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Chapter
Sentence-final particles
DOI link for Sentence-final particles
Sentence-final particles book
Sentence-final particles
DOI link for Sentence-final particles
Sentence-final particles book
ABSTRACT
This chapter explores a range of Chinese particles primarily used in the spoken language. It focuses on sentence-final particles (SFPs) but it also call some of them constituent-final particles (CFPs) when they appear at the end of a constituent rather than at end of a full sentence. A further category in this is the independent particle (IP); these mostly appear before the start of a sentence. The sentence-final particle is a language device which is not seen in a Western language like English. It is mainly used in spoken language and is attached to a short sentence or phrase to provide more information on top of lexical and structural meaning. The chapter treats the various Chinese particles as discourse markers (DMs) and explain their meanings and functions with plenty of examples, as used in authentic contexts. SFPs are primarily used in spoken language but they also show up in informal writings such as text messages and postings on social networks.