Chinese particles

Grammatical particles, or simply "particles", are words that convey certain grammatical meanings. The term is often applied to words that are difficult to classify according to traditional grammar. Both Classical Chinese and Modern Standard Chinese make use of particles. In Chinese, particles are known as () or (). They belong to function words (). In other words, they have no lexical meaning, but are used to indicate certain grammatical information. This contrasts with content words (). Particles in Chinese usually take the neutral tone.: p. 238
Studies by earlier authors.
The first book devoted to the study of Chinese particles, , was written by Lu Yi-Wei () in the period of the Yuan Dynasty (1271–1368). Later important works include (Some Notes on the Helping Words) by Liu Qi () and (Explanations of the Articles Found in the Classics) by Wang Yin-Zhi (), both published during the Qing Dynasty (1644–1911). These works focus on particles in the Confucius classics. Particles used in the vernacular literature did not draw much attention. The first work covering the particles found in the vernacular literature, (Compilation and Explanations of the Colloquial Terms Found in Classical Poetry and Operas) by Zhang Xiang (), appeared posthumously in 1953.
Linguistic sketch.
Linguists often categorise Chinese particles into the following types:
Particles like and remain disputable since no satisfactory analysis is present.
Illustrations.
In Classical Chinese.
The function of a Chinese particle depends on its position in the sentence and on context. In many cases, the character used for a particle is a phonetic loan; therefore, the same particle could be written with different characters that share the same sound. For example, "qí/jī" (, which originally represented the word jī "winnowing basket", now represented by the character ), 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 modelled on the Classics, such as Confucius's "Analects". Thus, its usage of particles differs from that of modern varieties of Chinese.
In Modern Varieties of Chinese.
Baihua.
Written vernacular Chinese (), refers to 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.