Mood
Another category of devices used in Chinese are the modal particles (语气助词 yǔqì zhùcí), used to express mood, or an expression of how a statement relates to reality and/or intent. Among them, the most important are:
- Le (inceptive)
我 没 钱 了 。
As of now, I have no money. (I've gone broke.)
- Hai (pending)
他 还 没 有 回 家 。
He still has not returned home. (There has been no change in the old situation)
The perfective le and the inceptive le are often considered to be two different words. The Chinese linguist Y.R. Chao (Zhào Yuánrèn) traces the two "le"s back to two entirely different words. The fact that they are now written the same way in Mandarin can cause confusion. Consider the following sentence:
The aspect marker le comes after a transitive or intransitive verb. The modal particle le comes at the end of a sentence and governs the entire sentence. When an intransitive verb comes at the end of a sentence, then the only way to determine whether the le at the end of the sentence is perfective or inceptive is to look at the context. The sentence given above can have two different meanings. In one case, someone is perhaps engaged in a long distance telephone call with Mother. He is trying to convince her to travel to where he is for some celebration. He hangs up the phone and says, "Māma (yào) lái le!" That sentence gives the information that Mother had not previously agreed to travel here, but the situation has changed and she will be coming after all. If, however, there is a knock on the front door and someone who has gone to answer the door shouts, "Māma lái le!" it means that she has come.
Read more about this topic: Chinese Grammar
Famous quotes containing the word mood:
“In contrast to the flux and muddle of life, art is clarity and enduring presence. In the stream of life, few things are perceived clearly because few things stay put. Every mood or emotion is mixed or diluted by contrary and extraneous elements. The clarity of art—the precise evocation of mood in the novel, or of summer twilight in a painting—is like waking to a bright landscape after a long fitful slumber, or the fragrance of chicken soup after a week of head cold.”
—Yi-Fu Tuan (b. 1930)
“DEAR FRIEND: ——
If I was sure of thee, sure of thy capacity, sure to match my mood with thine, I should never think again of trifles in relation to thy comings and goings. I am not very wise; my moods are quite attainable; and I respect thy genius; it is to me unfathomed; yet dare I not presume in thee a perfect intelligence of me, and so thou art to me a delicious torment. Thine ever, or never.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“I never have been, am not now, and probably never shall be, in a mood of harassing the people, either North or South.”
—Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865)