‘júbù de’’, (partially) ‘bùfèn de’ (in part), ‘xiēwēi’ (a little), ‘lüèwēi’ (slightly), ‘shāowēi’ (slightly), ‘yǒuxiē’ (a sort of, somewhat), ‘zài mǒuzhǒng chéngdu shang’ (to some extent), ‘zài mǒuxiē fāngmiàn’ (in some respects), etc. This type of downtoner scales downwards on the imaginary scale of intensity, it roughly means ‘to a small extent’, implying that the force of the item concerned is limited.
1a. 对那件事我略微知道些。
Duì nàjiàn shì wǒ lüèwēi zhīdào yixiē.
(I know about that matter slightly.)
1b. 我有些敬佩他的勇气。
Wǒ yǒuxiē jìngpèi tāde yǒngqì.
(I admire his courage to some extent.)
1c. 这仅仅是个人生活上的问题。
Zhe jǐnjǐn shì gèrén shēnghuó shàng de wèntí.
(It is only a matter of personal life.)
1d. 在某些方面我同意你的看法。
Zài móuxiē fāngmiàn wǒ tóngyì nǐde kànfǎ.
(In some respects I agree with your opinions.)
[1] Loar, J. K. (2011). Chinese syntactic grammar: functional and conceptual principles. New York: Peter Lang.
