What is a particle?

A particle is a word that

• does not belong to one of the main classes of words
• is invariable in form, and
• typically has grammatical or pragmatic meaning.

The usage of the term particle varies. Some authorities include English prepositions and even English articles as particles.

• to (in marking infinitives)
• up (in set up)
• not
• well
• oh

• What is a verbal particle?

• What is a word?

Crystal 1985 222

Mish 1991 858

Crystal 1987 427

Pei and Gaynor 1954 161

Richards, Platt, and Weber 1985 208

Hartmann and Stork 1972 165

Schourup 1983 1

Context for this page:

• Concept module: particle
• In overview module: Glossary (Linguistics): P
• In modular book: Glossary of linguistic terms, by Eugene E. Loos (general editor), Susan Anderson (editor), Dwight H., Day, Jr. (editor), Paul C. Jordan (editor), and J. Douglas Wingate (editor)
• In bookshelf: Linguistics

This page is an extract from the LinguaLinks Library, Version 5.0 published on CD-ROM by SIL International, 2003. [Ordering information.]

Page content last modified: 5 January 2004

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