Standard and variation in the use of sentence-final particles: A case study based on speakers of Mandarin and Min varieties

Sentence-final particles are widely used in spoken Chinese and have been analyzed from different theoretical perspectives. This study aims at investigating the influence of a speaker’s dialectal background on their selection of SFPs in Mandarin Chinese. Two types of sentence completion questionnaires were submitted to 86 undergraduate and graduate students enrolled at Fuzhou University, roughly half of whom use – to varying degrees – one of the Chinese varieties spoken in Fujian Province. Data collected from the 72 valid questionnaires were analyzed with results showing that dialectal background is a significant factor in the close-ended item type questionnaire.