Abstract
This paper explores the possibilities of dissecting the particles that we find in sentence final position in Cantonese into sub-syllabic semantic units. After characterizing the 40-odd most common particles, we study groups of particles, which share one feature (e.g., initial g-) to see what semantic feature they have in common, as well as groups of minimal pairs ( gaa3- gaa2 and ge3-ge2) to find out whether there are any correlative systemic semantic differences. We end up proposing 12 minimal semantic units, 4 initials ( l, z, l/n, m), 2 rhymes ( aa and o), 3 tones ( 1, 4, 5), 1 coda ( k) and 2 such elements incorporating a tone ( g3 and aa4). Aside from these, we assume that there is one default rhyme ( e) and one default tone ( 3). In the final part of the paper, all the minimal semantic units are given a place in the structure of the sentence, notably in the CP domain.
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