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:
“Fishermen, hunters, woodchoppers, and others, spending their lives in the fields and woods, in a peculiar sense a part of Nature themselves, are often in a more favorable mood for observing her, in the intervals of their pursuits, than philosophers or poets even, who approach her with expectation. She is not afraid to exhibit herself to them.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“Evolution was in a strange mood when that creation came along.... It makes one wonder just where the plant world leaves off and the animal world begins.”
—John Colton (1886–1946)
“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)