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Article published In: Asian Languages and Linguistics
Vol. 5:2 (2024) ► pp.251–280

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Temporal information in sentence-final particles

Tse and keh in Modern Shanghai Wu

ORCiD logo with link | SOAS University of London
Published online: 6 February 2025
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/alal.24007.jia
Abstract
This paper scrutinizes the claim that modern Shanghainese has sentence-final particles tse and keh that have tense-marking functions. We review works by Qian (. (2006). Wuyu zhong shi ti jiehe de fuhe shiti 吳語中時體結合的復合時體 [Compound tense and aspect in Wu dialects]. In Dah-an Ho, H. Samuel Cheung, Wuyun Pan & Fuxiang Wu (eds.), Shanggao Shuichang: Ting Pang-hsin Qizhi shouqing Lunwenji 山高水長：丁邦新先生七秩壽慶論文集 [Linguistic Studies in Chinese and Neighboring Languages: Festschrift in Honor of Professor Pang-hsin Ting on His 70th Birthday] (Language and Linguistics Monograph Series No. W-6), pp. 945–965. [URL] (28 August, 2021).; . (2009). Shanghai fangyan de shitai jiqi liubian 上海方言的時態及其流變 [Tense and aspect in Shanghai dialect and their evolution]. Dongfang Yuyanxue 東方語言學 [Eastern Linguistics] 51. Also published as Qian (2016: 57–67).Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar), Chao, Yuen Ren 趙元任. (1926). Beijing, Suzhou, Changzhou yuzhuci de yanjiu 北京、蘇州、常州語助詞的研究 [A study of auxiliary words in the dialects of Beijing, Suzhou and Changzhou]. Tsinghua Xuebao 清華學報 [Journal of Tsinghua University] 3(2). 865–917. Also published as Chao (1992).Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar and Li, Charles N., Sandra A. Thompson & R. McMillan Thompson. (1982). The discourse motivation for the perfect aspect: The Mandarin particle LE. In Paul J. Hopper (ed.), Tense-aspect: Between semantics & pragmatics, vol. 11, 19–44. John Benjamins Publishing Company. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar and analyze Shanghainese missionary texts on the use of these SFPs. Through a functional-discoursal investigation, we identify the IN-cluster use and the END-cluster use of tse. We take the temporal marking function of tse as a consequence of its discourse function, which introduces a (con)-current reference time in the discourse. On the other hand, we take keh as an assertion particle, whose occasional sense of recent past comes from its confirmation of a completed event.
Article outline
  • 1.Modern Shanghai Wu
  • 2.Encoding time in modern Shanghai Wu: Some recent claims
  • 3.Two related studies
  • 4.Conceptual scrutiny
  • 5.Tse in missionary texts
    • 5.1Some general observations about tse
    • 5.2Two uses of the SFP tse
    • 5.3Sentence cluster and the discourse function of tse
  • 6.Keh in missionary texts
    • 6.1The multiple functions of SFPs
    • 6.2The senses of keh
  • 7.Concluding remarks
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
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