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This page pertains to UD version 2.

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]