Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-fscjk Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-30T23:41:21.819Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

27 - Sentence-final Particles

Sociolinguistic and Discourse Perspectives

from Part Four - Syntax-semantics, Pragmatics, and Discourse Issues

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 August 2022

By
Zhuo Jing-Schmidt
Edited by
Chu-Ren Huang ,
Yen-Hwei Lin ,
I-Hsuan Chen  and
Yu-Yin Hsu
Chu-Ren Huang
Affiliation:
The Hong Kong Polytechnic University
Yen-Hwei Lin
Affiliation:
Michigan State University
I-Hsuan Chen
Affiliation:
University of California, Berkeley
Yu-Yin Hsu
Affiliation:
The Hong Kong Polytechnic University
Get access

Summary

This chapter provides an overview of scholarship on Chinese sentence-final particles (SFPs) from sociolinguistic and discourse perspectives. The chapter begins with a brief introduction to the typological and areal features associated with SFPs, followed by discussions of studies of this linguistic category in data-based empirical research as well as in descriptive grammars. The goal of the overview is to identify the main strands of theoretical underpinnings as well as to outline the major methodological approaches. The chapter concludes with a discussion of future research directions.

Keywords

sentence final particlesociolinguisticdiscoursemoodillocutionconversation
Type
Chapter
Information
The Cambridge Handbook of Chinese Linguistics , pp. 597 - 615
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2022

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Apperly, Ian. 2011. Mindreaders: The cognitive basis of ‘theory of mind’. New York, NY: Psychology Press.Google Scholar
Astington, Janet Wilde, and Baird, Jodie A.. 2005. Why language matters for theory of mind. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Baron-Cohen, Simon, Leslie, Alan M., and Frith, Uta. 1985. Does the autistic child have a ‘theory of mind’? Cognition 21:37–46.Google Scholar
Bates, Elizabeth, and MacWhinney, Brian. 1989. Functionalism and the competition model. In The crosslinguistic study of sentence processing, ed. MacWhinney, Brian and Bates, Elizabeth, 3–73. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Bolinger, Dwight. 1978. Intonation across languages. In Universals of human language, vol. 2: Phonology, ed. Greenberg, Joseph H., Ferguson, Charles A., and Moravcsik, Edith A., 471–524. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
Botha, Werner, and Barnes, Lawrie A.. 2013. Variation in the use of sentence final particles in Macau Cantonese. Chinese Language and Discourse 4(2):277–296.Google Scholar
Callier, Patrick. 2007. A corpus study of sentence-final me: ‘Cosmopolitan’ Mandarin? Doctoral thesis, Stanford University.Google Scholar
Chan, Marjorie K. M. 1996. Gender-marked speech in Cantonese: The case of sentence-final particles jē and jēk. Studies in the Linguistic Sciences 26(1/2):1–38.Google Scholar
Chan, Marjorie K. M. 1998a. Gender differences in the Chinese language: A preliminary report. In Proceedings of the 7th North American Conference on Chinese Linguistics (NACCL), ed. Lin, Hua, 2: 35–52. Los Angeles, CA: GSIL, University of Southern California.Google Scholar
Chan, Marjorie K. M. 1998b. Sentence particles je and jek in Cantonese and their distribution across gender and sentence types. In Engendering communication: Proceedings of the Fifth Berkeley Women and Language Conference, ed. Wertheim, Suzanne, Bailey, Ashlee, and Corston-Oliver, Monica, 117–128. Berkeley, CA: Berkeley Women and Language Group.Google Scholar
Chan, Marjorie K. M. 2002. Gender-related use of sentence-final particles in Cantonese. In Gender across languages: The linguistic representation of women and men (vol. 2), ed. Hellinger, Marlis and Bussmann, Hadmumod, 57–72. Amsterdam: BenjaminsGoogle Scholar
Chao, Yuen Ren. 1933. Tone and intonation in Chinese. Bulletin of the Institute of History and Philology 4:121–134.Google Scholar
Chao, Yuen Ren. 1968. A grammar of spoken Chinese. Berkeley and Los Angeles, CA: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Chappell, Hilary. 1991. Strategies for the assertion of obviousness and disagreement in Mandarin: A semantic study of the modal particle me. Australian Journal of Linguistics: Journal of the Australian Linguistic Society 11(1):39–65.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chen, Zeping. 陈泽平. 2004. Comparative analysis of interrogative particles in Mandarin and Southern Min 北京话和福州话疑问语气词的对比分析. Studies of the Chinese Language 中國語文 2004(5):452–458.Google Scholar
Cheng, Siu-Pong, and Sze-Wing, Tang. 2022. Syntax of sentence-final particles in Chinese. The syntax of classifiers in Mandarin Chinese. In The Cambridge handbook of Chinese linguistics, ed. Huang, Chu-Ren, Lin, Yen-Hwei, Chen, I-Hsuan, and Hsu, Yu-Yin, 578–596. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Chor, Winnie. 2018. Sentence final particles as epistemic modulators in Cantonese conversations: A discourse-pragmatic perspective. Journal of Pragmatics 129:34–47.Google Scholar
Crisfield, Arthur G. 1974. Lao final particles. In Southeast Asian linguistic studies (vol. 1), ed. Nguyen, Dang Liem, 41–45. Canberra: Pacific Linguist.Google Scholar
Cruttenden, Alan. 1997. Intonation, 2nd ed. Cambridge: Cambridge University PressCrossRefGoogle Scholar
Enfield, Nicholas J. 2005. Areal linguistics and Mainland Southeast Asia. Annual Review of Anthropology 34:181–206.Google Scholar
Erbaugh, Mary S. 1985. Sentence final particles as an Asian areal feature. In Proceedings of the First Annual Meeting of the Pacific Linguistics Conference, Eugene, 84–96.Google Scholar
Fang, Mei 方梅. 2016. Interactive functions of Beijing Mandarin SFPs ya, na, la. 北京话语气词变异形式的互动功能——以 “呀、哪、啦” 为例. Language Teaching and Linguistic Studies 语言教学与研究 2:67–79.Google Scholar
Farris, Catherine S. 1995. A semiotic analysis of sajiao as a gender marked communication style in Chinese. In Unbound Taiwan: Closeups from a distance, ed. Johnson, Marshall and Chiu, Fred Y. L., 2–29. Chicago, IL: Center for East Asian Studies, University of Chicago.Google Scholar
Feng, Shengli 冯胜利. 2015. 声调、语调与汉语的句末语气. Essays on Linguistics 语言学论丛 51:52–79.Google Scholar
Feng, Zi-Wei 冯子伟. 2009. On the ending modal particles of Li Cheng dialect 析山西黎城话的句末语气词. Journal of Language and Literature Studies 语文学刊 3:62–64.Google Scholar
Frota, S., Butler, J., & Vigário, M. 2014. Infants’ perception of intonation: Is it a statement or a question? Infancy 19(2):194–213.Google Scholar
Goddard, Cliff. 2005. The languages of east and southeast Asia: An introduction. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Goldberg, Adele E. 2009. The nature of generalization in language. Cognitive Linguistics 20(1):93–127.Google Scholar
Gosy, M., & Terken, J. 1994. Question marking in Hungarian: Timing and height of pitch peaks. Journal of Phonetics, 22:269–281.Google Scholar
Grice, Herbert P. 1975. Logic and conversation. In Speech acts ed. Cole, Peter and Morgan, Jerry L., 41–58. New York, NY: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Guo, Jinfu 郭锦桴. 1993. The tones and intonation of Chinese 汉语声调语调阐要与探索. Beijing: Beijing Language and Culture University Press.Google Scholar
Guo, Xiliang. 郭锡良. 2003. Research on classical Chinese function words. 古汉语虚词研究评议. In The history and development of Chinese 古今通塞 : 汉语的历史与发展, Ho, Ta-an 何大安, 49–74. Taipei: Academia Sinica.Google Scholar
Guo, Yi-ding and Wu, Zao-sheng. 郭艺丁,吴早生. 2020. The subjective meaning and syntactic mechanism restrictive on the modal particle buza in Xinxiang dialect. 河南新乡方言句末语气词“不咋”的主观义及其句法语用制约机制. Studies in Language and Linguistics 语言研究 40(3):31–38.Google Scholar
Gussenhoven, Carlos. 2004. The phonology of tone and intonation. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gussenhoven, Carlos. 2007. The phonology of intonation. In The Cambridge handbook of phonology, ed. De Lacy, Paul, 253–280. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hadding-Koch, K. and Studdert-Kennedy, M.. 1964. An experimental study of some intonation contours. Phonetics 11:175–185.Google Scholar
Hakulinen, Auli, and Selting, Margret. 2005. Syntax and lexis in conversation: Studies on the use of linguistic resources in Talk-in-Interaction. Amsterdam: Benjamins.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hancil, Sylvie, Haselow, Alexander, and Post, Margje. (eds.) 2015. Final particles. Berlin: De Gruyter.Google Scholar
He, Yang, and Liu, Fang 贺阳, 刘芳. 2016. The intonation of Beijing speech and its function: On SFP a and ba 北京话甚低语调及其功能——兼论语气词“啊”“吧”的性质. Linguistic Research 语文研究 140(3):10–15.Google Scholar
Ho, Aichen Ting. 1976. Mandarin tones in relation to sentence intonation and grammatical structure. Journal of Chinese Linguistics 4:1–13.Google Scholar
Hu, Mingyang. 胡明扬. 1981. Sentence final and modal particles in Beijing speech北京话的语气助词和叹词. Studies of the Chinese Language 中国语文 5(6):347–350, 416–423.Google Scholar
Jaeger, Tim Florian. 2010. Redundancy and reduction: Speakers manage syntactic information density. Cognitive Psychology 61:23–62.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Jaeger, Tim Florian. 2013. Production preferences cannot be understood without reference to communication. Frontiers in Psychology 4:230–230.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
James, Gregory C. 2001. Cantonese particles in Hong Kong students’ English e-mails. English Today 17(3):9–16.Google Scholar
Kwok, Helen. 1984. Sentence particles in Cantonese. Hong Kong: Centre of Asian Studies.Google Scholar
Ladd, D. Robert. 2008. Intonational phonology, 2nd ed. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Lee, Thomas Hun-tak, and Law, Ann. 2000. Evidential final particles in child Cantonese. In Proceedings of the 13th Annual Child Language Research Forum, Stanford, 131–138.Google Scholar
Lee, Thomas Hun-tak, and Law, Ann. 2001. Epistemic modality and the acquisition of Cantonese final particles. In Issues in East Asian language acquisition, ed. Nakayama, Mineharu, 67–128. Tokyo: Kuroshio PublishersGoogle Scholar
Leekam, Susan, and Perner, Josef. 1991. Does the autistic child have a meta-representational deficit? Cognition 40:203–218.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Leslie, Alan M. 1987. Pretense and representation: The origins of ‘theory of mind’. Psychological Review 94:412–426.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ester, Leung, and Gibbons, John. 2011. Interpreting Cantonese utterance-final particles in bilingual courtroom discourse. In Interpreting Chinese, Interpreting China, ed. Setton, Robin, 81–105. Amsterdam: Benjamins.Google Scholar
Leung, Wai-Mun. 2009. On the identity and uses of Cantonese sentence-final particles in the late 20th century: The case of wo (喎) and bo (噃). Asian Social Science 6(1):13–23.Google Scholar
Leung, Wai-Mun. 2010. The comparison of the Cantonese sentence final particles bo (噃) and wo (喎): From the 1940s to the 1970s. Asian Culture and History 2(2):86–98.Google Scholar
Leung, Wai-Mun. 2016. Analysis of the subjectivity of sentence-final particles: The case of ze1 in Cantonese 論粵語句末助詞“啫”的主觀性. Studies of the Chinese Language 中國語文 3: 339–348.Google Scholar
Li, Binghai. 李炳海. 2011. Classical Chinese sentence final particles: Origin, tone, and function 先秦诗歌句末语气词的来源及其声调、功能. Academic Research 学术研究 2011(8):128–135.Google Scholar
Li, Charles N., and Thompson, Sandra A.. 1981. Mandarin Chinese: A functional reference grammar. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Li, Jackie P. W., Law, Thomas, Lam, Gary Y. H., and To, Carol K. S.. 2013. Role of sentence-final particles and prosody in irony comprehension in Cantonese-speaking children with and without autism spectrum disorders. Clinical Linguistics & Phonetics 27(1):18–32.Google Scholar
Li, Xueqin. 李学勤. 1980. Questions about a group of oracle bone inscriptions 关于组卜辞的一些问题 Research on Palepgraphy 古文字研究 3:39–42.Google Scholar
Li, Zongjiang 李宗江. 2005. The origin of the Classical Chinese SFP yi 试论古汉语语气词 “已” 的来源. Studies of the Chinese Language 中国语文 305(2):139–145.Google Scholar
Liao, Chao-chih. 1997. Comparing directives: American English, Mandarin and Taiwanese English. Taipei: Crane Publishing.Google Scholar
Light, Timothy. 1982. On being déing: How women’s language is perceived in Chinese. Computational Analyses of Asian and African Languages 19:21–49.Google Scholar
Liu, Yuehua, Pan, Wenyu, and Gu, Wei. 2001. Practical grammar of modern Chinese. Beijing: Commercial Press.Google Scholar
Long, Anlong. 龙安隆. 2013. SFPs in Yongxin speech of the Gan language 赣语永新话的句末 语气词. Journal of Jinggangshan University (Social Sciences) 井岡山大學學報(社會科學版) 34(5):88–94.Google Scholar
Luke, Kang Kwong. 1990. Utterance particles in Cantonese conversation. Amsterdam: Benjamins.Google Scholar
Lü, Shuxiang. (ed.). 2000 [1980]. Eight hundred words of modern Mandarin. Beijing: Shangwu Press.Google Scholar
MacDonald, Maryellen C. 2013. How language production shapes language form and comprehension. Frontiers in Psychology 4:226. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2013.00226Google Scholar
Makarova, Veronika. 2001. Perceptual correlates of sentence-type intonation in Russian and Japanese. Journal of Phonetics 29(2):137–154.Google Scholar
Maki, Iida 饭田真纪. 2017. Semantics and grammaticalization pathway of Cantonese SFP ge2 粤语句末助词“嘅” ge2 的语义和语法化途径. Studies of the Chinese Language 中国语文, 4:421–437.Google Scholar
Matthews, Stephen, and Yip, Virginia. 1994. Cantonese: A comprehensive grammar. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
McCulloch, Gretchen. 2019. Because internet: Understanding the new rules of language. New York, NY: Riverhead Books.Google Scholar
Ochs, Elinor, Schegloff, Emanuel A., and Thompson, Sandra A.. (eds.). 1996. Interaction and grammar. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Ogi, Naomi. 2014. Language and an expression of identities: Japanese sentence-final particles ne and na. Journal of Pragmatics 64:72–84.Google Scholar
Peng, Lanyu 彭兰玉. 2003. SFPs of the Hengyang dialect 衡阳方言的语气词. Dialect 方言 2:171–176.Google Scholar
Piantadosi, Steven T., Tily, Harry, and Gibson, Edward. 2012. The communicative function of ambiguity in language. Cognition 122:280–291Google Scholar
Qi, Huyang 齐沪扬. 2002. SFPs and modal systems 语气词与语气系统. Hefei: Anhui Educational Publishing House.Google Scholar
Qiu, Bin. 邱斌. 2017. Two SFPs in the Fu’an speech of the Jiangxi Province 江西安福话的语气词“嚯”和“噷”. Dialect 方言 2:216–220.Google Scholar
Qiu, Xigui 裘锡圭. 1988. An examination of whether the charges in the oracle-bone inscriptions are questions. 关于殷墟卜辞命辞是否问句的考察. Studies of the Chinese Language 中国语文 1:1–20.Google Scholar
Qiu, Xigui. 1989. An examination of whether the charges in Shang oracle-bone inscriptions are questions. Early China 14:77–114.Google Scholar
Ruan, Jie 阮杰 2010. Final particles in Tongling alternative questions 铜陵方言反复问句的句末语气词. Journal of Language and Literature Studies 语文学刊 10:55–56.Google Scholar
Saigo, Hideki. 2011. Japanese sentence-final particles in talk-in-interaction. Amsterdam: Benjamins.Google Scholar
Schegloff, Emanuel A. 1996. Turn organization: On intersection of grammar and interaction. In Interaction and Grammar, ed. Ochs, Elinor, Schegloff, Emanuel A., and Thompson, Sandra A., 52–133. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Searle, John R. 1983. Intentionality: An essay in the philosophy of mind. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Shih, Yu-hwei. 施玉惠. 1984. A sociolinguistic study of male-female differences in Chinese. 从社会语言学观点探讨中文男女两性语言的差异. Jiaoxue yu Yanjiu 教学与研究 6: 207–229.Google Scholar
Shimura, Ryōji 志村良治. 1995. Research on medieval Chinese grammar 中国中世纪语法研究. Beijing: Zhonghua Book Company.Google Scholar
Strauss, Susan. 2005. Cognitive realization markers in Korean: A discourse-pragmatic study of the sentence ending particles -kwun, -ney, and -tela. Language Sciences 27(4):437–480.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tsujimura, Natsuko. 2007. An introduction to Japanese linguistics, 2nd ed. Malden, MA: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Wang, Li 王力. 1980. History Chinese 汉语史稿. Beijing: Zhonghua Book Company.Google Scholar
Wang, Lihua 王丽华. 2013. SFPs in the Longhai dialect of Min 闽语龙海方言的句末语气词. Education for Chinese After-school 中国校外教育 1:51–52.Google Scholar
Wu, Ruey-Jiuan Regina. 2004. Stance in talk: A conversation analysis of Mandarin final particles. Amsterdam: Benjamins.Google Scholar
Winner, Ellen, and Leekam, Sue. 1991. Distinguishing irony from deception: Understanding the speaker’s second-order intention. British Journal of Developmental Psychology 9:257–270.Google Scholar
Wong, Ying Ting. 2009. The linguistic function of Cantonese discourse particles in the English medium online chat of Cantonese speakers. Master’s dissertation, University of Wollongong.Google Scholar
Wu, Wing-Li. 2008. An acoustic phonetic study of the intonation of sentence-final particles in Hong Kong Cantonese. Asian Social Science 4(2):23–29.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wu, Wing-Li. 2013. Cantonese prosody: Sentence-final particles and prosodic focus. Doctoral dissertation, University College London.Google Scholar
Xiang, Xuehua. 2011. Constraint reality: Linguistic expressions of restrictivity and emotive stances. A discourse-pragmatic study of utterance-final lāh in Shishan (Hainan Island, China). Lingua 121(8):1377–1400.Google Scholar
Yang, Yan. 2003. Ne in the novel Honglou Meng (Dream of the Red Chamber): Gender, social status and a sentence-final particle. Master’s thesis, The Ohio State University.Google Scholar
Ye, Lu 叶露. 2015. SFPs in yes-no questions in the Leizhou Island Min dialect 雷州片东海岛闽南话的是非疑问句的句末语气词. Journal of Language and Literature Studies 语文学刊 12:80–81, 117.Google Scholar
Yueh, Hsin-I. 2017. Identity politics and popular culture in Taiwan: A Sajiao generation. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books.Google Scholar
Zhang, Yujin 张玉金. 2000. The question about the SFP status of zhi and yi in the oracle bone inscriptions 关于卜辞中 “抑” 和 “执” 是否句末语气词的问题. Research in Ancient Chinese Language 古汉语研究 49(4):30–35.Google Scholar
Zhang, Rong. 张蓉. 2014. SFPs in the Taigu dialect 析太古方言的句末语气词. Journal of Language and Literature Studies 语文学刊 11:16–17.Google Scholar
Zhang, Ling. 2014. Segmentless sentence-final particles in Cantonese: An experimental study. Studies in Chinese Linguistics 35(2):47–60.Google Scholar
Zheng, Tingting, and Yue, Haoping. 郑婷婷, 岳好平. 2014. Review of SFPs in the Xiang dialect 湖南方言句末语气词研究综述. Journal of Hubei Radio and Television University 湖北广播电视大学学报 34(8):77–78.Google Scholar
Zhu, Dexi 朱德熙. 1982. Lectures on grammar 语法讲义. Beijing: Commercial Press.Google Scholar
Zhu, Lin. 2021. An empirical study of sentence-final particles in Mandarin Chinese. Doctoral dissertation, University of Oregon.Google Scholar
Zipf, George Kingsley. 1949. Human behavior and the principle of least effort. Cambridge, MA: Addison-Wesley.Google Scholar
Zou, Fei 邹飞. 2006. Study on SFPs in the Linli dialect 临澧方言语气词研究. Doctoral dissertation, Eastern China Normal University.Google Scholar

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×