mark:prt: particle
The UD Irish subtype `mark:prt’ is used for the various particles in Irish, including:
- adverbial particle: go
- quantifier particle: a
- cleft particle: a
- verb particles: d’, a, and the complementisers go, nach, nár, gur, gurbh,
- comparative and superlative particles: is, níos
- days of the week particle: Dé
- to differentiate between the subordinate marker ach in different structures
- the pleonastic conjunction ná which introduces the predicate of a copular phrase
Examples
Adverbial particle
Níor tháinig sé go fóill `He has not arrived yet’
Níor tháinig sé go fóill \n NEG arrived he PART yet
mark:prt(fóill, go)
Quantifier particle
Ar a seacht a chlog `At seven o’ clock’
Ar a seacht a chlog \n At PART seven o' clock
mark:prt(seacht, a)
Roinn a 2 `Division 2’
Roinn a 2 \n Division PART 2
mark:prt(2, a)
Cleft particle
Is leabhar a thug sí dom `It is a book that she gave me’
Is leabhar a thug sí dom \n Is book PART gave she to_me
mark:prt(thug, a)
Verb particles
Nuair a tógadh na scadáin ar bord `When the herring were brought onboard’
Nuair a tógadh na scadáin ar bord \n When PART was_brought the herring on board
mark:prt(tógadh, a)
D’ inis tú dom `You told me’
D' inis tú dom \n PART told you to_me
mark:prt(inis, D')
Note that the verb particle ‘a’ is labelled mark:prtin instances like those shown below where the interrogative pronoun is raised to root level.
Cé a labhair? `Who spoke?
ROOT Cé a labhair ? \n ROOT Who with_it the house ?
root(ROOT, labhair)
nsubj(labhair, Cé)
mark:prt(labhair, a)
Cé leis a dtiocfaidh a rá go bhfuil… `Who can say that…
ROOT Cé leis a dtiocfaidh a rá go bhfuil ? \n ROOT Who with_it [] will_come to say that is ?
root(ROOT, dtiocfaidh)
obl(dtiocfaidh, Cé)
obl:prep(Cé, leis)
mark:prt(dtiocfaidh, a)
Complementiser
Is dóigh liom go raibh siad ann `I believe they were there’
Is dóigh liom go raibh siad ann \n Is belief to_me PART were they there
mark:prt(raibh, go)
Superlative particle
Ba í an difríocht is suntasaí `It was the most remarkable difference’
Ba í an difríocht is suntasaí \n Was it the difference most remarkable
mark:prt(suntasaí, is)
Pleonastic conjunction
The pleonastic conjunction ná allows for the re-ordering of the copula-predicate-subject structure as it introduces the predicate in a copular phrase, as shown in the example below. In cases like these, ná is labelled mark:prt.
Ba é an t-ainm a bhí ar an stail ná an ‘Darling Arabian’. ‘The name of the stallion was ‘The Darling Arabian’.’
ROOT Ba é an t-ainm a bhí ar an stail ná an 'Darling Arabian'. \n ROOT COP(past) it the name that was on the stallion [CONJ] the 'Darling Arabian'.
mark:prt('Darling, ná)
cop('Darling, Ba)
root(ROOT, 'Darling)
nsubj('Darling, t-ainm)
nmod(t-ainm, é)
acl:relcl(t-ainm, bhí)
ACH
mark:prt was specifically chosen instead of mark to differentiate between the instances where it meant “only” and the subordinate clause “ach” (but).
Níl fágtha den seandream ach an Ceannaire, Mary Harney ‘The leader, Mary Harney, is the only remaining leader of the former group
Níl fágtha den seandream ach an Ceannaire, Mary Harney \n Not left of_the old_group only the Leader, Mary Harney
mark:prt(Ceannaire, , ach)
mark:prt in other languages: [ga] [gd] [zh]