THE PRAGMATIC FUNCTIONS OF PARTICALS IN CHINESE

This article analyzes modal particles, particularly modal words and sentence-final particles in Chinese, such as ma (嘛), ne (呢), ba (吧), and a/ya (啊/呀), as well as their pragmatic functions. The study considers modal particles not merely as grammatical units that change the meaning of a sentence, but as linguistic means expressing the speaker’s attitude, emotional state, purpose of inquiry, caution, politeness, and communicative strategy.