Sentence-final particles in Mandarin

This thesis, based on corpus data, investigates eight sentence-final particles in Mandarin Chinese (de, le, ne1, ne2, ba, ma, a and ou) within the framework of Functional Discourse Grammar. The focus is on the individual particles le, ba, ne1 on the one hand, and on the sequential ordering of the aforementioned eight particles on the other. It is argued in particular that sentence-final le is a mirative marker, sentence-final ba is a mitigator, and sentence-final ne1 is a polarity contradiction marker. The investigation of corpus data shows that maximally three particles can cluster at the end of a sentence. It is proposed that the eight sentence-final particles are organized in a strict four-layered hierarchy, in which each particle pertains to a specific semantic or pragmatic layer. Their positioning in this hierarchy is iconically reflected in their sequential ordering when they cluster. In connection with these findings, this thesis suggests a number of modifications of the framework of Functional Discourse Grammar.