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Noun particle

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

A noun particle is any morpheme that denotes or marks the presence of a noun.[1] They are a common feature of languages such as Japanese and Korean.

Korean particles

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Korean noun particles are postpositional, following the word they mark, as opposed to prepositions which precede the marked word.

Korean noun particles include the subject particle i/ga (이/가), the object-marking particle eul/reul (을/를), and the topic-marking particle eun/neun (은/는), all of which show allomorphy.[2]

Japanese particles

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Like Korean, Japanese noun particles follow the noun being marked, and can serve any of several functions in a given sentence.

1:

昨日

Kinō

スーパー

sūpā

e

行きました。

ikimashita.

昨日 スーパー へ 行きました。

Kinō sūpā e ikimashita.

Yesterday, I went to the supermarket.

In this example, "e" is the noun particle for "sūpā" ("supermarket"). This particular noun particle denotes direction towards a place, being "supermarket."

2:

昼ごはん

Hirugohan

wa

watashi

ga

ピザ

piza

o

食べた。

tabeta.

昼ごはん は 私 が ピザ を 食べた。

Hirugohan wa watashi ga piza o tabeta.

I ate pizza for lunch. lit. As for lunch, I ate pizza.

The three noun particles ("wa," "ga," and "o") all serve different functions:

  • "wa" - topic marker ("hirugohan" - lunch)
  • "ga" - subject marker ("watashi" - I)
  • "o" - object marker ("piza" - pizza)

References

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  1. ^ Frellesvig, Bjarke (2001). "A Common Korean and Japanese Copula". Journal of East Asian Linguistics. 10 (1): 1–35. doi:10.1023/A:1026512817255. ISSN 0925-8558. JSTOR 20100791. S2CID 118327652.
  2. ^ Hamilton-Levi, William (2013). "Noun Particle Phenomena in Korean". {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)