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Grammatical particle
 
 
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A particle, in grammar
Grammar

Grammar is the field of linguistics that covers the conventions governing the use of any given natural language. It includes morphology and syntax, often complemented by phonetics, phonology, semantics, and pragmatics....
, is a function word
Function word

Function words are words that have little lexical Meaning or have ambiguous meaning, but instead serve to express grammar relationships with other words within a Sentence , or specify the attitude or mood of the speaker....
 that is not assignable to any of the traditional grammatical word classes (such as pronoun
Pronoun

In linguistics and grammar, a pronoun is a pro-form that substitutes for a noun with or without a Determiner , such as Wiktionary:you and Wiktionary:they in English language....
s, articles
Article (grammar)

An article is a word that combines with a noun to indicate the types of reference being made by the noun, and to specify the volume or numerical scope of that reference....
 or conjunctions
Grammatical conjunction

In grammar, a conjunction is a part of speech that connects two words, phrases or clauses together. This definition may overlap with that of other parts of speech, so what constitutes a "conjunction" should be defined for each language....
). 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
Negation

In logic and mathematics, negation or not is an operation on logical values, for example, the logical value of a proposition, that sends true to false and false to true....
, mood
Mood

Mood may refer to:*Mood *Grammatical mood*Mood , a city in Iran*Mood , hip hop artists*Moods ...
 or case
Case

Case may refer to:...
) and are uninflected
Uninflected word

In the context of morphology , an uninflected word is a word that has no morphological marker s such as affixes, ablaut, consonant gradation, etc., indicating declension or grammatical conjugation....
. In English, the infinitive marker to and the negator not are examples of words that are usually regarded as particles.

Further definitions
Depending on its context, the meaning of the term may overlap with such notions or meanings as "morpheme
Morpheme

In morpheme-based morphology, a is the smallest linguistic unit that has semantics Meaning .In spoken language, morphemes are composed of phonemes , and in written language morphemes are composed of graphemes ....
", "marker
Marker (linguistics)

In linguistics, a marker is a free or bound morpheme that indicates the grammatical function of the marked word or sentence. In analytic languages and agglutinative languages, markers are generally easily distinguished....
", or even "adverb
Adverb

An adverb is a part of speech. It is any word that modifies any other part of language: verbs, adjectives , clauses, sentence s and other adverbs, except for nouns; modifiers of nouns are primarily determiners and adjectives....
" (another catch-all term).






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A particle, in grammar
Grammar

Grammar is the field of linguistics that covers the conventions governing the use of any given natural language. It includes morphology and syntax, often complemented by phonetics, phonology, semantics, and pragmatics....
, is a function word
Function word

Function words are words that have little lexical Meaning or have ambiguous meaning, but instead serve to express grammar relationships with other words within a Sentence , or specify the attitude or mood of the speaker....
 that is not assignable to any of the traditional grammatical word classes (such as pronoun
Pronoun

In linguistics and grammar, a pronoun is a pro-form that substitutes for a noun with or without a Determiner , such as Wiktionary:you and Wiktionary:they in English language....
s, articles
Article (grammar)

An article is a word that combines with a noun to indicate the types of reference being made by the noun, and to specify the volume or numerical scope of that reference....
 or conjunctions
Grammatical conjunction

In grammar, a conjunction is a part of speech that connects two words, phrases or clauses together. This definition may overlap with that of other parts of speech, so what constitutes a "conjunction" should be defined for each language....
). 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
Negation

In logic and mathematics, negation or not is an operation on logical values, for example, the logical value of a proposition, that sends true to false and false to true....
, mood
Mood

Mood may refer to:*Mood *Grammatical mood*Mood , a city in Iran*Mood , hip hop artists*Moods ...
 or case
Case

Case may refer to:...
) and are uninflected
Uninflected word

In the context of morphology , an uninflected word is a word that has no morphological marker s such as affixes, ablaut, consonant gradation, etc., indicating declension or grammatical conjugation....
. In English, the infinitive marker to and the negator not are examples of words that are usually regarded as particles.

Further definitions


Depending on its context, the meaning of the term may overlap with such notions or meanings as "morpheme
Morpheme

In morpheme-based morphology, a is the smallest linguistic unit that has semantics Meaning .In spoken language, morphemes are composed of phonemes , and in written language morphemes are composed of graphemes ....
", "marker
Marker (linguistics)

In linguistics, a marker is a free or bound morpheme that indicates the grammatical function of the marked word or sentence. In analytic languages and agglutinative languages, markers are generally easily distinguished....
", or even "adverb
Adverb

An adverb is a part of speech. It is any word that modifies any other part of language: verbs, adjectives , clauses, sentence s and other adverbs, except for nouns; modifiers of nouns are primarily determiners and adjectives....
" (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
Deixis

In pragmatics and linguistics, deixis is collectively the orientational features of human languages to have reference to points in time, space, and the speaking event between interlocutors....
 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).

Other languages


The term particle is often used in descriptions of Japanese
Japanese language

IPA: [n?iho?go] is a language spoken by over 130 million people in Japan and in Japanese emigrant communities. It is related to the Ryukyuan languages....
 and Korean
Korean language

Korean is the official language of North Korea and South Korea. It is also one of the two official languages in the Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture in People's Republic of China....
, where they are used to mark noun
Noun

In linguistics, a noun is a member of a large, open class lexical category whose members can occur as the main word in the subject of a clause, the object of a verb, or the object of a preposition....
s according to their case
Grammatical case

In grammar, the case of a noun or pronoun indicates its grammatical function in a greater phrase or clause; such as the role of subject , of direct object, or of possession ....
 or their role (subject
Subject (grammar)

The subject is one of the two main constituent every sentence can be divided into, according to a tradition that can be tracked back to Aristotle....
, object
Object (grammar)

An object in grammar is a sentence element and part of the sentence Predicate . It denotes somebody or something involved in the subject's "performance" of the verb....
, complement
Complement (linguistics)

In grammar the term complement is used with different meanings. The primary meaning is a word, phrase or clause which is necessary in a sentence to complete its meaning....
, or topic
Topic (linguistics)

In linguistics, the topic is the part of the proposition of a Predicate Sentence . Once stated, the topic is therefore "old news", i.e. it has already been mentioned and understood....
) in a sentence or clause. Some of these particles are best analysed as case markers and some as postpositions
Adposition

In grammar, a preposition is a part of speech that introduces a adpositional phrase. For example, in the sentence "The cat sleeps on the sofa", the word "on" is a preposition, introducing the prepositional phrase "on the sofa"....
. 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 (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 verb
    Phrasal verb

    A phrasal verb is a combination of a verb and a preposition, a verb and an adverb, or a verb with both an adverb and a preposition, any of which are part of the syntax of the sentence, and so are a complete semantic unit....
    s, such as put off in we put it off too long


Interjections, sentence connectors, and conjunctions


Sentence connectors, tags or tag question
Tag question

A Tag question is a grammar structure in which a Sentence #Classification by purpose statement or an imperative mood is turned into a question by adding an interrogative fragment ....
s, and conjunctions
Grammatical conjunction

In grammar, a conjunction is a part of speech that connects two words, phrases or clauses together. This definition may overlap with that of other parts of speech, so what constitutes a "conjunction" should be defined for each language....
 connect to what has been said in a previous clause or sentence. These three types of grammatical particles (similarly to modal particle
Modal particle

In linguistics, modal particles are always uninflected words, and are a type of grammatical particle. Their function is that of reflecting the grammatical mood or attitude of the speaker or narrator, in that they are not reflexive but change the mood of the verb....
s 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 interjection
Interjection

An interjection is a part of speech that usually has no grammatical connection with the rest of the Sentence and simply expresses emotion on the part of the speaker, although most interjections have clear definitions....
s are to be classed as particles. Because of their similar functions, interjections, sentence connectors, and conjunctions should be grouped together:

Interjections
  • ah
  • alas
  • farewell
  • goodbye
  • hello
  • hi
  • hmm
  • hum
  • meh
  • no
  • oh
  • ouch
  • wow
  • yes


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
  • 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}


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.


Conjunctions
  • and (together with)
  • or
  • nor
  • but
  • while (as in while it is true that all line repairs are undertaken on Sundays, not all trains should be assumed to be late)
  • 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)


See also

  • Chinese particles
    Chinese particles

    In classical Chinese language philology, words are divided into two classes: the sh?z? and the xuz? . The former include what modern linguists call verbs, nouns, and adjectives, while the latter includes what modern linguists call grammatical particles....
  • Function word
    Function word

    Function words are words that have little lexical Meaning or have ambiguous meaning, but instead serve to express grammar relationships with other words within a Sentence , or specify the attitude or mood of the speaker....
  • Japanese particles
    Japanese particles

    Japanese particles, or , are suffixes or short words in Japanese grammar that immediately follow the modified noun, verb, adjective, or sentence....
  • Proto-Indo-European particle
    Proto-Indo-European particle

    The Grammatical particle of the Proto-Indo-European language have been reconstructed by modern linguists based on similarities found across all Indo-European languages....
  • Uninflected word
    Uninflected word

    In the context of morphology , an uninflected word is a word that has no morphological marker s such as affixes, ablaut, consonant gradation, etc., indicating declension or grammatical conjugation....


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