All words

[Whether can relate/combine with other words]

＋ | －
Non-interjections Interjection
[Whether can be a syntactic component]
－ | ＋
Function words 1 Content words 1
[Whether can connect words] [Whether have the onomatopoeia function]

＋ | － － | ＋
Conjunction Function words 2 Content words 2 Onomatopoeic word
[Whether can be an adverbial with the [Whether have the reference function]
structure ‘~ + content words’] － | ＋
－ | ＋ Content words 3 Pronoun
Function words 3 Preposition [Whether have the counting function]
[can only be in front of a pause]
＋ | －
－ | ＋ Numeral Content words 4
Auxiliary (see note 1) mood words [{不(negative)~, 很(very)~, 所(see note 2)~, ~object,
/modal particle ~complement(see note 3), prepositional phrase~}]
－ | ＋
Content words 5 Adjective + Verb
[Whether can be a complement] [很(very)~, ~object]
－ | ＋
Content words 6 State word (see note 4)
[Whether can be a head] Adjective Verb

－ | ＋
Content words 7 Noun + Classifier
[used as an attribute, adverbial] [used as a subject or object, modified by numerals]

Distinction word Adverb Noun Classifier

(see note 5)

Note 1: different from auxiliary verb or modal verb, auxiliary here is more related to the particles such as
的、地、得 (the three de) who are not sentence final particles (= mood particle in this grah)

Note 2: 所(suo) that in the structure ‘suo ~’ has several meanings:

 1. Combined with “为” or “被” (wei or bei, both can be used as passive markers), represent passive:
be misled by outward appearances;
被表面现象所迷惑
be welcomed by the masses;
为群众所欢迎
be laughed at
为人所笑
2. Combined with verbs, represent the things on behalf of the actions:
from each according to his ability;
各尽所能
unheard-of;
闻所未闻
stop at nothing (in doing evil)
无所不为
3. Combined with verbs, the verb then would be followed by its objects
the opinions various people put forward;
大家所提的意见
the people I know
我所认识的人
4. Combined with verbs, the verb then would be followed by ‘者’ or ‘的’ (zhe or de, both can have
reference functions when the valences of the related verbs are not totally fulfilled) to refers to
the objects of the verb:
have wide experience;
所见者广
We never thought of what he did.
他所考虑的，我们都没想到。
This is what we support.
这是我们所拥护的。

Despite of these different meanings, it appears in front of a verb constantly.

Note 3: Complement here is not the general complement we used to know. It has a much boarder range.
In a simple word, it refers to all the non-object elements that appear after verbs, for instance post
adverbial structures, secondary predicates, and so on.

Note 4: The definition of Sate word in Chinese is “State word is one kind of special Adjectives that
describe the state situation of things” (not copy pasted content, my own words. Same for note 5)

Note 5: The definition of Distinction word in Chinese is “Distinction word is one kind of special Adjectives
that describe the category features of things” (not copy pasted content, my own words. Same for note 5)
Lots of scholars are in favor of distinguishing it from adjectives because that although these words can
usually be used as an attribute, it can not to be used as a predicate alone. Furthermore, it can not be
modified by the negative marker ‘不’ either meanwhile most of the adjectives can.