Modal particle
Encyclopedia
In linguistics
, modal particles are always uninflected word
s, and are a type of grammatical particle
. Their function is that of reflecting the mood
or attitude of the speaker or narrator, in that they are not reflexive but change the mood of the verb. Languages that use a lot of modal particles in their spoken form include Japanese
, German
, and Dutch
. The translation is often not straightforward
and depends on the context.
Mandarin Chinese depends highly on the use of modal particles. Because it is a tonal language, expressing emotion by changing the pitch of the sentence or phrase would make the meaning of the sentence different; therefore, many particles have arisen that can be added to the end of the sentence to express emotion.
Linguistics
Linguistics is the scientific study of human language. Linguistics can be broadly broken into three categories or subfields of study: language form, language meaning, and language in context....
, modal particles are always uninflected word
Uninflected word
In the context of linguistic morphology, an uninflected word is a word that has no morphological markers such as affixes, ablaut, consonant gradation, etc., indicating declension or conjugation...
s, and are a type of grammatical particle
Grammatical particle
In grammar, a particle is a function word that does not belong to any of the inflected grammatical word classes . It is a catch-all term for a heterogeneous set of words and terms that lack a precise lexical definition...
. Their function is that of reflecting the mood
Grammatical mood
In linguistics, grammatical mood is a grammatical feature of verbs, used to signal modality. That is, it is the use of verbal inflections that allow speakers to express their attitude toward what they are saying...
or attitude of the speaker or narrator, in that they are not reflexive but change the mood of the verb. Languages that use a lot of modal particles in their spoken form include Japanese
Japanese language
is a language spoken by over 130 million people in Japan and in Japanese emigrant communities. It is a member of the Japonic language family, which has a number of proposed relationships with other languages, none of which has gained wide acceptance among historical linguists .Japanese is an...
, German
German language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
, and Dutch
Dutch language
Dutch is a West Germanic language and the native language of the majority of the population of the Netherlands, Belgium, and Suriname, the three member states of the Dutch Language Union. Most speakers live in the European Union, where it is a first language for about 23 million and a second...
. The translation is often not straightforward
Untranslatability
Untranslatability is a property of a text, or of any utterance, in one language, for which no equivalent text or utterance can be found in another language when translated....
and depends on the context.
Mandarin Chinese depends highly on the use of modal particles. Because it is a tonal language, expressing emotion by changing the pitch of the sentence or phrase would make the meaning of the sentence different; therefore, many particles have arisen that can be added to the end of the sentence to express emotion.