Noun particle

A noun particle is any morpheme that denotes or marks the presence of a noun.^[1] They are a common feature of languages such as Japanese and Korean.

Korean particles[edit]

Korean noun particles are postpositional, following the word they mark, as opposed to prepositions which precede the marked word.

Korean noun particles include the subject particle i/ga (이/가), the object-marking particle eul/reul (을/를), and the topic-marking particle eun/neun (은/는), all of which show allomorphy.^[2]

Japanese particles[edit]

Like Korean, Japanese noun particles follow the noun being marked, and can serve any of several functions in a given sentence.

• Example #1: 昨日スーパーへ行きました。 (Yesterday, I went to the supermarket.)
  • Kinō sūpā e ikimashita.

In this example, "e" is the noun particle for "sūpā" ("supermarket"). This particular noun particle denotes direction towards a place, being "supermarket."

• Example #2: 昼ごはんは私がピザを食べた。 (I ate pizza for lunch. lit. As for lunch, I ate pizza.)
  • Hirugohan wa watashi ga piza o tabeta.

The three noun particles ("wa," "ga," and "o") all serve different functions:

• "wa" - topic marker ("hirugohan" - lunch)
• "ga" - subject marker ("watashi" - I)
• "o" - object marker ("piza" - pizza)

References[edit]

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