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.
Contents
In Mandarin, particles are known as yǔzhù (语助), zhùzì (助字), zhùcí (助词/助辭) or yǔcí (语词). They are part of the Classical Chinese category of "empty words," or xūzì (虛字), along with prepositions, conjunctions, and—according to some grammarians—pronouns and adverbs; these contrast with "solid words" or shízì (实字), which include verbs, nouns, adjectives, numerals and measure words. (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, qí/jī (其, which originally represented the word jī "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.
Vernacular and modern Chinese
Written vernacular Mandarin, known in Chinese as 白话, refers to standard written Chinese that is based on the vernacular language used during the period between imperial China and the early 20th century. 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.
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 (助字辨略) 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 (詩詞曲語辭彙釋) by Zhang Xiang (張相), appeared posthumously in 1953.