Japanese grammar
Template:Short description Template:More citations needed Template:Use American English
Japanese is an agglutinative, synthetic, mora-timed language with simple phonotactics, a pure vowel system, phonemic vowel and consonant length, and a lexically significant pitch-accent. Word order is normally subject–object–verb with particles marking the grammatical function of words, and sentence structure is topic–comment. Its phrases are exclusively head-final and compound sentences are exclusively left-branching.Template:Efn Sentence-final particles are used to add emotional or emphatic impact, or make questions. Nouns have no grammatical number or gender, and there are no articles. Verbs are conjugated, primarily for tense and voice, but not person. Japanese adjectives are also conjugated. Japanese has a complex system of honorifics with verb forms and vocabulary to indicate the relative status of the speaker, the listener, and persons mentioned.
In language typology, it has many features different from most European languages.
Distinctive aspects of modern Japanese sentence structureEdit
Word order: head-final and left-branchingEdit
The modern theory of constituent order ("word order"), usually attributed to Joseph Harold Greenberg, identifies several kinds of phrases. Each one has a head and possibly a modifier. The head of a phrase either precedes its modifier (head-initial) or follows it (head-final). Some of these phrase types, with the head marked in boldface, are:
- genitive phrase, i.e., noun modified by another noun ("the cover of the book", "the book's cover");
- noun governed by an adposition ("on the table", "underneath the table");
- comparison ("[X is] bigger than Y", i.e., "compared to Y, X is big").
- noun modified by an adjective ("black cat").
Some languages are inconsistent in constituent order, having a mixture of head-initial phrase types and head-final phrase types. Looking at the preceding list, English for example is mostly head-initial, but nouns follow the adjectives which modify them. Moreover, genitive phrases can be either head-initial or head-final in English. By contrast, the Japanese language is consistently head-final:
- genitive phrase:
- noun governed by an adposition:
- comparison:
- noun modified by an adjective:
Head-finality in Japanese sentence structure carries over to the building of sentences using other sentences. In sentences that have other sentences as constituents, the subordinated sentences (relative clauses, for example), always precede what they refer to, since they are modifiers and what they modify has the syntactic status of phrasal head. Translating the phrase "the man who was walking down the street" into Japanese word order would be "street down walking was man".Template:Efn
Head-finality prevails also when sentences are coordinated instead of subordinated. In the world's languages, it is common to avoid repetition between coordinated clauses by optionally deleting a constituent common to the two parts, as in "Bob bought his mother some flowers and his father a tie", where the second bought is omitted. In Japanese, such "gapping" must proceed in the reverse order: "Bob mother for some flowers and father for tie bought". The reason for this is that in Japanese, sentences (other than occasional inverted sentences or sentences containing afterthoughts) always end in a verb (or other predicative words like adjectival verbs, adjectival nouns, auxiliary verbs)—the only exceptions being a few sentence-ending particles such as Template:Transliteration, Template:Transliteration, and Template:Transliteration. The particle Template:Transliteration turns a statement into a question, while the others express the speaker's attitude towards the statement.
Word class systemEdit
Japanese has five major lexical word classes:
- Template:Nihongo
- verbal nouns (correspond to English gerunds like 'studying', 'jumping', which denote activities)
- Template:Nihongo (names vary, also called Template:Transliteration-adjectives or "nominal adjectives")
- verbs
- Template:Nihongo (so-called Template:Transliteration-adjectives)
More broadly, there are two classes: uninflectable (nouns, including verbal nouns and adjectival nouns) and inflectable (verbs, with adjectives as defective verbs). To be precise, a verbal noun is simply a noun to which the light verb Template:Nihongo3 can be appended, while an adjectival noun is like a noun but uses Template:Nihongo3 instead of Template:Nihongo3 when acting attributively. Adjectives (Template:Transliteration-adjectives) inflect identically to the negative form of verbs, which end in Template:Nihongo3. Compare Template:Nihongo3 → Template:Nihongo3 and Template:Nihongo3 → Template:Nihongo3.
Some scholars, such as Eleanor Harz Jorden, refer to adjectives instead as adjectivals, since they are grammatically distinct from adjectives: they can predicate a sentence. That is, Template:Nihongo3 is glossed as "hot" when modifying a noun phrase, as in Template:Nihongo3, but as "is hot" when predicating, as in Template:Nihongo3.
Open and closed classesEdit
The two inflected classes, verb and adjective, are historically considered closed classes, meaning they do not readily gain new members—but see the following paragraphs.<ref name="Uehara1998">Template:Cite book</ref>Template:Rp<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>Template:Rp Instead, new and borrowed verbs and adjectives are typically conjugated periphrastically as verbal noun + Template:Transliteration (e.g. Template:Nihongo3) and adjectival noun + Template:Transliteration. This differs from Indo-European languages, where verbs and adjectives are open classes, though analogous "do" constructions exist, including English "do a favor", "do the twist" or French "faire un footing" (do a "footing", go for a jog), and periphrastic constructions are common for other senses, like "try climbing" (verbal noun) or "try parkour" (noun). Other languages where verbs are a closed class include Basque: very few Basque verbs (albeits very common ones) have synthetic conjugation, all the others are only formed periphrastically. Conversely, pronouns are closed classes in Western languages but open classes in Japanese and some other East Asian languages.
In a few cases historically, and much more commonly recently, new verbs are created by appending the suffix Template:Nihongo3 to a noun or using it to replace the end of a word. This is most often, but not exclusively, done with borrowed words, and results in a word written in a mixture of katakana (stem) and hiragana (inflectional ending), which is otherwise very rare.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> This is typically casual, with the most well-established example being Template:Nihongo3 (circa 1920), from Template:Nihongo3, with other common examples including Template:Nihongo3, from Template:Nihongo, and Template:Nihongo3 from Template:Nihongo3. In cases where the borrowed word already ends with or even contains a Template:Nihongo3 or Template:Nihongo3, this may be rebracketed as a verb ending and changed to a Template:Nihongo3, as in Template:Nihongo3, from Template:Nihongo3; Template:Nihongo3, from Template:Nihongo3; and Template:Nihongo3, from Template:Nihongo3.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> New verbs coined in this fashion are uniformly group 1 verbs and, at least in the Tokyo accent, consistently are stressed immediately before the final る.
New adjectives are extremely rare; one example is Template:Nihongo3, from adjectival noun Template:Nihongo3, and a more casual recent example is Template:Nihongo3, by contraction of Template:Nihongo3.<ref>Languages with different open and closed word classes</ref> By contrast, in Old Japanese Template:Nihongo3 adjectives (precursors of present Template:Transliteration-adjectives ending in Template:Nihongo3, formerly a different word class) were open, as reflected in words like Template:Nihongo3, from the adjective Template:Nihongo3, and Template:Nihongo3, from the noun Template:Nihongo3 (with sound change). Japanese adjectives are unusual in being closed class but quite numerous – about 700 adjectives – while most languages with closed class adjectives have very few.<ref>The Typology of Adjectival Predication, Harrie Wetzer, p. 311</ref><ref name="guide96">The Art of Grammar: A Practical Guide, Alexandra Y. Aikhenvald, p. 96</ref> Some believe this is due to a grammatical change of inflection from an aspect system to a tense system, with adjectives predating the change.
The conjugation of Template:Transliteration-adjectives has similarities to the conjugation of verbs, unlike Western languages where inflection of adjectives, where it exists, is more likely to have similarities to the declension of nouns. Verbs and adjectives being closely related is unusual from the perspective of English, but is a common case across languages generally, and one may consider Japanese adjectives as a kind of stative verb.
Japanese vocabulary has a large layer of Chinese loanwords, nearly all of which go back more than one thousand years, yet virtually none of them are verbs or "Template:Transliteration-adjectives" – they are all nouns, of which some are verbal nouns (Template:Transliteration) and some are adjectival nouns (Template:Transliteration). In addition to the basic verbal noun + Template:Transliteration form, verbal nouns with a single-character root often experienced sound changes, such as Template:Nihongo3 → Template:Nihongo3 (rendaku) → Template:Nihongo3, as in Template:Nihongo3, and some cases where the stem underwent sound change, as in Template:Nihongo3, from Template:Nihongo3.
Verbal nouns are uncontroversially nouns, having only minor syntactic differences to distinguish them from pure nouns like 'mountain'. There are some minor distinctions within verbal nouns, most notably that some primarily conjugate as Template:Nihongo3 (with a particle), more like nouns, while others primarily conjugate as Template:Nihongo3, and others are common either way. For example, Template:Nihongo3 is much more common than Template:Nihongo3, while Template:Nihongo3 is much more common than Template:Nihongo3.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Adjectival nouns have more syntactic differences versus pure nouns, and traditionally were considered more separate, but they, too, are ultimately a subcategory of nouns.
There are a few minor word classes that are related to adjectival nouns, namely the [[taru adjective|Template:Transliteration adjectives]] and [[naru adjective|Template:Transliteration adjectives]]. Of these, Template:Transliteration adjectives are fossils of earlier forms of Template:Transliteration adjectives (the Template:Transliteration adjectives of Old Japanese), and are typically classed separately, while Template:Transliteration adjectives are a parallel class (formerly Template:Transliteration adjectives in Late Old Japanese), but are typically classed with Template:Transliteration adjectives.
Different classificationsEdit
The first structured description of the Japanese Template:Nihongo was in Template:Nihongo, an 1831 grammar by Tsurumine Shigenobu.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> It was based on earlier Dutch grammars such as Shizuki Tadao's Template:Nihongo and Template:Nihongo. The words hinshi and shihin also came about from these early late-Edo and early-Meiji grammars. Since then, there have been multiple conflicting classifications of the parts of speech of Japanese.
The term Template:Nihongo assumed different meanings, such as a verb form (Template:Nihongo<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> or Template:Nihongo<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>) that precedes a noun, or as a proposed alternative to Template:Nihongo, because Japanese "adjectives" are verb-like in nature, unlike European adjectives.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref> As shown in the table, Matsushita Daizaburō (1924) used keiyōshi explicitly for the Eurocentric idea of adjectives as words that precede nouns, while reserving keiyō dōshi for Japanese "adjectives" as verb-like words (although later in 1928, he swapped out keiyōshi for Template:Nihongo to avoid confusion, on the model of Template:Nihongo as words that precede verbs). Ochiai Naobumi (1895) defined keiyō dōshi not as a grammatical category, but as a semantic one with meanings similar to those of stative verbs (Template:Nihongo, Template:Nihongo).<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> It was not until Haga Yaichi's usage in 1905 that keiyō dōshi came to be refer to adjectival words whose Template:Nihongo ended with Template:Nihongo or Template:Nihongo<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref> (in modern Japanese, they end with Template:Nihongo).
The Template:Nihongo of today has followed Iwabuchi Etsutarō's model outlined in his 1943 grammar, Template:Nihongo, compiled for the Template:Nihongo.<ref>Template:Cite thesis</ref> It recognizes 10 parts of speech as shown in the table.
Among historical classifications, the grammarian Matsushita Daizaburō notably compared his own terminology to the terminologies translated from and modeled after European ones at the time.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref name=matsushita1930>Template:Cite book</ref> In particular, he rejected the equation of what were dubbed Template:Nihongo in Japanese to the concept of "adjectives" in European grammars, although he revised his systems over the years, which ended up conforming to the popular usage of the term keiyōshi. According to Matsushita (1930):<ref name=matsushita1930/>
| Matsushita Daizaburō's own terminology | European-based terminology for Japanese grammarTemplate:Efn | European-based terminology for European grammarsTemplate:Efn | English terminology | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Template:Nihongo | Template:NihongoTemplate:Efn | Template:Nihongo | Template:Nihongo | noun | |
| Template:Nihongo | Template:Nihongo | Template:Nihongo | pronoun | ||
| Template:NihongoTemplate:Efn | |||||
| Template:NihongoTemplate:Efn | Template:Efn | ||||
| Template:NihongoTemplate:Efn | Template:Efn | Template:Nihongo | adjective | ||
| Template:Nihongo | Template:NihongoTemplate:Efn | Template:Nihongo | Template:Efn | ||
| Template:NihongoTemplate:Efn | Template:Nihongo | verb | |||
| Template:Nihongo | Template:Nihongo | Template:Nihongo | adverb | ||
| Template:Nihongo | Template:Nihongo | conjunction | |||
| Template:Nihongo | Template:Nihongo | preposition | |||
| Template:Nihongo | Template:NihongoTemplate:Efn | interjection | |||
Japanese as a topic-prominent languageEdit
In discourse pragmatics, the term topic refers to what a section of discourse is about. At the beginning of a section of discourse, the topic is usually unknown, in which case it is usually necessary to explicitly mention it. As the discourse carries on, the topic need not be the grammatical subject of each new sentence.
Starting with Middle Japanese, the grammar evolved so as to explicitly distinguish topics from nontopics. This is done by two distinct particles (short words which do not change form). Consider the following pair of sentences:
In the first sentence Template:Nihongo is not a discourse topic—not yet; in the second sentence it is a discourse topic. In linguistics (specifically, in discourse pragmatics) a sentence such as the second one (with Template:Transliteration) is termed a presentational sentence because its function in the discourse is to present dog as a topic, to "broach it for discussion". Once a referent has been established as the topic of the current monolog or dialog, then in (formal) modern Japanese its marking will change from Template:Transliteration to Template:Transliteration.
To better explain the difference, the first sentence can be translated to "There's a dog eating a sandwich", while the second sentence can be translated to "You know the dog? It's eating a sandwich"; these renderings reflect a discourse fragment in which "the dog" is being established as the topic of an extended discussion. The first sentence answers the question "What is going on?," whereas the second sentence answers the question "What is the dog doing?"
Liberal omission of the subject of a sentenceEdit
The grammatical subject is commonly omitted in Japanese, as in
Subjects are mentioned when a topic is introduced, or in situations where an ambiguity might result from their omission. The preceding example sentence would most likely be uttered in the middle of a discourse, where who it is that "went to Japan" will be clear from what has already been said (or written).
Sentences, phrases and wordsEdit
Template:Nihongo is composed of Template:Nihongo, which are in turn composed of Template:Nihongo, which are its smallest coherent components. Like Chinese and classical Korean, written Japanese does not typically demarcate words with spaces; its agglutinative nature further makes the concept of a word rather different from words in English. The reader identifies word divisions by semantic cues and a knowledge of phrase structure. Phrases have a single meaning-bearing word, followed by a string of suffixes, auxiliary verbs and particles to modify its meaning and designate its grammatical role.
Some scholars romanize Japanese sentences by inserting spaces only at phrase boundaries (i.e., "Template:Transliteration"), treating an entire phrase as a single word. This represents an almost purely phonological conception of where one word ends and the next begins. There is some validity in taking this approach: phonologically, the postpositional particles merge with the structural word that precedes them, and within a phonological phrase, the pitch can have at most one fall. Usually, however, grammarians adopt a more conventional concept of Template:Nihongo, one which invokes meaning and sentence structure.
Phrasal movementEdit
In Japanese, phrasal constituents can be moved to the beginning or the end of the sentence. Leftward movement of a phrasal constituent is referred to as "scrambling".
Word classificationEdit
In linguistics generally, words and affixes are often classified into two major word categories: lexical words, those that refer to the world outside of a discourse, and function words—also including fragments of words—which help to build the sentence in accordance with the grammar rules of the language. Lexical words include nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, and sometimes prepositions and postpositions, while grammatical words or word parts include everything else. The native tradition in Japanese grammar scholarship seems to concur in this view of classification. This native Japanese tradition uses the terminology Template:Nihongo3, for words having lexical meaning, and Template:Nihongo3, for words having a grammatical function.
Classical Japanese had some auxiliary verbs (i.e., they were independent words) which have become grammaticized in modern Japanese as inflectional suffixes, such as the past tense suffix Template:Transliteration (which might have developed as a contraction of Template:Transliteration).
Traditional scholarship proposes a system of word classes differing somewhat from the above-mentioned.Template:Citation needed The "independent" words have the following categories.
- Template:Nihongo3, word classes which have inflections
- Template:Nihongo3, verbs
- Template:Nihongo3, Template:Transliteration-type adjectives
- Template:Nihongo3, Template:Transliteration-type adjectives
- Template:Nihongo3 or Template:Nihongo3, word classes which do not have inflectionsTemplate:Citation needed
- Template:Nihongo3, nouns
- Template:Nihongo3, pronouns
- Template:Nihongo3, adverbs
- Template:Nihongo3, conjunctions
- Template:Nihongo3, interjections
- Template:Nihongo3, prenominals
Ancillary words also divide into a nonconjugable class, containing Template:Nihongo and Template:Nihongo, and a conjugable class consisting of Template:Nihongo. There is not wide agreement among linguists as to the English translations of the above terms.
Controversy over the characterization of adjectival nounsEdit
Uehara (1998)<ref name="Uehara1998" />Template:Rp observes that Japanese grammarians have disagreed as to the criteria that make some words inflectional and others not, in particular, the adjectival nouns – Template:Nihongo or Template:Transliteration-adjectives. (It is not disputed that nouns like Template:Transliteration 'book' are non-inflectional and that verbs and Template:Transliteration-adjectives are inflectional.) The claim that adjectival nouns are inflectional rests on the claim that the element Template:Transliteration, regarded as a copula by proponents of non-inflectional adjectival nouns, is really a suffix—an inflection. That is, Template:Nihongo3 is a one-word sentence, not a two-word sentence, Template:Transliteration. However, numerous constructions show that Template:Transliteration is less bound to the roots of nouns and adjectival nouns than Template:Transliteration and Template:Transliteration are to the roots of Template:Transliteration-adjectives and verbs, respectively.
- (1) Reduplication for emphasis
- Template:Nihongo3
- Template:Nihongo3
- Template:Nihongo3 (the adjectival inflection Template:Transliteration cannot be left off)
- Template:Nihongo3 (the verbal inflection Template:Transliteration cannot be left off)
- (2) Questions. In Japanese, questions are formed by adding the particle Template:Transliteration (or in colloquial speech, just by changing the intonation of the sentence).<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation
|CitationClass=web }}</ref>
- Template:Nihongo3
- Template:Nihongo3
- Template:Nihongo3 (Template:Transliteration cannot be left off)
- Template:Nihongo3 (Template:Transliteration cannot be left off)
- (3) Several epistemic modality predicates, e.g., Template:Nihongo3
- Template:Nihongo3
- Template:Nihongo3
- Template:Nihongo3 (Template:Transliteration cannot be left off)
- Template:Nihongo3 (Template:Transliteration cannot be left off)
On the basis of such constructions, Uehara finds that the copula Template:Transliteration is not suffixal and that adjectival nouns pattern with nouns in being non-inflectional.
Similarly, Eleanor Jorden considers this class of words a kind of nominal, not adjective, and refers to them as Template:Transliteration-nominals in her textbook Japanese: The Spoken Language.
NounsEdit
Template:See also Japanese has no grammatical gender, number, or articles; though the demonstrative Template:Nihongo3, is often translatable as "the". Thus, linguists agree that Japanese nouns are noninflecting: Template:Nihongo can be translated as "cat", "cats", "a cat", "the cat", "some cats" and so forth, depending on context. However, as part of the extensive pair of grammatical systems that Japanese possesses for honorification (making discourse deferential to the addressee or even to a third party) and politeness, nouns too can be modified. Nouns take politeness prefixes (which have not been regarded as inflections): Template:Transliteration for native nouns, and Template:Transliteration for Sino-Japanese nouns. A few examples are given in the following table. In a few cases, there is suppletion, as with the first of the examples given below, '飯(meal/rice)'. (Note that while these prefixes are almost always written in hiragana as Template:Nihongo or Template:Nihongo, the {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} kanji represents both Template:Transliteration and Template:Transliteration in formal writing.)
| meaning | plain | respectful |
|---|---|---|
| meal | Template:Nihongo | Template:Nihongo |
| money | Template:Nihongo | Template:Nihongo |
| body | Template:Nihongo | Template:NihongoTemplate:PbTemplate:Nihongo |
| word(s) | Template:Nihongo | Template:NihongoTemplate:PbTemplate:Nihongo |
Lacking number, Japanese does not differentiate between count and mass nouns. A small number of nouns have collectives formed by reduplication (possibly accompanied by voicing and related processes (rendaku)); for example: Template:Nihongo3 and Template:Nihongo3. Reduplication is not productive. Words in Japanese referring to more than one of something are collectives, not plurals. Template:Transliteration, for example, means "a lot of people" or "people in general"; it is never used to mean "two people". A phrase like Template:Transliteration would be taken to mean "the people of Edo", or "the population of Edo", not "two people from Edo" or even "a few people from Edo". Similarly, Template:Transliteration means "many mountains".
A limited number of nouns have collective forms that refer to groups of people. Examples include Template:Nihongo3; Template:Nihongo3; Template:Nihongo3. One uncommon personal noun, Template:Nihongo3, has a much more common reduplicative collective form: Template:Nihongo3.
The suffixes Template:Nihongo3 and Template:Nihongo3 are by far the most common collectivizing suffixes. These are, again, not pluralizing suffixes: Template:Transliteration does not mean "some number of people named Taro", but instead indicates the group including Taro. Depending on context, Template:Transliteration might be translated into "Taro and his friends", "Taro and his siblings", "Taro and his family", or any other logical grouping that has Taro as the representative. Some words with collectives have become fixed phrases and (commonly) refer to one person. Specifically, Template:Nihongo3 and Template:Nihongo3 can be singular, even though Template:Transliteration and Template:Transliteration were originally collectivizing in these words; to unambiguously refer to groups of them, an additional collectivizing suffix is added: Template:Nihongo3 and Template:Nihongo3, though Template:Transliteration is somewhat uncommon. Template:Transliteration is sometimes applied to inanimate objects, Template:Nihongo3 and Template:Nihongo3, for example, but this usage is colloquial and indicates a high level of anthropomorphisation and childlikeness, and is not more generally accepted as standard.
Grammatical caseEdit
Grammatical cases in Japanese are marked by particles placed after the nouns.<ref name="taro takahashi">Template:Cite book</ref> A distinctive feature of Japanese is the presence of two cases which are roughly equivalent to the nominative case in other languages: one representing the sentence topic, other representing the subject. The most important case markers are the following:
- Nominative – Template:Nihongo for subject, Template:Nihongo for the topic
- Genitive – Template:Nihongo
- Dative – Template:Nihongo
- Accusative – Template:Nihongo
- Lative – Template:Nihongo, used for destination direction (like in "to some place")
- Ablative – Template:Nihongo, used for source direction (like in "from some place")
- Instrumental/Locative – Template:Nihongo
PronounsEdit
{{#invoke:Labelled list hatnote|labelledList|Main article|Main articles|Main page|Main pages}}
Although many grammars and textbooks mention Template:Nihongo, Japanese lacks true pronouns. (Template:Transliteration can be considered a subset of nouns.) Strictly speaking, pronouns cannnot take adjectives or other certain parts of speech as modifiers, but Japanese Template:Transliteration can. For example, Template:Nihongo3 is grammatical in Japanese.Template:Efn Also, unlike true pronouns, Japanese Template:Transliteration are not closed-class; new Template:Transliteration are introduced and old ones go out of use relatively quickly.
A large number of Template:Transliteration referring to people are translated as pronouns in their most common uses. Examples: Template:Nihongo3; Template:Nihongo3; Template:Nihongo3; see also the adjoining table or a longer list.<ref>"What are the personal pronouns of Japanese?" in sci.lang.japan Frequently Asked Questions</ref> Some of these "personal nouns" such as Template:Nihongo3, or Template:Nihongo3, also have second-person uses: Template:Nihongo in second-person is an extremely rude "you", and Template:Transliteration in second-person is a diminutive "you" used for young boys. Template:Transliteration and Template:Transliteration also mean "boyfriend" and "girlfriend" respectively, and this usage of the words is possibly more common than the use as pronouns.
Like other subjects, personal Template:Transliteration are seldom used and are de-emphasized in Japanese. This is partly because Japanese sentences do not always require explicit subjects, and partly because names or titles are often used where pronouns would appear in a translation:
The possible referents of Template:Transliteration are sometimes constrained depending on the order of occurrence. The following pair of examples from Bart Mathias<ref>Bart Mathias. Discussion of pronoun reference constraints on sci.lang.japan.</ref> illustrates one such constraint.
Reflexive pronounsEdit
English has a reflexive form of each personal pronoun (himself, herself, itself, themselves, etc.); Japanese, in contrast, has one main reflexive Template:Transliteration, namely Template:Nihongo3, which can also mean 'I'. The uses of the reflexive (pro)nouns in the two languages are very different, as demonstrated by the following literal translations (*=impossible, ??=ambiguous):
| example | reason |
|---|---|
| Template:Fs interlinear | the target of Template:Transliteration must be animate |
| Template:Fs interlinear | there is no ambiguity in this translation, as explained below |
| Template:Fs interlinear
Either "Makoto expects that Shizuko will take good care of him", or "Makoto expects that Shizuko will take good care of herself." |
Template:Transliteration can be in a different sentence or dependent clause, but its target is ambiguous |
If the sentence has more than one grammatical or semantic subject, then the target of Template:Transliteration is the subject of the primary or most prominent action; thus in the following sentence Template:Transliteration refers unambiguously to Shizuko (even though Makoto is the grammatical subject) because the primary action is Shizuko's reading.Template:Citation needed
In practice the main action is not always discernible, in which case such sentences are ambiguous. The use of Template:Transliteration in complex sentences follows non-trivial rules.
There are also equivalents to Template:Transliteration such as Template:Transliteration. Other uses of the reflexive pronoun in English are covered by adverbs like Template:Transliteration which is used in the sense of "by oneself". For example,
Change in a verb's valency is not accomplished by use of reflexive pronouns (in this Japanese is like English but unlike many other European languages). Instead, separate (but usually related) intransitive verbs and transitive verbs are used. In modern Japanese, there is no longer any productive morphology to derive new transitive verbs from intransitive ones, or vice versa.Template:Citation needed
DemonstrativesEdit
- irregular formation
- colloquially contracted to -cchi
- Template:Transliteration is represented by Template:Transliteration
Demonstratives occur in the Template:Transliteration, Template:Transliteration, and Template:Transliteration series. The Template:Transliteration (proximal) series refers to things closer to the speaker than the hearer, the Template:Transliteration (medial) series for things closer to the hearer, and the Template:Transliteration (distal) series for things distant to both the speaker and the hearer. With Template:Transliteration, demonstratives turn into the corresponding interrogative form. Demonstratives can also be used to refer to people, for example
Demonstratives limit, and therefore precede, nouns; thus Template:Nihongo for "this/my book", and Template:Nihongo for "that/your book".
When demonstratives are used to refer to things not visible to the speaker or the hearer, or to (abstract) concepts, they fulfill a related but different anaphoric role. The anaphoric distals are used for shared information between the speaker and the listener.
Template:Transliteration instead of Template:Transliteration would imply that B does not share this knowledge about Sapporo, which is inconsistent with the meaning of the sentence. The anaphoric medials are used to refer to experience or knowledge that is not shared between the speaker and listener.
Again, Template:Transliteration is inappropriate here because Sato does not (did not) know Tanaka personally. The proximal demonstratives do not have clear anaphoric uses. They can be used in situations where the distal series sound too disconnected:
Conjugable wordsEdit
Stem formsEdit
Conjugative suffixes and auxiliary verbs are attached to the stem forms of the affixee. In modern Japanese, there are six stem forms, ordered following from the Template:Transliteration endings that these forms have in Template:Nihongo verbs (according to the {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} collation order of Japanese), where terminal and attributive forms are the same for verbs (hence only 5 surface forms), but differ for nominals, notably Template:Transliteration-nominals.
- Template:Nihongo Template:Transliteration (and Template:Transliteration)
- is used for plain negative (of verbs), causative and passive constructions. The most common use of this form is with the Template:Transliteration auxiliary that turns verbs into their negative (predicate) form. (See Verbs below.) The Template:Transliteration version is used for volitional expression and formed by a Template:Nihongo.
- Template:Nihongo Template:Transliteration
- is used in a linking role (a kind of serial verb construction). This is the most productive stem form, taking on a variety of endings and auxiliaries, and can even occur independently in a sense similar to the Template:Transliteration ending. This form is also used to negate adjectives.
- Template:Nihongo Template:Transliteration
- is used at the ends of clauses in predicate positions. This form is also variously known as Template:Nihongo or Template:Nihongo – it is the form that verbs are listed under in a dictionary.
- Template:Nihongo Template:Transliteration
- is prefixed to nominals and is used to define or classify the noun, similar to a relative clause in English. In modern Japanese it is practically identical to the terminal form, except that verbs are generally not inflected for politeness; in old Japanese these forms differed. Further, Template:Transliteration-nominals behave differently in terminal and attributive positions; see Adjectival verbs and nouns, below.
- Template:Nihongo Template:Transliteration
- is used for conditional and subjunctive forms, using the Template:Transliteration ending.
- Template:Nihongo Template:Transliteration
- is used to turn verbs into commands. Adjectives do not have an imperative stem form.
The application of conjugative suffixes to stem forms follow certain Template:Nihongo.
VerbsEdit
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Template:Nihongo in Japanese are rigidly constrained to the end of a clause. This means that the predicate position is always located at the end of a sentence.
The subject and objects of the verb are indicated by means of particles, and the grammatical functions of the verb (primarily tense and voice) are indicated by means of conjugation. When the subject and the dissertative topic coincide, the subject is often omitted; if the verb is intransitive, the entire sentence may consist of a single verb. Verbs have two tenses indicated by conjugation, past and non-past. The semantic difference between present and future is not indicated by means of conjugation. Usually there is no ambiguity as context makes it clear whether the speaker is referring to the present or future. Voice and aspect are also indicated by means of conjugation, and possibly agglutinating auxiliary verbs. For example, the continuative aspect is formed by means of the continuative conjugation known as the gerundive or [[te form of Japanese verb|Template:Transliteration form]], and the auxiliary verb Template:Nihongo3; to illustrate, Template:Nihongo3 → Template:Nihongo3.
Verbs can be semantically classified based on certain conjugations.
- Stative verbs
- indicate existential properties, such as Template:Nihongo, Template:Nihongo, Template:Nihongo, etc. These verbs generally do not have a continuative conjugation with Template:Transliteration because they are semantically continuative already.
- Continual verbs
- conjugate with the auxiliary Template:Transliteration to indicate the progressive aspect. Examples: Template:Nihongo, Template:Nihongo, Template:Nihongo. To illustrate the conjugation, Template:Nihongo3 → Template:Nihongo3.
- Punctual verbs
- conjugate with Template:Transliteration to indicate a repeated action, or a continuing state after some action. Example: Template:Nihongo3 → Template:Nihongo3; Template:Nihongo3 → Template:Nihongo3.
- Non-volitional verb
- indicate uncontrollable action or emotion. These verbs generally have no volitional, imperative or potential conjugation. Examples: Template:Nihongo3, Template:Nihongo3.
- Movement verbs
- indicate motion. Examples: Template:Nihongo3, Template:Nihongo3. In the continuative form (see § Verbal adverbs) they take the particle Template:Transliteration to indicate a purpose.
There are other possible classes, and a large amount of overlap between the classes.
Lexically, nearly every verb in Japanese is a member of exactly one of the following three regular conjugation groups (see also Japanese godan and ichidan verbs).
- Template:Nihongo
- verbs with a stem ending in Template:Transliteration. The terminal stem form always rhymes with Template:Transliteration. Examples: Template:Nihongo3, Template:Nihongo3.
- Template:Nihongo
- verbs with a stem ending in Template:Transliteration. The terminal stem form always rhymes with Template:Transliteration. Examples: Template:Nihongo3, Template:Nihongo3. (Some Group 1 verbs resemble Group 2b verbs, but their stems end in Template:Transliteration, not Template:Transliteration.)
- Template:Nihongo
- verbs with a stem ending in a consonant. When this is Template:Transliteration and the verb ends in Template:Transliteration, it is not apparent from the terminal form whether the verb is Group 1 or Group 2b, e.g. Template:Nihongo3. If the stem ends in Template:Transliteration, that consonant sound only appears in before the final Template:Transliteration of the irrealis form.
The "row" in the above classification means a row in the gojūon table. "Upper 1-row" means the row that is one row above the center row (the Template:Transliteration-row) i.e. i-row. "Lower 1-row" means the row that is one row below the center row (the Template:Transliteration-row) i.e. Template:Transliteration-row. "5-row" means the conjugation runs through all 5 rows of the gojūon table. A conjugation is fully described by identifying both the row and the column in the gojūon table. For example, Template:Nihongo3 belongs to Template:Nihongo3, Template:Nihongo3 belongs to Template:Nihongo3, and Template:Nihongo3 belongs to Template:Nihongo3.
One should avoid confusing verbs in Template:Nihongo3 with verbs in Template:Nihongo3 or Template:Nihongo. For example, Template:Nihongo3 belongs to Template:Nihongo, whereas its homophone Template:Nihongo3 belongs to Template:Nihongo. Likewise, Template:Nihongo3 belongs to Template:Nihongo, whereas its homophone Template:Nihongo3 belongs to Template:Nihongo.
Historically, Classical Japanese had Template:Nihongo, Template:Nihongo and a Template:Nihongo. The Template:Transliteration verbs became most of the Template:Transliteration verbs in modern Japanese (only a handful of Template:Transliteration verbs and a single Template:Transliteration verb existed in classical Japanese). The Template:Transliteration group was reclassified as the Template:Transliteration group during the post-WWII writing reform in 1946, to write Japanese as it is pronounced. Since verbs have migrated across groups in the history of the language, the conjugation of classical verbs cannot be ascertained from knowledge of modern Japanese alone.
Of the irregular classes, there are two:
- Template:Transliteration-group
- which has only one member, Template:Nihongo3. In Japanese grammars these words are classified as Template:Nihongo3, an abbreviation of Template:Nihongo3, sa-row irregular conjugation).
- Template:Transliteration-group
- which also has one member, Template:Nihongo3. The Japanese name for this class is Template:Nihongo3 or simply Template:Nihongo3.
Classical Japanese had two further irregular classes, the Template:Transliteration-group, which contained Template:Nihongo3 and Template:Nihongo3, the Template:Transliteration-group, which included such verbs as Template:Nihongo3, the equivalent of modern Template:Transliteration, as well as quite a number of extremely irregular verbs that cannot be classified.
The following table illustrates the stem forms of the above conjugation groups, with the root indicated with dots. For example, to find the hypothetical form of the group 1 verb Template:Nihongo3, look in the second row to find its root, Template:Transliteration, then in the hypothetical row to get the ending Template:Transliteration, giving the stem form Template:Transliteration. When there are multiple possibilities, they are listed in the order of increasing rarity.
- The Template:Transliteration and Template:Transliteration irrealis forms for Group 1 verbs were historically one, but since the post-WWII spelling reforms they have been written differently. In modern Japanese the Template:Transliteration form is used only for the volitional mood and the Template:Transliteration form is used in all other cases; see also the conjugation table below.
- The unexpected ending is due to the verb's root being Template:Transliteration but Template:Transliteration only being pronounced before Template:Transliteration in modern Japanese.
The above are only the stem forms of the verbs; to these one must add various verb endings in order to get the fully conjugated verb. The following table lists the most common conjugations. Note that in some cases the form is different depending on the conjugation group of the verb. See Japanese verb conjugations for a full list.
- This is an entirely different verb; Template:Nihongo has no potential form.
- These forms change depending on the final syllable of the verb's dictionary form (whether Template:Transliteration etc.). For details, see Euphonic changes, below, and the article Japanese verb conjugation.
The polite ending Template:Transliteration conjugates as a group 1 verb, except that the negative imperfective and perfective forms are Template:Transliteration and Template:Transliteration respectively, and certain conjugations are in practice rarely if ever used. The passive and potential endings Template:Transliteration and Template:Transliteration, and the causative endings Template:Transliteration and Template:Transliteration all conjugate as group 2b verbs. Multiple verbal endings can therefore agglutinate. For example, a common formation is the causative-passive ending: Template:Transliteration.
As should be expected, the vast majority of theoretically possible combinations of conjugative endings are not semantically meaningful.
Transitive and intransitive verbsEdit
Japanese has a large variety of related pairs of transitive verbs (that take a direct object) and intransitive verbs (that do not usually take a direct object), such as the transitive Template:Nihongo3, and the intransitive Template:Nihongo3.<ref>"What's the difference between hajimeru and hajimaru?" in sci.lang.japan Frequently Asked Questions</ref><ref>Kim Allen (2000) "Japanese verbs, part 2" Template:Webarchive in Japanese for the Western Brain</ref>
| transitive verb | intransitive verb |
|---|---|
|
|
| Template:Fs interlinear | Template:Fs interlinear |
| Template:Fs interlinear | Template:Fs interlinear |
| Template:Nihongo3 | Template:Nihongo3 |
| Template:Nihongo3 | Template:Nihongo3 |
| Template:Nihongo3 | Template:Nihongo3 |
| Template:Nihongo3 | Template:Nihongo3 |
| Template:Nihongo3 | Template:Nihongo3 |
| Template:Nihongo3 | Template:Nihongo3 |
| Template:Nihongo3 | Template:Nihongo3 |
| Template:Nihongo3 | Template:Nihongo3 |
| Template:Nihongo3 | Template:Nihongo3 |
Note: Some intransitive verbs (usually verbs of motion) take what looks like a direct object, but is not.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> For example, Template:Nihongo3:
Adjectival verbs and nounsEdit
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Semantically speaking, words that denote attributes or properties are primarily distributed between two morphological classes (there are also a few other classes):
- Template:Nihongo– these have roots and conjugating stem forms, and are semantically and morphologically similar to stative verbs.
- Template:Nihongo– these are nouns that combine with the copula.
Unlike adjectives in languages like English, Template:Transliteration-adjectives in Japanese inflect for aspect and mood, like verbs. Japanese adjectives do not have comparative or superlative inflections; comparatives and superlatives have to be marked periphrastically using adverbs like Template:Nihongo3 and Template:Nihongo3.
Every adjective in Japanese can be used in an attributive position, and nearly every Japanese adjective can be used in a predicative position. There are a few Japanese adjectives that cannot predicate, known as Template:Nihongo3, which are derived from other word classes; examples include Template:Nihongo3, Template:Nihongo3, and Template:Nihongo3 which are all stylistic Template:Transliteration-type variants of normal Template:Transliteration-type adjectives.
All Template:Transliteration-adjectives except for Template:Nihongo3 have regular conjugations, and Template:Transliteration is irregular only in the fact that it is a changed form of the regular adjective Template:Nihongo3 permissible in the terminal and attributive forms. For all other forms it reverts to Template:Transliteration.
- The attributive and terminal forms were formerly Template:Nihongo and Template:Nihongo, respectively; in modern Japanese these are used productively for stylistic reasons only, although many set phrases such as Template:Nihongo3 and Template:Nihongo3, derive from them.
- The imperative form is extremely rare in modern Japanese, restricted to set patterns like Template:Nihongo3, where they are treated as adverbial phrases. It is impossible for an imperative form to be in a predicate position.
Common conjugations of adjectives are enumerated below. Template:Transliteration is not treated separately, because all conjugation forms are identical to those of Template:Transliteration.
- Note that these are just forms of the Template:Transliteration-type adjective Template:Nihongo
- Since most adjectives describe non-volitional conditions, the volitional form is interpreted as "it is possible", if sensible. In some rare cases it is semi-volitional: Template:Nihongo3 in response to a report or request.
Adjectives too are governed by euphonic rules in certain cases, as noted in the section on it below. For the polite negatives of Template:Transliteration-type adjectives, see also the section below on the copula Template:Nihongo.
Copula ({{#invoke:Lang|lang}} Template:Transliteration)Edit
The copula Template:Transliteration behaves very much like a verb or an adjective in terms of conjugation.
Note that there are no potential, causative, or passive forms of the copula, just as with adjectives.
The following are some examples.
<templatestyles src="Template:Blockquote/styles.css" />
{{#invoke:Lang|lang}}
Template:Transliteration "John is a student."{{#if:|{{#if:|}}
— {{#if:|, in }}Template:Comma separated entries}}
{{#invoke:Check for unknown parameters|check|unknown=Template:Main other|preview=Page using Template:Blockquote with unknown parameter "_VALUE_"|ignoreblank=y| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | author | by | char | character | cite | class | content | multiline | personquoted | publication | quote | quotesource | quotetext | sign | source | style | text | title | ts }} <templatestyles src="Template:Blockquote/styles.css" />
{{#invoke:Lang|lang}}
Template:Transliteration "If tomorrow is clear too, let's have a picnic."{{#if:|{{#if:|}}
— {{#if:|, in }}Template:Comma separated entries}}
{{#invoke:Check for unknown parameters|check|unknown=Template:Main other|preview=Page using Template:Blockquote with unknown parameter "_VALUE_"|ignoreblank=y| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | author | by | char | character | cite | class | content | multiline | personquoted | publication | quote | quotesource | quotetext | sign | source | style | text | title | ts }}
In continuative conjugations, Template:Nihongo is often contracted in speech to Template:Nihongo; for some kinds of informal speech Template:Transliteration is preferable to Template:Transliteration, or is the only possibility.
| nonpast | informal | Template:Nihongo | |
|---|---|---|---|
| polite | Template:Nihongo | ||
| respectful | Template:Nihongo | ||
| past | informal | cont. + Template:NihongoTemplate:PbTemplate:Nihongo | |
| polite | Template:Nihongo | ||
| respectful | Template:Nihongo | ||
| negative nonpast | informal | cont. + Template:Nihongo | Template:Nihongo |
| polite | cont. + Template:Nihongo | Template:Nihongo | |
| respectful | cont. + Template:Nihongo | Template:Nihongo | |
| negative past | informal | cont. + Template:Nihongo | Template:Nihongo |
| polite | cont. + Template:Nihongo | Template:Nihongo | |
| respectful | cont. + Template:Nihongo | Template:Nihongo | |
| conditional | informal | hyp. + Template:Nihongo | |
| polite | cont. + Template:Nihongo | ||
| respectful | |||
| provisional | informal | Template:Nihongo | |
| polite | same as conditional | ||
| respectful | |||
| volitional | informal | Template:Nihongo | |
| polite | Template:Nihongo | ||
| respectful | Template:Nihongo | ||
| adverbial and Template:Transliteration forms | informal | cont. | |
| polite | cont. + Template:Nihongo | ||
| respectful | cont. + Template:Nihongo |
Template:NihongoEdit
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Historical sound changeEdit
- Usually not reflected in spelling
Modern pronunciation is a result of a long history of phonemic drift that can be traced back to written records of the 13th century, and possibly earlier. However, it was only in 1946 that the Japanese ministry of education modified existing kana usage to conform to the Template:Nihongo. All earlier texts used the archaic orthography, now referred to as historical kana usage. The adjoining table is a nearly exhaustive list of these spelling changes.
Note that the palatalized morae {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} and {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} (Template:Transliteration and Template:Transliteration) combine with the initial consonant (if present) yielding a palatalized syllable. The most basic example of this is modern Template:Nihongo3, which historically developed as Template:Nihongo3 → Template:Nihongo3, via the Template:Nihongo3 → Template:Nihongo3 rule.
A few sound changes are not reflected in the spelling. Firstly, Template:Transliteration merged with Template:Transliteration, both being pronounced as a long Template:Transliteration. Secondly, the particles {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} and {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} are still written using historical kana usage, though these are pronounced as Template:Transliteration and Template:Transliteration respectively, rather than Template:Transliteration and Template:Transliteration.
Among Japanese speakers, it is not generally understood that the historical kana spellings were, at one point, reflective of pronunciation.Template:Citation needed For example, the modern Template:Transliteration reading Template:Nihongo3 (for Template:Nihongo) arose from the historical Template:Nihongo3. The latter was pronounced something like {{#invoke:IPA|main}} by the Japanese at the time it was borrowed (compare Middle Chinese {{#invoke:IPA|main}}). However, a modern reader of a classical text would still read this as Template:IPAc-ja, the modern pronunciation.
Verb conjugationsEdit
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Conjugations of some verbs and adjectives differ from the prescribed formation rules because of euphonic changes. Nearly all of these euphonic changes are themselves regular. For verbs the exceptions are all in the ending of the continuative form of group when the following auxiliary starts with a Template:Transliteration-sound (i.e. Template:Nihongo, Template:Nihongo, Template:Nihongo, etc.).
| Continuative ending | Changes to | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Template:Nihongo, Template:Nihongo or Template:Nihongo | lang}} (double consonant, sokuon, sokuonbin) | Template:Nihongo → Template:NihongoTemplate:PbTemplate:Nihongo → Template:NihongoTemplate:PbTemplate:Nihongo → Template:Nihongo |
| Template:Nihongo, Template:Nihongo or Template:Nihongo | Template:Nihongo (hatsuon, hatsuonbin), with the following Template:Nihongo sound voiced | Template:Nihongo → Template:NihongoTemplate:PbTemplate:Nihongo → Template:NihongoTemplate:PbTemplate:Nihongo → Template:Nihongo |
| Template:Nihongo | Template:Nihongo (i-onbin) | Template:Nihongo → Template:Nihongo |
| Template:Nihongo | Template:Nihongo, with the following Template:Nihongo sound voiced | Template:Nihongo → Template:Nihongo |
* denotes impossible/ungrammatical form.
There is one other irregular change: Template:Nihongo3, for which there is an exceptional continuative form: Template:Nihongo + Template:Nihongo → Template:Nihongo, Template:Nihongo + Template:Nihongo → Template:Nihongo, etc.
There are dialectical differences, which are also regular and generally occur in similar situations. For example, in Kansai dialect the Template:Transliteration + Template:Transliteration conjugations are instead changed to Template:Transliteration (u-onbin), as in Template:Nihongo3 instead of Template:Nihongo3, as perfective of Template:Nihongo3. In this example, this can combine with the preceding vowel via historical sound changes, as in Template:Nihongo3 (Template:Transliteration → Template:Transliteration) instead of standard Template:Nihongo3.
Polite forms of adjectivesEdit
The continuative form of proper adjectives, when followed by polite forms such as Template:Nihongo3 or Template:Nihongo3, undergoes a transformation; this may be followed by historical sound changes, yielding a one-step or two-step sound change. Note that these verbs are almost invariably conjugated to polite Template:Nihongo3 form, as Template:Nihongo3 and Template:Nihongo3 (note the irregular conjugation of Template:Transliteration, discussed below), and that these verbs are preceded by the continuative form – Template:Nihongo3 – of adjectives, rather than the terminal form – Template:Nihongo3 – which is used before the more everyday Template:Nihongo3.
The rule is Template:Nihongo3 → Template:Nihongo3 (dropping the Template:Transliteration), possibly also combining with the previous syllable according to the spelling reform chart, which may also undergo palatalization in the case of Template:Nihongo3.
Historically there were two classes of proper Old Japanese adjectives, Template:Nihongo3 and Template:Nihongo3 ("Template:Transliteration adjective" means "not preceded by Template:Transliteration"). This distinction collapsed during the evolution of Late Middle Japanese adjectives, and both are now considered Template:Nihongo3 adjectives. The sound change for Template:Transliteration adjectives follows the same rule as for other Template:Transliteration adjectives, notably that the preceding vowel also changes and the preceding mora undergoes palatalization, yielding Template:Nihongo3 → Template:Nihongo3, though historically this was considered a separate but parallel rule.
Respectful verbsEdit
Respectful verbs such as Template:Nihongo3, Template:Nihongo3, Template:Nihongo3, Template:Nihongo3, Template:Nihongo3, etc. behave like group 1 verbs, except in the continuative and imperative forms.
| Change | Example | |
|---|---|---|
| continuative | Template:Nihongo changed to Template:Nihongo | Template:Nihongo → Template:NihongoTemplate:PbTemplate:Nihongo → Template:Nihongo |
| imperative | Template:Nihongo changed to Template:Nihongo | Template:Nihongo → Template:NihongoTemplate:PbTemplate:Nihongo → Template:Nihongo |
Colloquial contractionsEdit
In speech, common combinations of conjugation and auxiliary verbs are contracted in a fairly regular manner.
There are occasional others, such as Template:Transliteration → Template:Transliteration as in Template:Nihongo3 → Template:Nihongo3 and Template:Nihongo3 → Template:Nihongo3 – these are considered quite casual and are more common among the younger generation.Template:Citation needed
Contractions differ by dialect, but behave similarly to the standard ones given above. For example, in the Kansai dialect, Template:Nihongo3 → Template:Nihongo3.
Other independent wordsEdit
AdverbsEdit
Adverbs in Japanese are not as tightly integrated into the morphology as in many other languages; adverbs are not an independent class of words, but the role of an adverb is played by other words. For example, every adjective in the continuative form can be used as an adverb; thus, Template:Nihongo3 → Template:Nihongo3. The primary distinguishing characteristic of adverbs is that they cannot occur in a predicate position, just as it is in English. The following classification of adverbs is not intended to be authoritative or exhaustive. Template:Anchor
- Verbal adverbs
- verbs in the continuative form with the particle Template:Transliteration. E.g. Template:Nihongo3 → Template:Nihongo3, used for instance as: Template:Nihongo3.
- Adjectival adverbs
- adjectives in the continuative form, as mentioned above. Example: Template:Nihongo3 → Template:Nihongo3
- Nominal adverbs
- grammatical nouns that function as adverbs. Example: Template:Nihongo3.
- Sound symbolism
- words that mimic sounds or concepts. Examples: Template:Nihongo3, Template:Nihongo3, Template:Nihongo3, etc.
Often, especially for sound symbolism, the particle Template:Nihongo3 is used. See the article on Japanese sound symbolism.
Conjunctions and interjectionsEdit
Although called "conjunctions", conjunctions in Japanese are – as their English translations show – actually a kind of adverb:
Examples of conjunctions: Template:Nihongo3, Template:Nihongo3, etc.
Interjections in Japanese differ little in use and translation from interjections in English:
Examples of interjections: Template:Nihongo3, Template:Nihongo3, Template:Nihongo3, Template:Nihongo3, etc.
Ancillary wordsEdit
ParticlesEdit
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Particles in Japanese are postpositional, as they immediately follow the modified component. Both the pronunciation and spelling differs for the particles Template:Nihongo3, Template:Nihongo3 and Template:Nihongo3, and are romanized according to pronunciation rather than spelling. Only a few prominent particles are listed here.
Topic, theme, and subject: {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} Template:Transliteration and {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} Template:TransliterationEdit
Template:See also The complex distinction between the so-called topic, Template:Nihongo, and subject, Template:Nihongo, particles can often be confusing for second language learners.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> The clause Template:Nihongo is well known for appearing to contain two subjects. It does not simply mean "the elephant's nose is long", as that can be translated as Template:Nihongo. Rather, a more literal translation would be "(speaking of) the elephant, its nose is long"; furthermore, as Japanese does not distinguish between singular and plural the way English does, it could also mean "as for elephants, their noses are long".
Two major scholarly surveys of Japanese linguistics in English, clarify the distinction.<ref>Template:Cite book Template:ISBN (hbk); Template:ISBN (pbk).</ref><ref name="Kuno1973">Template:Cite book</ref> To simplify matters, the referents of Template:Transliteration and Template:Transliteration in this section are called the topic and subject respectively, with the understanding that if either is absent, the grammatical topic and subject may coincide.
As an abstract and rough approximation, the difference between Template:Transliteration and Template:Transliteration is a matter of focus: Template:Transliteration gives focus to the action of the sentence, i.e., to the verb or adjective, whereas Template:Transliteration gives focus to the subject of the action. However, when first being introduced to the topic and subject markers Template:Transliteration and Template:Transliteration, most are told that the difference between the two is simpler. The topic marker, Template:Transliteration, is used to declare or to make a statement. The subject marker, Template:Transliteration, is used for new information, or asking for new information.
Thematic Template:TransliterationEdit
Template:See also The use of Template:Transliteration to introduce a new theme of discourse is directly linked to the notion of grammatical theme. Opinions differ on the structure of discourse theme, though it seems fairly uncontroversial to imagine a first-in-first-out hierarchy of themes that is threaded through the discourse. However, the usage of this understanding of themes can be limiting when speaking of their scope and depth, and the introduction of later themes may cause earlier themes to expire.Template:Explain In these sorts of sentences, the steadfast translation into English uses constructs like "speaking of X" or "on the topic of X", though such translations tend to be bulky as they fail to use the thematic mechanisms of English. For lack of a comprehensive strategy, many teachers of Japanese emphasize the "speaking of X" pattern without sufficient warning.
A common linguistic joke shows the insufficiency of rote translation with the sentence Template:Nihongo, which per the pattern would translate as "I am an eel." (or "(As of) me is eel"). Yet, in a restaurant this sentence can reasonably be used to say "My order is eel" (or "I would like to order an eel"), with no intended humour. This is because the sentence should be literally read, "As for me, it is an eel," with "it" referring to the speaker's order. The topic of the sentence is clearly not its subject.
Contrastive Template:TransliterationEdit
Related to the role of Template:Transliteration in introducing themes is its use in contrasting the current topic and its aspects from other possible topics and their aspects. The suggestive pattern is "X, but…" or "as for X, …".
Because of its contrastive nature, the topic cannot be undefined.
In this use, Template:Transliteration is required.
In practice, the distinction between thematic and contrastive Template:Transliteration is not that useful. There can be at most one thematic Template:Transliteration in a sentence, and it has to be the first Template:Transliteration if one exists, and the remaining Template:Transliterations are contrastive. The following sentence illustrates the difference;<ref name="Kuno1973" />Template:Rp
The first interpretation is the thematic Template:Transliteration, treating Template:Nihongo as the theme of the predicate Template:Nihongo. That is, if the speaker knows A, B, ..., Z, then none of the people who came were A, B, ..., Z. The second interpretation is the contrastive Template:Transliteration. If the likely attendees were A, B, ..., Z, and of them the speaker knows P, Q and R, then the sentence says that P, Q and R did not come. The sentence says nothing about A', B', ..., Z', all of whom the speaker knows, but none of whom were likely to come. In practice, the first interpretation is the likely one.
Exhaustive Template:TransliterationEdit
Unlike Template:Transliteration, the subject particle Template:Transliteration nominates its referent as the sole satisfier of the predicate. This distinction is famously illustrated by the following pair of sentences:
The distinction between each example sentence may be made easier to understand if thought of in terms of the question each statement could answer. The first example sentence could answer the question:
Whereas the second example sentence could answer the question:
Similarly, in a restaurant, if asked by the waitstaff who has ordered the eels, the customer who ordered it could say:
Objective Template:TransliterationEdit
For certain verbs, Template:Transliteration is typically used instead of Template:Transliteration to mark what would be the direct object in English:
There are various common expressions that use verbs in English, often transitive verbs, where the action happens to a specific object: "to be able to do something", "to want something", "to like something", "to dislike something". These same ideas are expressed in Japanese using adjectives and intransitive verbs that describe a subject, instead of actions that happen to an object: Template:Nihongo, Template:Nihongo, Template:Nihongo, Template:Nihongo. The equivalent of the English subject is instead the topic in Japanese and thus marked by Template:Transliteration, reflecting the topic-prominent nature of Japanese grammar.
Since these constructions in English describe an object, whereas the Japanese equivalents describe a subject marked with Template:Nihongo, some sources call this usage of Template:Nihongo the "objective ga". Strictly speaking, this label may be misleading, as there is no object in the Japanese constructions.
As an example, the Japanese verb Template:Nihongo is often glossed as transitive English verb "to understand". However, wakaru is an intransitive verb that describes a subject, so a more literal gloss would be "to be understandable".
Objects, locatives, instrumentals: {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} Template:Transliteration, {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} Template:Transliteration, {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} Template:Transliteration, {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} Template:TransliterationEdit
The direct object of transitive verbs is indicated by the object particle Template:Nihongo.
This particle can also mean "through" or "along" or "out of" when used with motion verbs:
The general instrumental particle is Template:Nihongo, which can be translated as "using" or "by":
This particle also has other uses: "at" (temporary location):
"In":
"With" or "in (the span of)":
The general locative particle is Template:Nihongo.
In this function it is interchangeable with Template:Nihongo. However, Template:Transliteration has additional uses: "at (prolonged)":
"On":
"In (some year)", "at (some point in time)":
Quantity and extents: {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} Template:Transliteration, {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} Template:Transliteration, {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} Template:Transliteration, {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} Template:Transliteration, {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} Template:Transliteration, {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} Template:TransliterationEdit
To conjoin nouns, と to is used.
The additive particle Template:Nihongo can be used to conjoin larger nominals and clauses. Template:Fs interlinear
For an incomplete list of conjuncts, Template:Nihongo is used. Template:Fs interlinear
When only one of the conjuncts is necessary, the disjunctive particle Template:Nihongo is used. Template:Fs interlinear
Quantities are listed between Template:Nihongo and Template:Nihongo. Template:Fs interlinear
This pair can also be used to indicate time or space.
- {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}
- Template:Transliteration
- You see, I have classes between 9 a.m. and 11 a.m.
Because Template:Transliteration indicates starting point or origin, it has a related use as "because", analogously to English "since" (in the sense of both "from" and "because"): Template:Fs interlinear
The particle Template:Transliteration and a related particle Template:Transliteration are used to indicate lowest extents: prices, business hours, etc. Template:Fs interlinear
Template:Transliteration is also used in the sense of "than". Template:Fs interlinear
Coordinating: {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} Template:Transliteration, {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} Template:Transliteration, {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} Template:TransliterationEdit
The particle Template:Nihongo is used to set off quotations.
It is also used to indicate a manner of similarity, "as if", "like" or "the way".
In a related conditional use, it functions like "after/when", or "upon".
Finally it is used with verbs like Template:Nihongo or Template:Nihongo.
This last use is also a function of the particle Template:Nihongo, but Template:Transliteration indicates reciprocation which Template:Transliteration does not.
- {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}
- Template:Transliteration
- John and Mary are in love.
- {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}
- Template:Transliteration
- John loves Mary (but Mary might not love John back).
Finally, the particle Template:Nihongo is used in a hortative or vocative sense.
Edit
The sentence-final particle Template:Nihongo turns a declarative sentence into a question.
Other sentence-final particles add emotional or emphatic impact to the sentence. The particle Template:Nihongo softens a declarative sentence, similar to English "you know?", "eh?", "I tell you!", "isn't it?", "aren't you?", etc.
A final Template:Nihongo is used in order to soften insistence, warning or command, which would sound very strong without any final particles.
There are many such emphatic particles; some examples: Template:Nihongo and Template:Nihongo usually used by males; Template:Nihongo a less formal form of Template:Transliteration; Template:Nihongo used like Template:Transliteration by females (and males in the Kansai region), etc. They are essentially limited to speech or transcribed dialogue.
Compound particlesEdit
Compound particles are formed with at least one particle together with other words, including other particles. The commonly seen forms are:
- particle + verb (term. or cont. or Template:Transliteration form)
- particle + noun + particle
- noun + particle
Other structures are rarer, though possible. A few examples:
Auxiliary verbsEdit
All auxiliary verbs attach to a verbal or adjectival stem form and conjugate as verbs. In modern Japanese there are two distinct classes of auxiliary verbs:
- Template:Nihongo
- are usually just called verb endings or conjugated forms. These auxiliaries do not function as independent verbs.
- Template:Nihongo
- are normal verbs that lose their independent meaning when used as auxiliaries.
In classical Japanese, which was more heavily agglutinating than modern Japanese, the category of auxiliary verb included every verbal ending after the stem form, and most of these endings were themselves inflected. In modern Japanese, however, some of them have stopped being productive. The prime example is the classical auxiliary Template:Nihongo, whose modern forms Template:Nihongo and Template:Nihongo are no longer viewed as inflections of the same suffix, and can take no further affixes.
| auxiliary | group | attaches to | meaning modification | example |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Template:Nihongo | irregular1 | continuative | makes the sentence polite | Template:Nihongo3 → Template:Nihongo |
| Template:Nihongo2 | 2b | irrealis of grp. 2 | makes V passive/honorific/potential | Template:Nihongo3 → Template:Nihongo3 Template:Nihongo3 → Template:Nihongo3 |
| Template:Nihongo | irrealis of grp. 1 | makes V passive/honorific | Template:Nihongo3 → Template:Nihongo3 (Passive form of drink, not a synonym for intoxicated.) | |
| Template:Nihongo3 | 2b | irrealis of grp. 2 | makes V causative | Template:Nihongo3 → Template:Nihongo3 |
| Template:Nihongo | irrealis of grp. 1 | Template:Nihongo3 → Template:Nihongo3 |
- Template:Nihongo has stem forms: irrealis {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} and {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}, continuative {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}, terminal {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}, attributive {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}, hypothetical {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}, imperative {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}.
- Template:Nihongo in potential usage is sometimes shortened to Template:Nihongo (group 2); thus Template:Nihongo3 instead of Template:Nihongo3. However, it is considered non-standard.
- Template:Nihongo is sometimes shortened to Template:Nihongo (group 1), but this usage is somewhat literary.
Much of the agglutinative flavour of Japanese stems from helper auxiliaries, however. The following table contains a small selection of many such auxiliary verbs.
- Note: Template:Nihongo3 is the only modern verb of shimo nidan type (and it is different from the shimo nidan type of classical Japanese), with conjugations: irrealis {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}, continuative {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}, terminal {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} or {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}, attributive {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}, hypothetical {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}, imperative {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} or {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}.
NotesEdit
ReferencesEdit
Further readingEdit
- Bloch, Bernard. (1946). Studies in colloquial Japanese I: Inflection. Journal of the American Oriental Society, 66, 97–109.
- Bloch, Bernard. (1946). Studies in colloquial Japanese II: Syntax. Language, 22, 200–248.
- Chafe, William L. (1976). Giveness, contrastiveness, definiteness, subjects, topics, and point of view. In C. Li (Ed.), Subject and topic (pp. 25–56). New York: Academic Press. Template:ISBN.
- Jorden, Eleanor Harz, Noda, Mari. (1987). Japanese: The Spoken Language
- Katsuki-Pestemer, Noriko. (2009): A Grammar of Classical Japanese. München: LINCOM. Template:ISBN.
- Kiyose, Gisaburo N. (1995). Japanese Grammar: A New Approach. Kyoto: Kyoto University Press. Template:ISBN.
- Kuno, Susumu. (1976). Subject, theme, and the speaker's empathy: A re-examination of relativization phenomena. In Charles N. Li (Ed.), Subject and topic (pp. 417–444). New York: Academic Press. Template:ISBN.
- Makino, Seiichi & Tsutsui, Michio. (1986). A dictionary of basic Japanese grammar. Japan Times. Template:ISBN
- Makino, Seiichi & Tsutsui, Michio. (1995). A dictionary of intermediate Japanese grammar. Japan Times. Template:ISBN
- Martin, Samuel E. (1975). A reference grammar of Japanese. New Haven: Yale University Press. Template:ISBN.
- McClain, Yoko Matsuoka. (1981). Handbook of modern Japanese grammar: 口語日本文法便覧 [Kōgo Nihon bunpō benran]. Tokyo: Hokuseido Press. Template:ISBN; Template:ISBN.
- Mizutani, Osamu; & Mizutani, Nobuko. (1987). How to be polite in Japanese: 日本語の敬語 [Nihongo no keigo]. Tokyo: Japan Times. Template:ISBN.
- Template:Cite book
- Shibamoto, Janet S. (1985). Japanese women's language. New York: Academic Press. Template:ISBN. Graduate Level
- Tsujimura, Natsuko. (1996). An introduction to Japanese linguistics. Cambridge, MA: Blackwell Publishers. Template:ISBN (hbk); Template:ISBN (pbk). Upper Level Textbooks
- Tsujimura, Natsuko. (Ed.) (1999). The handbook of Japanese linguistics. Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishers. Template:ISBN. Readings/Anthologies
External linksEdit
- FAQ from the Usenet newsgroup
sci.lang.japan - An introduction to Japanese - Syntax, Grammar & Language, online version by Michiel Kamermans
- Tae Kim's Guide to Learning Japanese – Japanese online grammar guide
- Shoko Hamano, Visualizing Japanese Grammar – animated Japanese grammar lessons from George Washington University