Analysis of the Mood Expressed by the Chinese Particle - Term Paper Example

Chinese 160: Short Term Paper Question 3: Based on the following sentences, discuss the mood expressed by the particle 吧 Sentence-final particles such as interactional particles, modal particles among others, are minimal words, which are placed at the end of sentences and do not bear referential implications, but connect to register, linguistic modality or other pragmatic implications (Hu and James 19). In Chinese, sentence-final particles are widespread including particles like Cantonese ge 嘅 and lo 囉 and Mandarin ne 呢, le 了, ba 吧, a 啊, ou 哦, la 啦, ma 嗎/吗, and ya 呀. Such particles normally act as qualifiers of the sentence or clause they end. The particles are also present in Japanese, as well as a lot other East Asian languages like Thai and principally in languages, which have undergone intense Sino-Tibetan influence for instance the Monguor languages (Hu and James 19). In Mandarin Chinese, there are a lot of sentence-final particles, which are used in formal plus colloquial speech. 我们走吧 meaning, let’s go 给我吧 meaning, to me 我们明天再说吧 meaning, we talk tomorrow 我们买三个吧 meaning, we bought three bars 你是学生吧？meaning, are you a student, right? 这件衣服很贵吧？meaning, this dress is expensive, right? 这样不好吧？meaning, this is not right? 好吧，我们一起做, meaning, well, we do together 就这样吧，不要再改了 meaning, so be it, do not change the 请你帮帮忙吧 meaning, please help out 来吧！meaning, come on! 请吧！meaning, go ahead! 滚吧！meaning, roll it! The first sentence was “let’s go,” which was making a soft request in a less direct manner. The use of the particle 吧 in the sentence was a somewhat pushy instruction into a more neutral one. The 吧 particle represents an imperative mood (Hu and James 19). The imperative mood, in this case, is utilized for forming a conditional sentence. However, it sounded blunt and rude because it was like telling someone what to do devoid of any quarrel or argument (Hu and James 19). The second sentence was “to me,” which was also making a subtle inquiry in a less direct way. The application of the particle 吧 in the sentence, in this case, was to signify a perplexed mood (Huang 4). It was like the speaker was surprised to find something had been directed to him or her. It does not sound blunt or rude like in the previous sentence, but in this case, the speaker was speaking out of shock and surprise (Huang 4). The third sentence went as “we talk tomorrow,” meaning that the discussion cannot he held today, but, in fact, tomorrow. The mood brought out by the 吧 particle is a subjunctive mood (Zhang et al. 31). Here is sentence expresses a number of states of unreality like wish, possibility, emotion, judgment, necessity, opinion, and/or action, which has not yet taken place. The subjunctive is an irrealis mood that does not point directly to what is essentially real, which is a realis mood (Zhang et al. 31). The fourth sentence went as “we bought three bars,” which means definitely expressing something. The bars were only three no more and no less. The mood expressed by the 吧 particle is a prohibition mood that means the listener cannot ask further questions after being told that they bought three bars only. It is like the speaker is prohibiting the listener from asking any further questions (Huang 4). The speaker might have felt that the listener would want to know more about the bars, thus decided to give him/her one straight response. The fifth sentence went as “are you a student, right?” which was implying an indicative mood. The sentence was trying to imply that the person being talked to was a student. The indicative mood utilized by the 吧 particle is meant to ask questions, make factual statements, and/or express views as if they were facts – you are a student. Any verb tense might be utilized in the indicative mood (Zhang et al. 33). Just like in the fifth sentence, the sixth and seventh sentences, which go like “this dress is expensive, right?” and “this is not right?” also have an indicative mood of something. In the sixth sentence, the speaker was indicating that the dress is overly expensive and in the seventh sentence that whatever was happening or being done is not right (Huang 6). The above sentences are statements of belief or fact, thus they are in the indicative mood. Even though, in the first statement, the speaker was more of implying that the dress was expensive and he/she knew it, but in the second statement, the speaker was not sure if what was happening was right or wrong. In some cases, they mood here can be considered interrogative. Such sentences are, at times, said to show an interrogative mood—thus considering interrogative as one of the grammatical moods, particularly a form of epistemic mood (Huang 6). This uses particularly to languages, which utilizes diverse inflected verb forms to make inquiries. The eighth sentence went as “well, we do together,” which indicates a realis mood. A realis mood is a group of grammatical moods, which indicate that something is, in reality, the case or not the case. The most known realis mood is basically the indicative mood and some languages have a different generic mood for articulating general truths (Hu and James 21). The 吧 particle, in this case, is used to indicate that they members of that team perform well together. The ninth sentence went as, “so be it, do not change the….,” which indicates a jussive mood. The jussive mood, in most cases, is used to express pleading, imploring, insistence, self-encouragement, desiring, wishing, intention, purpose, commanding, or consequence (Hu and James 21). In our sentence, the 吧 particle was mostly indicating a consequence and also imploring the finalization of that chat, “so be it”. When a listener is told “so be it,” it will come to their attention that they cannot saying anything past that point. The tenth sentence, which went as “please help out,” as well was indicating as jussive mood. Here, the speaker was pleading with the listener to help him/her out. It was his or her wish that the listener could fulfill the speaker’s wish, desire, command and intention, like it is stated in the previous paragraph; the jussive mood, in most cases, is used to express pleading, imploring, insistence, self-encouragement, desiring, wishing, intention, purpose, commanding, or consequence (Zhang et al. 35). In this case, the speaker is pleading with the listener to help him/her out. The 11th, 12th and 13th, sentences go as come on!, go ahead! and roll it!, respectively. The one thing that all these sentences have in common is that they express direct and straightforward demands to the listener. Also, they signify stern requests. In these three cases, using the imperative mood sounded blunt or even rude (Zhang et al. 37). The 吧 particle represents a direct command, which the listener has to adhere too. Also, imperatives of this form imply a second-person subject, meaning you. In the first sentence, the speaker seems amazed by what the listener is doing and thus commanding him/her to clarify it and in the second sentence, the speaker wants the listener to go on with whatever he or she is doing in a suggestion that there might be consequences in the near future when he or she decides to go on with it (Zhang et al. 37). Finally, in the last sentence, the speaker is signaling to the listener that he can carry on with what he or she was going, the speaker is ready to receive it. Works Cited Hu, Ran, and James F. Baumann. "English Reading Instruction in China: Chinese Teachers Perspectives and Comments." Reading Matrix: An International Online Journal 14.1 (2014), 19-21. Print. Huang, Chu-Ren. "Notes on Chinese grammar and ontology: the endurant/perdurant dichotomy and Mandarin DM compounds." Lingua Sinica 1.1 (2015): 1-22. Print. Zhang, Yan, et al. "The Identification of Grammar Points in International Chinese Language Teaching Materials Based on Sentence-Based Annotation." 2014 International Conference of Educational Innovation through Technology 2014, 1-44. Print. Read More