Suǒ 所 is a particle that optionally occurs in relative clauses (1a) and passive sentences (1b) in Modern Chinese.
| 1. | a. | 李四(所)愛的人 |
|
|
| Lǐ Sì (suǒ) ài de rén |
|
|
| Lǐ Sì suo love de person |
|
|
| ‘the person that Lǐ Sì loves’ |
|
| b. | 我被世界(所)遺棄。 |
|
|
| Wǒ bèi shìjiè (suǒ) yíqì. |
|
|
| 1sg bei world suo abandon |
|
|
| ‘I was abandoned by the world.’ |
This particle is generally agreed to be a remnant from Classical Chinese or Gǔ Hànyǔ 古漢語, which roughly refers to the Chinese used before the contemporary period (Yáng and Hé 1992). In Classical Chinese, a similar distribution of suǒ as in Modern Chinese is …