Grammatical particle Information & Grammatical particle Links at HealthHaven.com

In grammar, a particle is a function word that is not assignable to any of the traditional grammatical word classes (such as pronouns, articles or conjunctions). The term is a catch-all term for a heterogeneous set of elements and lacks a precise universal definition. It is mostly used for words that help to encode grammatical categories (such as negation, mood or case) and are uninflected.^[1] In English, the infinitive marker to and the negator not are examples of words that are usually regarded as particles.

[edit] 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 would not be classed as such (since they have plurals), and neither would Romance articles (since they are inflected for number and gender).

[edit] Other languages

The term particle is often used in descriptions of Japanese ^[2] and Korean^[3], where they are 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. Thai also has particles.^[4]

[edit] Different types of particles in English

[edit] Articles, infinitival, prepositional, and adverbial particles

The definite article the (the indefinite article a or an cannot really be classed as uninflected, due to their inherently singular meaning disbarring them from plural usage)
the infinitive to, as in to walk
prepositions, such as over in I went over the hill
adverbs, such as even in even the youngest of them; or phrasal verbs, such as put off in we put it off too long

[edit] 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^[5]^[6]. Because of their similar functions, interjections, sentence connectors, and conjunctions should be grouped together:

[edit] 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.

[edit] Sentence connectors

so (as in So what)
well (as in Well, we can’t help that)
still (as in Still, it could have been a lot worse)
yet (as in I am older now, yet I still enjoy some of the things I used to do)
as
also
however
nevertheless
otherwise
moreover
in addition
furthermore
besides
first
second
finally
last but not least
lastly
thus
hence
on the other hand
anyway
then
too (as in that, too, has been said in the past)

[edit] Tags or tag questions (sentence-finals)

"...didn't they?" or "...did they not?…"; "...wasn't it?" or "...was it not?…"; "...shouldn't it?" or "...should it not? ", etc.

[edit] Conjunctions

and (together with)
or
nor
but
while (as in The repair takes only a short time while you wait.)
although/though
for (as in she could not see the film, for she was too young)
because
unless
since (as in since you asked, I will tell you)

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

^ McArthur, Tom: “The Oxford Companion to the English Language”, pp72-76, Oxford University Press, 1992 ISBN 0-19-2114183-X. For various keywords
^ http://japanese.about.com/blparticles.htm List of Japanese particles
^ http://www9.georgetown.edu/faculty/portnerp/nsfsite/KoreanParticlesMiokPak.pdf List of Korean particles
^ http://siamsmile.webs.com/thaiparticles/thaiparticles.html Large list of Thai particles and exclamations with explanations and example sentences.
^ http://www.canoo.net/services/OnlineGrammar/Wort/Ueberblick/Flexionslos.html?lang=en&darj=1 Interjections
^ http://www.cs.cf.ac.uk/fun/welsh/Glossary_main.html Interjections

[0] McArthur, Tom: “The Oxford Companion to the English Language”, pp72-76, Oxford University Press, 1992 ISBN 0-19-2114183-X. For various keywords

[1] ttp://japanese.about.com/blparticles.htm List of Japanese particles

[2] ttp://www9.georgetown.edu/faculty/portnerp/nsfsite/KoreanParticlesMiokPak.pdf List of Korean particles

[3] ttp://siamsmile.webs.com/thaiparticles/thaiparticles.html Large list of Thai particles and exclamations with explanations and example sentences.

[4] ttp://www.canoo.net/services/OnlineGrammar/Wort/Ueberblick/Flexionslos.html?lang=en&darj=1 Interjections

[5] ttp://www.cs.cf.ac.uk/fun/welsh/Glossary_main.html Interjections

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