THE PARTICLE

To include a word in the class of particles we must find out whether it has the characteristic features of particles which we have described in our general survey of parts of speech, and we should not apply any other criteria. We shall not inquire whether the word has one syllable, or two, or many; this phonetic quality of a word is irrelevant to its grammatical status: just as, for example, a preposition may have one syllable (of, to) or four (notwithstanding), a particle may have one syllable (just) or four (exclusively). Thus the diminutive suffix -icle should not be taken to refer to the length of the word.

In dealing with particles, we will limit ourselves to the grammatical side of the matter. We will not discuss either their meanings, which belong to the sphere of lexicology, nor the morphemes making them up, which should be considered in the theory of word-building.

When speaking of particles in our review of parts of speech we have noted already that they usually refer to the word (or, sometimes, phrase) immediately following and give special prominence to the notion expressed by this word (or phrase), or single it out in some other way, depending on the meaning of the particle.

This usage, which is by far the most common one, can be illustrated by a variety of examples. We will give a few: One just does what is reasonable, and everything is bound to go all right. (R. WEST) She could feel anger stir, even at this late date, as she thought of that night, but she subdued it and tossed her head until the earrings danced. (M. MITCHELL)

Sometimes a particle occupies a different position in the sentence. This question will be dealt with in the chapter on word order.

The question of the place of a particle in sentence structure remains unsolved. It would appear that the following three solutions are possible: (1) a particle is a separate secondary member of the sentence, which should be given a special name; (2) a particle is an element in the part of the sentence which is formed by the word (or phrase) to which the particle refers (thus the particle may be an element of the subject, predicate, object, etc.); (3) a particle neither makes up a special part of the sentence, nor is it an element in any part of the sentence; it stands outside the structure of the sentence and must be neglected when analysis of a sentence is given. ¹

¹ The latter view is the common one. It is put forward by the authors of the book Грамматика русского языка (т. I, стр. 639).

Function of Particles 161

Each of these three views entails some difficulties and none of them can be proved to be the correct one, so that the decision remains arbitrary.

The view that a particle is a part of the sentence by itself makes it necessary to state what part of the sentence it is. Since it obviously cannot be brought under the headings either of object, or attribute, or adverbial modifier, we should have to introduce a special part of the sentence which ought then to be given a special name.

The second view would be plausible if the particle always stood immediately before (or immediately after) the word or phrase to which it belongs. But the fact that it can occasionally stand at a distance from it (for example, within the predicate, while referring to an adverbial modifier) makes this view impossible of realisation; compare, for instance, I have only met him twice.

The last view, according to which a particle stands, as it were, outside the sentence, seems rather odd. Since it is within the sentence, and is essential to its meaning, so that omission of the particle could involve a material change in the meaning, it is hard to understand how it can be discounted in analysing the structure of the sentence.

Since, then, the second view proves to be impossible and the third unconvincing, we shall have to adhere to the first view and to state that a particle is a separate secondary part of the sentence which ought to be given a special name.

THE PARTICLE Sot

The particle not deserves special attention. It can, as is well known, be used in two different ways. On the one hand, it may stand outside the predicate, as in the following sentence: Not till Magnus had actually landed in Orkney did he consider the many difficulties that confronted him. (LINKLATER) It also stands outside the predicate in a type of so-called short answers, in which the negative is expressed by the particle not, if it is accompanied by a modal word like certainly, perhaps, or a phrase equivalent to a modal word, e. g. of course: Certainly not. Perhaps not. Of course not. ¹ Compare also: / am afraid not, I think not, etc. In these cases the particle not appears to be the main part of the sentence.

Another use of the particle not is that within the predicate. In these cases it is customary to treat it as part of the verb itself. The usual way of putting it is this. The negative form of the present indicative, e. g., of the verb be, is: (/) am not, (he) is not, etc., or, the negative form of the present indicative, e. g., of the verb

¹ The use of these modal words and phrases with the sentence-word no is impossible.

6 Б. А Ильиш

162 The Particle

sing is, (I) do not sing, (he) docs not sing, etc. The particle not is thus treated as an auxiliary element making part of the verb form. This of course appears to be especially necessary with verbs whose negative form includes the auxiliary verb do, i. e. with the vast majority of Modern English verbs. Here the particle has obviously no syntactic function of its own, and is an auxiliary element within the morphology of the verb. ¹

The particle not undergoes further fusion with forms of the verb in the following cases, where indeed it is no longer a word at all but a morpheme within a verb form. The first step in this direction is clearly seen in the form cannot, where it preserves its vowel sound, and the next step in the contracted forms isn't, aren't (also the subliterary ain't), wasn't, weren't, haven't, hasn't, hadn't, shan't, won't, shouldn't, wouldn't, don't, doesn't, didn't, mayn't, mightn't, mustn't, oughtn't, can't, and occasionally also usen't for used not. Here the two elements have quite coalesced into a unit, and some of these forms (e. g. shan't, won't, and don't) cannot now even be divided into morphemes.

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