THE MAIN FEATURES OF THE PARTİCLES IN THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE

Abstract

Summary. In grammar, a particle is a range of words that fall outside the traditional eight parts of speech – noun, verb, pronoun, adjective, preposition, adverb, interjection, conjunction, yet there is no doubt about its value in language. So, what is a particle in English? The best way to look at it is as a function word, or word that must be associated with another to give meaning. An example would be the ‘to’ in the verb ‘to run’. Although to can be used as a preposition, with verbs like to run, to love, or to talk, it acts as something called an infinitive marker, and it doesn’t really have any meaning on its own. The broad term for words like this is particle. In English, for example, the phrase "oh well" has no purpose in speech other than to convey a mood. The word 'up' would be a particle in the phrase to 'look up' (as in the phrase "look up this topic"), implying that one researches something, rather than literally gazing skywards. Many languages use particles, in varying amounts and for varying reasons. In Hindi, they may be used as honorifics, or to indicate emphasis or negation. Key words: habit, word, meaning, expression, sentence, infinitive, function