discourse:sp: sentence particle
Sentence particles, also commonly known as “sentence-final particles” in Chinese linguistics, occur at the end of clauses and sentences in Mandarin and have a wide range of functions including modifying the modality of a sentence or its proposition, and expressing discourse and pragmatic information. They are linked to the main predicate as discourse:sp dependents (we place them under an extension of discourse under a loose interpretation of “discourse”).
Common sentence-final particles in Mandarin include: 吧 ba, 的 de, 啦 la, 了 le, 嗎 ma, 嘛 ma, 呢 ne, 呀 ya, 罷了 bàle. We also include 而已 éryǐ, which has the same syntactic distribution at the end of clauses and sentences.
# visual-style 5 7 discourse:sp color:blue
# visual-style 5 bgColor:blue
# visual-style 5 fgColor:white
# visual-style 7 bgColor:blue
# visual-style 7 fgColor:white
1 不 _ ADV _ _ 2 advmod _ NEG
2 會 _ AUX _ _ 3 aux _ know-how
3 拼 _ VERB _ _ 5 advcl _ spell
4 就 _ ADV _ _ 5 advmod _ then
5 寫 _ VERB _ _ 0 root _ write
6 中文 _ NOUN _ _ 5 obj _ Chinese
7 了 _ PART _ _ 5 discourse:sp _ SP
1 "If _ _ _ _ 0 _ _ _
2 you _ _ _ _ 0 _ _ _
3 don't _ _ _ _ 0 _ _ _
4 know _ _ _ _ 0 _ _ _
5 how _ _ _ _ 0 _ _ _
6 to _ _ _ _ 0 _ _ _
7 spell _ _ _ _ 0 _ _ _
8 then _ _ _ _ 0 _ _ _
9 write _ _ _ _ 0 _ _ _
10 in _ _ _ _ 0 _ _ _
11 Chinese." _ _ _ _ 0 _ _ _
More than one sentence-final particle may appear at the end of the same clause or sentence.
# visual-style 2 4 discourse:sp color:blue
# visual-style 2 5 discourse:sp color:blue
# visual-style 2 bgColor:blue
# visual-style 2 fgColor:white
# visual-style 4 bgColor:blue
# visual-style 4 fgColor:white
# visual-style 5 bgColor:blue
# visual-style 5 fgColor:white
1 要 _ AUX _ _ 2 aux _ need
2 收 _ VERB _ _ 0 root _ take
3 費 _ NOUN _ _ 2 obj _ fee
4 的 _ PART _ _ 2 discourse:sp _ SP
5 嗎 _ PART _ _ 2 discourse:sp _ SP:Q
6 ？ _ PUNCT _ _ 2 punct _ _
1 Is _ _ _ _ 0 _ _ _
2 there _ _ _ _ 0 _ _ _
3 a _ _ _ _ 0 _ _ _
4 fee?" _ _ _ _ 0 _ _ _
To differentiate between the perfective aspect marker 了 / le and the sentence-final particle 了 / le, one should define as sentence-final a 了 / le which is placed at the end of a clause or a sentence (though it may be followed by additional sentence-final particles), unless a clear context makes it possible to determine that it is the aspect marker. Before an object, adverbial of duration or frequency, and other non-sentence-final elements, 了 / le will always be annotated as an aspect marker with aux.
discourse:sp in other languages: [lzh] [ojp] [yue] [zh]