the gender of the noun they modify.[16][17]
Case
Hindi
ergative
ने (ne)
accusative
को (ko)
dative
instrumental
से (se)
ablative
genitive
का (kā)
inessive
में (mē̃)
adessive
पे (pe)
terminative
तक (tak)
semblative
सा (sā)
उसने उसको उससे मारा। (usne usko usse mārā.)
He/she hithim/her withit.
उसका है? (uskā hai?)
Is ithis?
उससे निकालो और इसपे रखो। (usmē̃ se nikālo aur ispe rakho.)
Polynesian languages are almost devoid of inflection, and use particles extensively to indicate mood, tense, and case. Suggs,[21] discussing the deciphering of therongorongo script ofEaster Island, describes them as all-important. InMāori for example, the versatile particlee can signal theimperative mood, the vocative case, the future tense, or the subject of a sentence formed with most passive verbs. The particlei 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 prepositionsin,at andfrom.[22]
InTokelauan,ia is used when describing personal names, month names, and nouns used to describe a collaborative group of people participating in something together.[23] It also can be used when a verb does not directly precede a pronoun to describe said pronouns.[23] Its use for pronouns is optional but mostly in this way.Ia cannot be used if the noun it is describing follows any of the prepositionse, o, a, orko.[23] A couple of the other ways unrelated to what is listed above thatia is used is when preceding a locative or place name.[23] However, ifia is being used in this fashion, the locative or place name must be the subject of the sentence.[23] Another particle in Tokelauan isa, or sometimesā.[23] This article is used before a person's name as well as the names of months and the particlea te is used before pronouns when these instances are following the prepositionsi orki.Ia te is a particle used if following the prepositionmai.[23]
InRussian, 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 particleбы, which imparts conditional mood (subjunctive) to a verb it is applied to or to a whole sentence. Other examples are-то andже 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 (б, -с).
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:
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,-den ötürü,-e dek,-den öte,-e doğru:
Bu çiçekleri annemiçin alıyorum. (anne is nominative)
Yarına kadar bu ödevi bitirmem lazım. (dative)
Düşük notlarından ötürü çok çalışman gerekiyor. (ablative)
Turkish particles according to their functions.Başka, gayrı, özge used for 'other, another, otherwise, new, diverse, either'.
Senden gayrı kimsem yok. No one other than you.
Yardım istemekten başka çaremiz kalmadı. We have no choice but to ask for help.
Göre, nazaran, dâir, rağmen used for 'by, in comparison, about, despite'.
Çok çalışmama rağmen sınavda hedeflediğim başarıyı yakalayamadım.
Duyduğuma göre bitirme sınavları bir hafta erken gerçekleşecekmiş.
Şirketteki son değişikliklere dâir bilgi almak istiyorum.
İçin, üzere, dolayı, ötürü, nâşi, diye used for 'for, with, because, because of, how'.
^Vyatkina, Nina; Johnson, Karen E."German Modal Particles"(PDF). Center for Advanced Language Proficiency Education and Research – The Pennsylvania State University.Archived(PDF) from the original on 2019-07-01.
^Lampp, Claire M. (2006). "Negation in modern Hindi-Urdu: the development of nahII".S2CID198686698.{{cite journal}}:Cite journal requires|journal= (help)
