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[edit]
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[edit]
Like Korean, Japanese noun particles follow the noun being marked, and can serve any of several functions in a given sentence.
- Example #1: 昨日スーパーへ行きました。 (Yesterday, I went to the supermarket.)
- Kinō sūpā e ikimashita.
In this example, "e" is the noun particle for "sūpā" ("supermarket"). This particular noun particle denotes direction towards a place, being "supermarket."
- Example #2: 昼ごはんは私がピザを食べた。 (I ate pizza for lunch. lit. As for lunch, I ate pizza.)
- Hirugohan wa watashi ga piza o tabeta.
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[edit]
- ^ 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.
- ^ Hamilton-Levi, William (2013). "Noun Particle Phenomena in Korean".
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