Everything about Grammatical Particle totally explained
In
linguistics, the term
particle is a word lacking a strict definition but has the function of changing the relation of the parts of the sentence to one another, and is therefore called a
function word. It doesn't change its form by adding affixes and doesn't reflect gender, tense or person (has therefore no inflections) and is thus an
uninflected word.
Further definitions
Depending on its context, the meaning of the term may overlap with such notions or meanings as "
morpheme", "
marker", or even "
adverb" (another catch-all term). Like many linguistic concepts, the precise content of the notion is very language-specific.
Under the strictest definition, which demands that a particle be an uninflected word, English
deictics like
this and
that wouldn't be classed as such (since they've plurals), and neither would
Romance articles (since they're inflected for number and gender).
Other languages
The term
particle is often used in descriptions of
Japanese and
Korean, where they're used to mark
nouns according to their
case or their role (
subject,
object,
complement, or
topic) in a sentence or clause. Some of these particles are best analysed as case markers and some as
postpositions. There are sentence-tagging particles such as Japanese and Chinese question markers. There are lists of Thai particles.
Different types of particles in English
Articles, infinitival, prepositional, and adverbial particles
- The definite article (the indefinite article a or an can't really be classed as uninflected, due to their inherently singular meaning disbarring them from plural usage)
- the infinitive, as in to walk
- prepositions, such as over as in I went over the hill
- adverbs, such as as in even the youngest of them; or phrasal verbs, such as put off as in we put it off too long
Interjections, sentence connectors, and conjunctions
Sentence connectors, tags or
tag questions, and
conjunctions connect to what has been said in a previous clause or sentence. These three types of grammatical particles (similarly to
modal particles in some other languages) also reflect the speaker's mood and attitude toward what has come before in the conversation, or is likely to follow later. A particle may be defined simply as an invariable word, in that
interjections are to be classed as particles. Because of their similar functions, interjections, sentence connectors, and conjunctions should be grouped together:
Interjections
Zzz (as in a cartoon for someone sleeping, one of the few non-vocal interjections)
The list of interjections is probably never-ending as it belongs to the open class word category and is subject to new creations at all times.
Sentence connectors
(as in So what)
(as in Well, we can’t help that)
(as in Still, it could have been a lot worse)
(as in I am older now, yet I still enjoy some of the things I used to do)
otherwise
moreover
in addition
furthermore
besides
first
second
finally
last but not least
lastly
thus
hence
on the other hand
(as in that, too, has been said in the past}
"...didn't they?"; "...wasn't it?"; "...shouldn't it?", etc.
Conjunctions
(together with)
(while it's true that all line repairs are undertaken on Sundays, not all trains should be assumed to be late)
/though
(as in she couldn't see the film, for she was too young
unless
(as in since you asked, I'll tell you)Further Information
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