Fundamentals of Japanese Grammar: Comprehensive Acquisition 9780824890995

Table of contents :
Contents
Preface
How to Use This Book
Origin of
The Hiragana Chart
The Katakana Chart
CHAPTER 1 Japanese Symbols and Their Sounds
CHAPTER 2 Structural Features of the Japanese Language
CHAPTER 3 Conjugation of Verbs, Adjectives, and the Copula
CHAPTER 4 Particles
CHAPTER 5 Transitive vs. Intransitive
CHAPTER 6 Verbs of Existence
CHAPTER 7 Tense: in Subordinate Clauses
CHAPTER 8 Dictionary/Plain Form Compounds
CHAPTER 9 Stem Form Compounds
CHAPTER 10 Form Compounds
CHAPTER 11 Form Compounds
CHAPTER 12 Form Compounds and
CHAPTER 13 Demonstrative Pronouns:
CHAPTER 14 Conjugation Words and Linking Sentences
CHAPTER 15 Interrogative Pronouns and Interrogative Sentences
CHAPTER 16 Change of State: Constructions
CHAPTER 17 Modifying Constructions
CHAPTER 18 Nominalizers
CHAPTER 19 Modal Auxiliaries (Modals): Propositions and Modality Expressions
CHAPTER 20 Giving and Receiving
CHAPTER 21 Structures of Imperatives/Commands
CHAPTER 22 Structures of Permission: The T6 Form
CHAPTER 23 Structures of Prohibition: The Form
CHAPTER 24 Structures of Obligation
CHAPTER 25 Terms of Respect: Polite Affixes and Honorific and Humble Forms
CHAPTER 26 Conditional Sentences
CHAPTER 27 Comparative Sentences
CHAPTER 28 Superlative Sentences
CHAPTER 29 Structures of Suggestions
CHAPTER 30 Potential Sentences
CHAPTER 31 Passive Constructions
CHAPTER 32 Causative Constructions
CHAPTER 33 Causative-Passive Constructions
Bibliography
Index
About the Author

Citation preview

Fundamentals of Japanese Grammar

Fundamentals of Japanese Grammar COMPREHENSIVE ACQUISITION

Yuki Johnson

University of Hawai'i Press Honolulu

© 2008 University of Hawai'i Press All rights reserved Printed in the United States of America 13 12 11 10

6 5 4 3 2

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Johnson, Yuki. Fundamentals of Japanese grammar: comprehensive acquisition / Yuki Johnson, p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-8248-3109-7 (hardcover : alk. paper) ISBN 978-0-8248-3176-9 (pbk.: alk. paper) 1. Japanese language—Grammar. 2. Japanese language—Textbooks for foreign speakers—English. PL535.J54 2008 495.6'82421—dc22 2007060450

Camera-ready copy has been provided by the author University of Hawai'i Press books are printed on acid-free paper and meet the guidelines for permanence and durability of the Council on Library Resources.

With Many Thanks to Dr. Susumu Kuno Emeritus Professor of Linguistics Harvard University

Contents

Preface

XIII

Haw to Use This Book

XVII

Origin of k k

XIX

The Hiragcma Chart

XX

The Katakam Chart

XXI

CHAPTER 1

CHAPTER 2

CHAPTER 3

CHAPTER 4

Japanese Symbols and Their Sounds

1

Symbols

1

Sounds

3

Structural Features of the Japanese Language

9

Japanese as an SOV Language

10

Other Characteristics of Japanese

13

Conjugation of Verbs, I \ Adjectives, and the Copula Ä:

20

Conjugation of Verbs

21

Conjugation of

Adjectives

29

Conjugation of the Copula^:

30

Particles

33

li

34

ifi

42

£

51

IC

55

'S

62

t

63

V

67

t>

70 75

VII

VIII

CONTENTS

U

114

HUlC/HUlä

115

¿ C 3

117

fc«Ö((C)

118

IBIlc/Hti:

120

124

Z/Öt>lt CHAPTER 9

Stem Form Compounds

130

fcH

130 (fcU +

tfS)

132

IX

FUNDAMENTAUS OF JAPANESE GRAMMAR

•S>-flVlC2>

159 162 163

CHAPTER 1 1

TlK/TC-5

165

TISUO

168

ft Fonn Compounds

172

fz'&V fz U ~1tVtZI1t

172 174

U

'J FC

F Z Z T T F & Z

176

178 £ £ £ CHAPTER 1 2

180

tS O Fonn Compounds and $

«fc 5

181 181

t5i>l

C h a p t e r 17

C h a p t e r 18

ZtlZtiZ

220

Modifying Constructions

223

Noun-Modifying Constructions

223

Modifying Verbs: Adverbs

235

Nominalizers: Z. ¿1 • Form

296

Structures of Prohibition: The T l i Form

301

The Structure of Sentences of Prohibition

301

The X I J Form with Another Main Clause

303

The T l i Form in Casual Conversation

304

Structures of Obligation

306

307 FTIVBLTTLIL^FTL*

CHAPTER 2 5

CHAPTER 2 6

309

Terms of Respect Polite Affixes and Honorific and Humble Forms

312

T ¥ f £ : The Polite Affixes fc and S>.

Ktvtl

fl":

tptz

• • •.

ttA.1tl>

It

A . $>$>>

• •

Lastly, scattered throughout die book are pieces of a story concerning the (hopefully amusing) love triangle between f - t', $ If, and

you rearrange the

dialogues in the right order, the story should be clear. Find them and try!

If ti Origin of {fit£ tp A. C O- i » tt o ka j

ku-»^->
*->/i

chi-»jEfl-^

tsu-*JI|-0

na

ni-C-IC

nu

ne

no -+7b~*

fu

he -»SB-»^

ho-^-15

ma

mi

me

mo

mu —»St—»ti yu->fi-»l0

ya —»"te—*J|fD

wa

to-»±-»;&-»&)

yo re-iL-n

ro

(we -»!£-»;&)

wo

i> t 4> a

)T-»X

St^T i i -*?1

Jt-»t

1

B - O

m ;u->y

1 j

7J-»V

f'J-»'J

jJS^U I i

There are a total of 48 characters for kana (hiragana and katakana). Kana for the sounds "wi," "wu," and "we" do not exist due to the assimilation of the semivowels into the vowels "i," "u,"and "e," respectively. Also, although the term for the currency is spelled "yen," it is pronounced "en" (R). Characters for "wi" and "we" sounds are not used in modern Japanese. This means that a total of 46 characters are used in writing nowadays.

XIX

(9

« S*

i¿

- R

o

- R

c/)

-

3

0)

o

ta»

>rv

'K!

46

*)

V

£

|J

V

_3

N

H

Û

tí

a

X

03

CH

s

•«fe

e 'S «

I

>H

•H

f

V

H '

U

«

£

* to

sto

XS

«

*

fi _3

S-

H

13

13

13

fi

H

&

&

\ u

(S> 5 « ex nj

1 T3 C

\

fi

H

U

u

fi

H

¡W ó

ó

3

m

e Ol •g

«

1p

H

Ô

£

Ol U1 3

O C p

H Ì 6

fi %

«* *fi

H

•H «

g

¥ Uî a»

\

Iai

fi

f O

c

Ó

fi s

•w

S\

dl

6


, I \ o , X., and jo, and A> the "n" sound) consists of a consonant and a vowel when represented in the English alphabet For example, fy is pronounced "ka," which is a combination of the consonant "k" and the vowel "a"; is pronounced "su," which is a combination of the consonant "s" and the vowel "u." Each characterrepresentsa unit of sound called a "mora," a linguistic term from the Latin for a "period of time." Each mora carries an approximately fixed and equal duration and weight. Japanese is one of the few languages that exhibits this moraic structure, and it uses morae as the basis of the sound system rather than syllables. For example, if one attempts to pronounce ¡ f e l ^ X f e in a situation, such as where someone teaches the pronunciation to children, the five morae may be pronounced maintaining the same length of time for each mora, just like five eighth-notes J> J> J> J> P } If one knows

s/he may realize that

Japanese follows the pattern 5 morae/7 morae/5 morae, rather than 5 syllables/7 syllables/5 syllables. Example: morae)

? r t zfr *> ? t atU C tS (7 Si

7)«D^). 2 The mora

system works well in teaching/learning Japanese as a foreign/second language. It is especially useful to differentiate words that include a long vowel and double consonants from those that do not. Examples include: "grandmother" and fc(i$ A» (4 morae) "aunt";

(5 morae) 0 morae) "husband"

1 The length of each mora is not necessarily expressed by one eighth-note; but the point is that each sound occupies the same length of time when pronunciation is attempted in formal settings. In day-to-day conversation, however, due to the involvement of empathy and psychological factory some morae may be elongated or shortened. 2 A famous haiku created by a haiku poet, Issa Kobayashi (1763-1827). The equivalent for each segment is: an old pond; afrogjumps into; the sound of water.

CHAPTER 1

4

and fck. (2morae) "sound";and C o — using the X (su) sound instead. Some individuals who speak English are sensitive to this issue and make an effort to distinguish the sounds in symbols as well, and the symbol " 6 " may sometimes be used, such as fl 'J 7

-

"thriller."

Reducing the number of sounds from one's native tongue is in fact easier than adding sounds one is not accustomed to producing. Therefore, pronouncing Japanese may be easier for some people whose native tongue has many vowels, for example. The difficult aspect, on the other hand, may be found in the moraic characteristics of Japanese. 2.1

#8t^and®l|R3>-

u h t .

In reading

there are two common means of pronunciation: aWifa and

oMare^. la

is the so-called sound reading, in which Chinese characters are

< fa £

.

t f h o

read phonetically. When jH^were first introduced, people tried to mimic the pronunciation of Chinese words just as Japanese speakers do today with foreign 1b fa

words. For example, 3c was pronounced "an" and expressed as "an" as a sound reading. Some characters have more than one H S c ^ because the original Chinese originated from areas with different pronunciations (dialects). This was not only due to the factor of dialect, but also to changes in Chinese pronunciation over the period of many years.

5

FUNDAMENTALS OF JAPANESE GRAMMAR

lfl|s7i& is a method of reading wherein the original Japanese pronunciation for a word is applied. For example, "person" in Chinese is À , pronounced "jin"3 in Chinese. In Japanese the equivalent to "person" is t ^ i l , and this pronunciation is applied to the Chinese character A . Some 3 1 ^ compounds are considered [Bjiglllëla "homophones," which means that the expressed words have the same reading but assign a different _

meaning. The following are examples for

& A/ Z

C ^ X.A> (IFISE^)

and fc~D

(SHISE

both of which may be expressed by several different i H ^ :

m»

lecture/talk

mm

support

'¿m

performance

» Ä

good performance to be built

ÎL-D

>

tz-D

m-D

to stand up to leave (for time) to pass

The meaning of the words is clear from the use of different i

or

the context of the conversation.

2.2

t" t

KIPPU

# o

3 morae in ^ z>

2.5

^ W : L o n g v o w e l s (prolonged sounds)

f | # means that any vowel in a mora is prolonged and becomes a mora written by the vowel in the previous mora. For example, oka a san "mother" includes a Ufa "a" prolonged "a" in "ka." In Japanese, it is written tSfrifocSAj, as the alphabet symbolizes. There is no need for reducing its size in writing. All vowels can be prolonged to create long-vowel words. Compare the following examples: OKAASAN

&fr$>2fa

5 morae in jfc

fa

ONI I

5 morae in i5 jC U

fa

FUUFU

3 morae in

EE GO

3 morae in X.

OTOOSAN

t31 ?

£fa

-S\

5 morae in

sL fa V- i

&

tl

There are two exceptions in the way long vowels are symbolized in W-VH^i'- case for long "e" and long "o." Lengthening of "e" is primarily expressed by adding the character t \ instead of a second X., and long "o," by addition of O instead of t 3 . This means that "ee" is written

and "oo", t3Z>, as in

"movie"

and < f a t «fc O "study." However, there are exceptions, for which memorizing the spelling is the best practice. Some of these include: fcfax. £ (iK) "ice," and t fc-5 (il. Note that the

form is mor-

phologically an IN adjective. Accordingly, the past tense of ^CU is titp-otc, which is the plain form of

A/C L i t .

1.5.1 Consonant verbs For consonant verbs, the vowel "i" in the stem form turns into "a," and

is

attached.8

8

If created from the dictionary form, "u" in the stem turns into "a," as in

¡ ( P & U "kak-a-nai."

"kak-u," which becomes ®

28

CHAPTER 3

kak-i-masen

m u t t / u Ml

A,

ftfcfcl

kak-a-nai

hanash-i-masen

hanas-a-nai

mach-i-masen

mat-a-nai

fazttiit/u

yob-i-masen

Vfr&itAj

yom-i-masen

yom-a-nai

kaer-i-masen

kaer-a-nai

nfli&l

For consonant verbs ending in O, such asW.0* and

yob-a-nai

and "a

5 becomes fo

follows, as shown in the following. i> Wo h

zcV

kau

kaWanai

au iu

aWanai iWanai

1.5.2 Vowel verbs Simply add

to the stem to form the negatives.

fclf^itA,

ius-tiA, 1.5.3 Irregular verbs [ s t t / v

1.6 T h e f c p form 1.6.1 Consonant verbs The J3

form is created by changing the "u" of the dictionary form (from the 9

row, as in kak-u,

) to "o" as in the t3 row (as in kak-o, ff C) and adding Z)

(to yield kak-o-o, 9 C. 9 )• hanas-u

hanas-o-o

29

F U N D A M E N T A L S OF J A P A N E S E G R A M M A R

gjtij

yob-u

Bflii)

yob-oo

yom-u

Hi) Ö

yom-oo

o

kaer-oo

kar-u

1.6.2 Vowel verbs Drop -5 from the dictionary form of a vowel verb and add - I t - t l l i

taka-ke-reba

"if it is expensive"

Negative

fc.fr-

taka-ku-nai

"is not expensive"


tz), the sentence no longer makes sense, implying that "Ms. Suzuki ate a restaurant using sushi." The following sections present explanations of each particle in terms of its fundamental use.

1.

Ii

The inherent nature of liis to single out the noun phrase marked by l i from other sets of elements for discussion. Other elements can be either all possible candidates for a subject of conversation (topic), or a particular set of elements that are divergently compared to the (¿marked noun in discourse (contrast). The meaning of (¿is usually identifiable from the content and the environment of the conversation in which the speaker and the listener are engaged.

1. TfiJ as a topic marker: "speaking of X." 2. H i J for contrast: "I eat X, with the implication that I do not eat Y, for example)."

1.1

riJj as a topic marker

The use of l i can turn any noun or noun phrase into the topic of a sentence. It focuses attention on what follows.

35

FUNDAMENTALS OF JAPANESE GRAMMAR

1.1.1 What is "topic"? Topic as a concept is the entity, whether animate or inanimate, that provides the point of departure for conversation in certain contexts. In a sentence, the topic is a noun phrase drawn from the body of the sentence and placed at its beginning to draw the attention of the individuals who are engaged in the communication. Also, the topic must be something that has previously been mentioned in the flow of conversation or is already known/registered in an individual's mind. Therefore, the topic is shared knowledge and is often considered "old information." In

"Speaking of Ms. Tanaka, she is a student" for

example, B3

h> is given as the topic of conversation and is shared, old infor-

mation that the speaker and the listener have already registered in their minds. What the listener would like to hear is then more information about H'fcFA/, which, in this case, is In Japanese conversation, unlike in English, one may mention a noun phrase about which one is going to talk (as a topic) at the beginning of the sentence, then give a comment on the topic. This type of structure for conveying information is the so-called topic-comment structure. Other languages, such as Korean and Chinese, also exhibit this structure. For example, in fA l i f t 0 " i ' L i r i s t ^ S L>tc "Speaking of me, I ate sushi yesterday"

is presented as the topic of discussion, and B ^ H ^ U i r ^ ^ S

[sfz as the comment on the topic. The implication is that "I am going to tell you about me; I ate sushi yesterday." However, if the speaker is going to talk about sushi, then

U will be singled out for discussion, as in "T L

ft

0

U

fz "Speaking of sushi, (I) ate (it) yesterday." Thus, in the course of conversation, the speaker structurally promotes "sushi" by bringing it to the beginning of the sentence in order to signal to the listener that the speaker is going to tell the listener about "sushi." The following is a visualization of thetopic-commentstructure for both lift 0 f U^r&^S ft 0

"Speaking of me, I ate sushi yesterday" and t U t .

L/c "Speaking of sushi, (I) ate (it) yesterday" as examples.

CHAPTER 4

36 Sentence

fAIt

Sentence

QLtf) V f B t L ^ S ^ S L f c .

f LIt

(iAAO

tt

As one may see immediately from the sentences in the diagrams above, while the topics of the sentence are "I" and "sushi," the subject of the sentence is ' T for both sentences. This difference demonstrates that the topic does not always coincide with the subject of the sentence. The subject refers to a noun phrase that performs an action or is in a state expressed by the predicate. In IA (¿(?A#*)B1= 0 it

U ^ r i i ^ S I / t z "Speaking of me, (I) ate sushi yesterday," "I" is the person who performed the eating activity. "1" is given as the topic as well as the subject of the sentence. In this case, the topic and the subject are identical.1 On the other hand,

B ^ H ^ ^ S Ufc "Speaking of sushi, (I) ate

(it) yesterday," while "sushi" is given as the topic, "I" is the subject of the sentence, so that the topic and the subject are not identical. If one identifies "sushi" as the subject s/he is saying that "sushi ate (something)"! Let us now observe how nouns within a sentence can be identified as a topic using a sample sentence with five noun phrases and a verb. Note that U can replace the particles £ and tfi (e.g., replace other particles, such as IC, X\

can become

L l i ) , but it cannot

' V i ^ b , and so on. l i is added to

those particles (e.g., d d"C becomes d (i

U li

M ^ Z t t

(I) eat tempura, but (I) don't eat sushi.

4

This is due to the idea that negative sentences generally occur where the corresponding affirmative has

been mentioned or contemplated, or when the speaker believes that the interlocutor tends toward the affirmative. Negative statements cannot be effective without reference to corresponding affirmative statements. A negative predicate is usually used when a speaker uses some "understood" fact(s) to obliquely convey information more obviously expressed by an affirmative form of the statement If one does not possess the information expressed by the affirmativeform,the negativeformcannot play its role. In this sense; negative statements are contrastive in naturetoaffirmative statements. 5

If no contrastive meaning were involved, then the sentence would be f / i U T A / ^ b

tempura" with die object marker

"I eat

CHAPTER 4

42 (21)

m é l i t y ^ i XIZIÏ& U Tttifi.

' » S t C l A f e IJ £ t ! 7 u 0

Speaking of a phone, there is one in the office but none in the classroom. «tu

(22)

( &

zvtfr/i

tt)H«gTtttt

«/vtii a

us-ra*,

a

irmus-ts-A,,

I study at the library, but I do not study at home. tsei«>

(23)

n

titui

(I) will go to Osaka, but (I) won't go to Tokyo.

tfi

2.

1. W j as a subject marker for new information a. used to mark the subject in a sentence of neutral description6 b. used to mark the subject as exhaustive-listing 2. W j as an object marker When a predicate is stative7-transitive, the function of the tfi marked noun is an object.

2.1

Ttfij

as a subject marker for new information

The primary function of tfi is to mark a noun or a noun phrase as the subject of a sentence and to present the ff marked noun as a new piece of information. 2.1.1 What is a subject? In language/linguistics, "subject" refers to a major constituent of a sentence or clause structure, usually associated with the performer of an action, as in "The cat caught afish,"or with a state expressed by the predicate, as in "The cat is fat"

6

The terms "neutral description" and "exhaustive listing" are from Kuno (1973). The concepts employed

here are also based on Kuno's premise presented in the same book. 7

The term "stative" here is used to refer to states of affairs*ratherthan action. It offers a concept of static

that is the opposite of dynamic A static state (that is said to express stativity) continues unless some kind of outsideforceis added to change the state. Stative predicates indude verbs such as O S , "Vtt •5, t,\ adjectives (induding negative forms of all parts of speech followed by nouns.

adjectives, and

F U N D A M E N T A L S OF J A P A N E S E G R A M M A R

43

In order to find the subject of a single sentence in Japanese, one needs to observe the predicate (which comes at the end of the sentence in SOV languages) and see who/what performs the action described by the predicate or what is described by the predicate. Observe the following topic-comment sentences. Jii

(2)

iJMl

Speaking of autumn,fishis tasty. tofcU fc -tOftfiJLtffi^Skfc. Speaking of thatfish,I ate (it).

In sentence (1), the subject of the sentence is found in the comment: what tastes good isfish,not autumn. "Autumn" is presented as the topic of the sentence and is shared information; it does not serve as the subject. The same observation is true of sentence (2). The person who ate is I, not the fish. In neither case is the topic identical with the subject, and there is a subjectforeach predicate. Z1.2

for neutral description

While ( i can present any noun as a topic of a sentence, as may be seen in examples (1) through (5) in the IJ section, ffis primary function is to present a noun or noun phrase as the subject of a sentence (exceptforthe cases where the predicate is stative-transitive, as discussed in section 2.2. It is always associated with the predicate of a sentence. Some predicates that let us envision the existence of an entity, a state coming into being, or a situation approaching closer to the speaker usually coincide with a subject marked by tfi (unless the subject is topicalized or contrasted). These predicates are most often used to present a neutral description of actions or temporary states, and the sentence is considered to be introducing a new piece of information. Thefollowingare some examples: (3)

8

¿fc^ClltgiT^&US-fo There is a bank over there.

"Neutral description" here means that the sentence does not have any particular reference to prior

discourse.

44

(4)

CHAPTER 4

gftg I Z t e t f r f r f z I

IM6

# I\£

.

There is a doj* that looks like a rat in the room. (5) (6)

'Mtico s im-3%

SUfc.

The day I would return to my country draws near. «KfcSUiS C8A i The president of the United States will come to Japan.

htb

(7) Rain is f*oing to fall. (8) The door will close./The door closes. Sentences (3) through (8), concerned with neutral description, are usually uttered in situations where the whole sentence is presented as a new piece of information that has not previously been registered in discourse. The following examples in a brief dialogue should clarify the use of these sentences.

it, ¿tflA, (9)

> l

A: $> U

fao

fcOtfifrOft«

Jfe i C i M » «

£T Look, there is a bank over there, right? If you turn left at the coiner of the bank, the library isrightthere. (10)

A:

ffiMfcfrf»»fcl

vaatffl«fc.

Look, there is a dog that looks like a rat in the room.

(11)

Ah, that's Professor Johnson's chihuahua. t>fli A: ' J i H O B ¿ f i f i n g S L f c . t > ? - r < f e « d t l T f i a -

• •.

The day I return to my country draws near. I have to say good-bye shortly. B:

j U - Z S t e / u - V t f r ' • •.

^ttliftUS-ttA/TUfc.

/uTrtfr. Is thatright!I did not know that When are you going back?

45

FUNDAMENTALS OF JAPANESE GRAMMAR

(12)

CHiJiJj:}

A:

lc 13 Aß

«

T ^ U ^ O ^ ^ ^ ^ B ^ l C ^ - r J : . The president of the United States is coming to Japan next week, you know. Is that so? I wonder where the president is going to stay.

(13)

A: How wjl| theweather be tomorrow, do you know? B:

W B l ä M Ä M t i . Ifs going to rain tomorrow.

A: Is that so? How disgusting. (14)

At a platform of a train station, there is an announcement saying: The door will close. Please watch your steps.

Sentences in examples (3) through (8) are embedded in the short conversation given in (9) through (14). tfi is used to mark the subject of the sentence, and the whole sentence is presented as a new piece of information in the conversation. However, the subject of the sentence can also be an interrogative noun, tit\ ^ f arc such as ft "what" and f t "who," as i n g f l M l C i S J ^ V S t " fr "What is in the e room?" and B ^ L f f t ^ J t i S "Who is coming to Japan?"9 The answers, then, may be (SGMId) room)" and

ta-f^/iU&^AU^t'

"There is a dog like a rat (in the

U J l l

1/

ftÛ\ sinœ 11 puts a focus on whatfollows.The question focuses on the question word St and contradicts the function of l i .

CHAPTER 4

46

sentence. The speaker knows that someone is coming to Japan, but does not know who. Such providing of complete information is called "exhaustive-listing" (a complete list of information) in this textbook, following the term introduced by Kuno (1973). The discussion above demonstrates that the interpretation of the subject with tfi can be either neutral description or exhaustive-listing. When a predicate represents an actioa existence (not state) or a temporary state, the sentence can be interpreted as either a neutral description or an exhaustive-listing.10 On the other hand, if the predicate is a static stable state (described by a noun, an l\adjective, a tji adjective, or a stative predicate), the subject with tfi receives only the exhaustive-listing interpretation. For example: $>lcS)S:l>it> liA/fcl>i t>i jiiofi^fflizaciffr. I will swim to the other side of the river. 0H 4

while

ISA

< and & u ci» i * . M T U - 5 "My sister resembles my father," StII x ^ ¿ O—iOII IJ %i A, »•ÍOIJ "Students are advised to follow the teacher's instructions," and J

J

i

Lef s walktothe next station. 11 u No, I will run (to the next station).

In sentences (10) and (11), ^ < "to walk" and "to run" are the method that the agent chooses for going to a designated location. When combining two verbs in this manner, thefirstverb is in the T form.

70

7.3

CHAPTER 4

marking a noun phrase indicating a cause of the activity or event in the main clause

The English equivalent of this phrase is "because of" or "due to." (i2>

m&Tt^xid&hSUfc. I was late for class due to an accident.

(13)

frtfV?

Lfc.

I missed class due to a cold. (14)

M T ' S i ^ ^ i t i c f t y £ Ufc. The game was canceled because of rain.

(15)

ftfflTfc'VlfciKTttfcySliA/. I have to go home due to urgent business.

7.4

I"TJ marking a noun phrase indicating time or quantity

The English equivalent of this phrase is usually "within," "in," or the like. The use of T 5 delimits the time frame or the number of an entity. (16)

Knfr

to

b

C0tt£(i3BT*ar±lf$Lfc. I wrote up this term paper in three days.

(17)

»

eSoUtfA,

«A,-fci

6

v

The final exam will end on this Friday (after continuing from a day preceding the Friday). (18)

A T & W & l d l o ' U f c o (I saw) a child was riding an airplane alone.

(19) Why don't we all study together?

8.

t

The fundamental function of fe is to indicate that the marked item is given in relation to another phrase in terms of their status. Another phrase may be implied or stated, depending on the environment of the communication. For example, in OjfflSMiflyfc^SLfc.

-tftlC,

? ¿ T u f c ^ S U f c "Ms. Yamada

71

F U N D A M E N T A L S OF J A P A N E S E G R A M M A R

ate sushi. On top of that she ate a bowl of noodles, too," O H h j is presented as an object that is given in relation to " f U (which is stated in this case). " f Land O ¿£ h j are in equal status in that both are eaten by ill ES £ A/. The same observation applies to a negative predicate, as in ULl03 cE A/lit" ftlZ,

^ T u t ^ ^ - t + A i T U T t "Ms. Yamada did not eat sushi. Not only

that, she did not eat noodles, either." i> following a noun phrase or a verb stem form has various meanings, such as "also," "both A and B," "neither A nor B," "not even," "as many as/fewer than

Note that i ) can replace only the particles l i , t^, and

fe

is

added after the particle, as in T f e , Idfc, and A^b i). t) is also used in the permission construction following a gerundive form, as i n i r - ^ T t ) (.U^ "you may go." Please refer to Chapter 22 on structure of permission. 1. Noun phrase +

J

2. Verb stem + Tfcj 3.1 \ adjective or


ÜZ.

t)

+ negative predicate

nowhere nothing

Ho (7)

no one

a.

ft^l^S

Ltzl)\

Did you eat something? b. (8)

a.

fgfetliti^TOt. I did not eat anything. I£tl HO Did you speak with someone?

b. I did not speak with anyone. If U £ l O t> U fc*. IWintend escape nor hide. T f »to neither J; t ttTfc. He threw the letter away without even reading it

26

¿f C i> as an individual word means "everywhere!" and can be used in a sentence like ¿f«_ t> " t — J U "A sale is going on everywhere."

75

FUNDAMENTALS OF JAPANESE GRAMMAR

(15)

LUfflSMitS^&ti.

Ms. Yamada reads English. In addition, she writes English. 8.3

U

adjective


t t t t f t K {sfr-DtcZtfao The exam was hard, wasn't it?

b. (3)

a.

I» think that the exam was hard. Don't you think so too? Hf C»)C DC 10 U %tfao The meeting will start at 10:00, right?

b.

£Wil0fclCi6$y£1-«fcfa. I believe that the meeting starts at 10:00, but am I right?

(4)

a.

IftBli'MMTUfctao You were absent yesterday, right?

b.

ttBli^jrCL/^ta. I thought that you were absent yesterday. Isn't that correct?

31

Q. Kamio (1990,1994,1997b).

87

F U N D A M E N T A L S OF JAPANESE G R A M M A R

(5)

to*. - f - < m The exam was extremely difficult, wasn't it?

In fax, the vowel "e" in "ne" is prolonged and pronounced "nee." This may create a feminine sound, as it is often used by female language speakers, fa is also used to indicate a speaker's statement as confirmation, such as "O.K." or "all right" as shown in the following examples:

My boyfriend is terrible. He says, "Did you gain weight lately?" Did he say that? That's terrible, isn't it! I think so too. If s terrible. People usually don't say things like that, don't you think, fa* ! They don't, do they! 16. is often used in invitation structures, such as

£ Ut)\ "TUT t^J^. Would you like to eat sushi or something? $ L «t 51)\ Shall we go to a coffee shop or something?

un

^HTTfeggLSLj:?»^. Shall we talk at a park or somewhere?

Sample dialogues r-MclfotStt

^ti:

thiDo,

f^ZAj.

*

*

e

bA,
fiy£itA,frj

«¿is-era».

(Lack of seriousness when you use T?i>.)

IJISU

^siifia-ctj-r«^. «e

I>

WIFIC

»

(¿tr^TJ^ÄK^iBii«) a> fero

n

ani.

ÉWIJS) fcft, Z - k ^ f c . Sally ate tempura. ( X / u & b isan object upon which the agent/ subject acted.)

(2)

a.

°

O

ItL

hAli+I'V/^lClSj^oT^ofc.

Tom ran toward the campus. ( + -V y/^Ts is the goal of the motion.) b.

hAI i + i ' W W ^ o f c . Tom ran through the campus. ( + -V W t X is the place where the motion "to run" occurred.)

(3)

a.

vx'J-liJUT^L^c'o Jerry swam in the river. (The activity

< took place in the river.)

b. Jerry swam through the river (and went to the other side of the river.) (J 11 is the place Jerry acted upon.) i U l

(4)

OK

a. Sylvester climbed Mt. Fuji (and reached a certain location on the mountain.) b. Sylvester climbed Mt. Fuji. ( § ± l l | is the place where the climbing took place.)

The verbs in sentences (a) in (1) through (4) are used to express intransitivity without an accompanying object. On the other hand, the same verbs in sentences (b) in (1) through (4) are used to express a different meaning. In these examples, the places linked to the verbs are all acted upon' and affected by the agent For example, to the unidirectional use of the particle IZ,

indicates that

the agent reached the summit of the mountain, while £±lll£iii indicates that the climbing itself is the focus of communication. The following are cases that do not have different interpretations. Only £ C

marks the place noun in a way that makes sense, since one cannot say S T f R A ; fz, for example, because 3: is an unlimited dimension. The same applies for since

itself describes a crossing activity, and not an activity occurring

inside a limited dimension.

95

FUNDAMENTALS OF JAPANESE GRAMMAR

(5)

hs-rx-fi

t&zm/vtz.

Tweetyflewthrough the sky. (3: is the place where theflyingtook place.)

(6) Jeff crossed the bridge. (iS is the place where the crossing took place.)

1.12

Verbs of leaving

T

-toijii

lift

Verbs of leaving, such as ¡dtl-S "to get out" ^ M T Z "to graduate," and fiftl-S "to leave," can be represented by this schematic

are also considered

volitional-intransitive verbsfwhen some kind of an entity causes the event. The place noun the agent leaves is marked by

though again the function of £ is

not exactly the same as that of the £ that marks the object of a transitive verb; it is the same asfor standard volitional-intransitive verbs. littc iA,i;

(7)

m=f-mmzmz&it.

Hanako left home at 3 o'clock. (8)

ttii

Taro graduated from college last year.

is not appropriate, even

though it is the normal equivalent to "from.") (9)

WkttUtllt* Tomoko got married and left her parents' home.

1.1.3 Verbs of non-voluntaiy physical events There are verbs that express spontaneous, non-voluntary physical events, such as "snore," "yawn," and "sneeze." In English these verbs are considered intransitive verbs that do not take an object. In Japanese, however, "yawn" and "sneeze" can be expressed by either a transitive or an intransitive verb ($> < Zf-th't'%) / tf&Z

< Zf

and < U ^ Z - Z t Z / K I s t f r t f & Z , respectively). "Snore," on the

other hand, is expressed only by a transitive verb, as in

. When

such events are expressed by an intransitive verb, they are presented as nonvoluntary physical events, while transitive verbs give an impression that the events are caused by the subject7s voluntary acts. See thefollowingexamples. See Chapter 4, Section 3 about the partide i : . Hie transitive counterparts of these verbs are ib~t~, ci'&Zi, and titt", respectively.

6

CHAPTER 5

96

(10)

* l i - Pft *

SfcjftK (DT,

iA l i g H R ^ S & A ^ - f .

Because my husband snores all night I cannot get enough sleep.

(11) a.

lz$>


frti

*.A, tf

it->e*%> is

also applicable for an animate entity under certain circumstances. In day-to-day communication, preference may be given to U-5, but more formal settings may privilege $> -5. This means that the animate-inanimate dichotomy of $>-5 and I ^ U S f " (~Ci~)" "the ~ is located in

expresses a different

meaning depending on whether or not a piece of information is shared. In these situations, the use of ffl and l i plays the crucial role.

CHAPTER 7

Tense: £ • /£ in Subordinate Clauses

1.

Functions of Tense Forms

Japanese has two tense forms for each part of speech. The tense forms constitute a predicate agglutinatively, referring to the time when the event described by a verb is realized and the time when the event is in the state described by an t \ adjective,

adjective, or noun.

In Japanese, these tense forms for activity verbs do not necessarily correspond to present, future, and past in English. The form differs depending on whether the predicate is an activity or a stative verb. Let us take i i ^ - S and I \ £ as examples. (1)

a.

tofcU

CA/I1A, I J i , t

WilJA.

I will eat dinner at 8:00 PM tonight. b. I eat dinner at 8:00 PM every day.

1 Please

note that the notions "imperfective" and "perfective" do not apply to stative predicates, sudi as I \ adjectives, t £ adjectives, nouns> and stative verbs» induding stative-transitive verbs. This is due to the fact that such predicates are not concerned with the completion/realization of the event, but express a static and / or everlasting state.

105

106

CHAPTER 7

* c.

%

IE«***.

-

iAIi^ffifc&KTtvSo

I eat dinner now. (2)

a.

W B l t i m S . - ? * ? J

I am eating dinner now. XlZ\.\£e

I will be in my office until 3 o'clock tomorrow. b.

Satf^-f^icn*. I stay in my office every day.

c. I am in my office now. As is evident from the above example sentences, the activity verb expresses either a future or a habitual event, but not an event that is currently going on. For current activity, the aspectual form TU-2>2must be used.3This is attributed to the fact that ^ "now" is used to point to a current moment during which some event is progressing or continuing. In order for to describe such a situation, an animate entity has to be in the middle of eating, which is expressed by die use of T l On the other hand, the stative verb "to stay" can express a future, a habitual, or a present event. For the present on-going event unlike i i ^ S , the use of T U - 5 is unnecessary. This is because is concerned with an internal situation of a time expanse, rather than the starting point and /or an ending point of the described event therefore can point to any point in time during the time continues. Now observe the following conjugation table with the plain forms of parts of speech. Verb Past (perfective)

Non-past (imperfective)

Affirmative Negative

2 Refer to

Chapter 10, Section 3 for further discussion of T O •5.

ffi£:ii' K Kl < "if the wind blows, the door will open" is used to indicate that the main event will realize on condition of the wind's blowing. JSA^Rfc < "the door opens at the time when the wind blows" is used to indicate a specific time when the door opens.

4

In language and linguistics» the term "subordinate" includes various kinds of patterns and grammatical

forms. In this book, "subordinate dause" is used in a rather limited sense in that itrefersto a sentence that is considered structurally secondary to the main dause. Subordinate dauses indude constructions» such as "when - / ' "before -," "after ~ " if - / ' "because -," and "since -."

CHAPTER 7

108

Although the English equivalent of both of these morphemes can be "when," the speaker differentiates the use of these morphemes in order to convey a subtle nuance behind the sentence.

¿e

Now let us look at the construction of Kf sentences. A

clause may be

formulated by using one of each of the parts of speech shown in the following chart (representing only non-past tense forms): [Subordinate Clause] Verb £ I \ adjective I \ >- + & adjective t£ Noun 0

Main Clause

B#v

Main clause in non-past context (1)

a.

' ^ W K B ^

h£ftU£-f.

When I go to Japan, I will buy a present b.

H^Mr When I arrive in Japan, I will buy a present.

c.

^mauuMit,

«fcos'-^+zL-^urf.

d.

I often barbecue when the weather is nice. t>* * f H f i l t t .

e.

I watch TV when I have time. »«> £ 5 5 tofc m ^ t J ^ O ^ iliifcigoTIJlMtSliA,. You are not supposed to cross the street when the traffic light is red.

Main clause in past context (2)

a.

B ^ f K I S . When I went to Japan/Before I went to Japan, I bought a present When I arrived in Japan, I bought a present

c.

-ZL&lsfz. I used to barbecue often when the weather was nice.

d.

mtz/tc?tzm>

xubf^sufc.

I watched TV when I had time.

109

FUNDAMENTALS OF JAPANESE GRAMMAR

When I was a kid, I was often scolded by my father. When an activity verb is used in the subordinate clause, either the imperfective or the perfective form may occur, regardless of the tense in the main clause, to indicate when/where the event in the subordinate clause actually occurs/occurred. However, stative predicates do not behave in the same fashion. When the main sentence is in a non-past context only the imperfective form is used, and when the main sentence is in the past context either the imperfective or the perfective form may be used. This arises from the nature of stative predicates. The notion of stativity is captured not as a specific point in time, but as a situation in an expanse of time without a clear beginning and end point The internal situation captured in such an expanse is perceived as the same regardless of whether the situation is in past context or future context. Time does not affect the interpreC£ t

tation of stativity. One subtle difference between and

¿S

%%

0»>

r

B$ |

b.

tfnZ'i

Arrived at school

N i |

t

N ^

1tA,tfU

ft

ftZHzSofz.

I met my teacher when I arrived at school. Left for school

Arrived atsdiool/Mettheteacher N y

1» (4)

¿«>«S

a.

T«,tJ

SJSIcWBSjW**.

I will call my friend before I leave for school. Leaveforschool Call my friend

b.

V is attached to a phrase, the whole phrase be-

comes a noun phrase. Negation, when it occurs, occurs within the verb, as in f f f r ftlOfeU

~CT "I intend not to go."

a) A: xmzWmurc^

x*tt>\

What are you going to do after you graduate? TIT. First I intend to obtain an MA. degree, then a Ph.D. (2)

U & I O fc V fc\ I intend not to attend today's meeting.

114

115

FUNDAMENTALS OF JAPANESE GRAMMAR

(3) (4)

fc'tticfct^fc^. No one knows where Mr. Koizumi intends to go. A: 1 T \ . \ & / u U £ \ . \ Z t t : § V < D - C - r t i . You say terrible things. B: t f r S . 1 t / u . */ut£-D'bVlttlfr-3tt

serve the following examples: Verb

1 y

Nountf)

r o b

do

• ^T^HciWc&lc. Practice in order to attend the contest. Practice for the contest. Due to too much smoking, I was told not to smoke by the doctor. rncDfcO),

Due to rain, the game was cancelled. a)

A:

tofcu

n

ft

aiitsafca&icft^-r.

I eat in order to live. B:

<&'it> B^lClx^^iC^UfeOT-r. I want to see my friend in Japan. = I miss my friend in Japan.

(5) I want to travel in Kyoto once. (6)

tt 'J

I want to swim in the Caribbean and see how it is. Ilf> X » * fr t> o t m
U»

I hear that our section chief wants to quit the company.

4

The "speakers group" means the territory or domain far which the speaker feels a sense of belonging.

This group may indude die speakers family, the place the speaker works, some social assembly to which the speaker belongs, or the country in which the speaker was bom. When onerecognizeshis/her group, that group is considered as "in-group," and it is distinguished from the "out-group." Hiis distinction depends on how strongly the speakerfeelsthat s/he is a member of the group. This notion is especially important in grammatical patterns of "giving" and "receiving" which are discussed in Chapter 20. Detailed discussion of the concepts of in- and out-group isfoundin Makino (1992).

CHAPTER 9

134

(10)

¿MUTU-5. I heard/learned that Ms. Honda does not like to go to a restaurant.

3. When something or someone is easy or difficult to handle physically or mentally, or something happens easily or with difficulty, the O adjectives

V IC< U

are used as auxiliaries to describe the situation. For example, when one finds a pen easy to handle physically,

is used to express that

circumstance. Also, the target of being easy or difficult can be a person, as when one indicates that he/ she is easy to talk to, for example. ^ i T U and |C
a>

Chopsticks are easy to use once you become accustomed to them. »X

1}

(4)

Cocktails are sweet and easy to drink, so I often overdrink unintentionally. £ SUTS tf-tficciSiST'-f.

(5)

This cheese is easy to melt so it is best suited for pizza. UA, i £c*ic6

IC

Bit

(7) ^rn^/uiDmity^tfiziari^oVs nz^t^vt.ko Mr. Matsuda's face resembles Brad Pitts' and is easy to remember.

FUNDAMENTALS OF JAPANESE GRAMMAR

135

4. ofcii rib itu ( ** ( i ) « B T B U Ä Ä « 6 >

( T T I I ) A E U S - R

Subordinate clause

Main clause

JA-TA/

My sister talks on the phone while she drives. —> Same subject The fundamental meaning of tjitfiP) is that one person does two different activities simultaneously or alternately during the same period of time, so fe fy b is not always the same as "while" in English. Also, although fatfi b is used to describe two activities engaged in by the same subject (performer of the event) at the same time, since it is a subordinate clause, the main event comes at the end of the sentence. For example, irlfti» "Mr. Koizumi smokes while he drives" is pragmatically awkward in Japanese as it gives an impression that the person is paying more attention to smoking than to driving. An appropriate expression should be j S ^ ^ l S t ^ tfibiSfs'^"'?), where

is considered the main activity. The following

are some examples of cases whereat^ bis used. (l)

a. Mr. Honda watches TV while he studies.

c.

Ms. Matsuda listens to music while she studies. fcfcl, It ftiittsfiu^e^s-r. I eat while I study.

In the morning, I drink coffee and eat bread. (3)

a.

H

U&tf ^JHtef is usually translated as "while" in English, as is the case for Tel (IZ/U), IS] (|C/ [¿) does not require the subject (the performer of the event) of the subordinate and the main sentence to be identical, la] (|C/ li) means "while a certain situation is maintained," and two different entities can be employed as the subject of the subordinate and main sentence. Compare thefollowingexamples: »i*« Lh * IH IC. h/K-^OSC^^fc. While my wife was shopping, I watched a football game. * b. htf-JKDS While my wife was shopping, she watched a football game. (6) a. Eli, fflBldfotffofc. While the child was sleeping, the room was quiet. •3*

(5)

i>

a.

* b.

wmitmfrHofc.

ii (7) a. BSnTOSPdllC. Lef s do the laundry while it is sunny. * b. B j t n & t f b ,

As may be seen from the unacceptability of the sentences that use i£ A* b , when the subject of events in the subordinate and the main clause is not the same, b creates either a different interpretatioa as seen in (5b), or a nonsensical meaning. The subject performing the action in the subordinate clause and the main clause must be identical. This restriction applies strictly to the use of Another point to note about is that it has a different function that indicates the same meaning as ( t t l i ' i ) "though." It is used in sentences such as *r ^ to t> V ® U l ^ f e ^ b i K ^ U t " T h o u g h poor, my family is cheerful" and fz

Fundamentals of Japanese Grammar

137

lt*>

u

HbtztSR y ¿ E ^ ' b t x S i U T ^ f e "Though I knew that it would not work, I tried anyway." It usually accompanies fc, but t is optional. it

5.

¿5

tp)t

The suffix

a

is derived from the word

5a i "method" and means the way

things are done. When attached to the stem form of a verb, the whole phrase becomes a noun. Any verb that can be described as turning into a method can be accompanied by tsii

+

»it "ft

=

Jl^S

+

-fi

=

i7
«> ^ t t T & S l c S l t l C f r C ^ I l o T • • •. I found it yesterday, but don't know whose it is, so I thought that I should turn it in to the police.

"tZ.*kT-lE> No. Look, see the sign. ^T&UTfc-STU«t. It says "Do notfeedthe monkeys," right? laA !

teffihf/uM^CibZl

!

Mom! Sis bullies me! Why does the little brother think that his sister is bullying him?

3 1j

J: 5^f^isacasual/infoimalequivalentof same meaning as ^.T < ^f 51V

IV Therefore,

•t 01i l ^ expresses the

CHAPTER 10

146

2.

Tj&>£>

When two sequential activities need to be mentioned, T ifi £> may be used to combine two sentences into one sentence. Although the T form of the verb can itself express the sequential activity "and then," when fr is added, the sequentiality is strongly emphasized, indicating that one activit^comes first then is followed by a second. The meaning is similar to that of fciifeT. X f r b can also be used to express "since," as in "Fifteen years have already passed since I came to America." In this sentence too, two ordered events are described, though the emphasis is not on their sequentiality. Tense is always identified in the main verb.

ttcrateft^TfrS. fcHlBlcA Observe the following examples: a)

IC 12 A, l>

K.H Ai t 1X6 a*H«m*rr. I go to Japan, then will learn Japanese.

(2) Vbtfte&W/u-Cfrb* I learned hiraganafirst,then learned katakana. (3) a. Let's see a movie first then have a meal.

o

b. Let's have a meal after seeing a movie. « Ml T (4) a. Fifteen years have passed since I came to America. * b.

7 * U1) I 1 5 Lfc. Fifteen years passed after I came to America.

Sentence (1) of the above examples may normally be presented 0

o T,

B ^ i p ^ W t ^ S ' i " "I go to Japan and learn Japanese." When T ^ b is used, the sentence emphasizes the order in which the actions occur. Sentence (1) thus implies that the speaker does not have any intention of learning Japanese before going to Japan.

147

FUNDAMENTALS OF JAPANESE GRAMMAR

Since T fr b emphasizes the sequentiality of events, X f r b and are usually interchangeable when two activities occur one after the other. However, as (4a) demonstrates, T speaker 15

b can invite a phrase that is not controlled by the

S ^ f e "fifteen years have passed." ¡fcffe"C is appropriate only

when two events occur that are under the volitional control of an agent The inappropriateness of sentence (4b) is attributed to the fact that jfi^f $ L/L cannot be a volitionally controlled event. Note that when sequential activities are considered normal occurrences in daily life, the use of Ttf* b may become awkward. For example, people brush their teeth after they get up (not while they are in bed). The activities expressed in

tit t>

II

iflScfito ttliP 6 x

"I get up in the morning. Then I brush

my teeth" are understood as normal sequences, and there is no need to emphasize their sequentiality using TA^b- The T form may be used alone in such cases:

^ "i" "I get up in the morning and brush my teeth."

ffi^r®^

Sample dialogue £5 tf l> to

tS/i/O

*X5

aic

Honey, what shall we do today?

"M: yvbtf-Jtekz/utdo

fHi.

I'm going to watch a football game. Then, take a shower, and (watch) TV.

to

• • • 7 v

M i - J U f c J I . T •

Well, after watching the football game, then (I) watch TV again... Iflto&Sfcctii^ufa.

Nothing but your favorite activities. M:

it:

#?:

i l ¿¿'5 How about you? What are you going to do? fl> t>® UiCD

fAliHl^lCfroTfrb&^UT,

X^f

"tftfrbimZ&ZiDo

I'm going to go shopping, then eat, then watch a movie.

mt?

Hah? With whom? None of your business.

148

CHAPTER 10

3. TL^-5 is called an "aspectual form," and it is used to express the continuation of a situation either in a dynamic or a static state. It expresses a situation that involves a duration of time expressed in sentences, like "is/has been ~ing" and "is/have ~ed." The former expresses an on-going state; the latter, a residtative state in which something has been done, and the result of that action remains unchanged; something is in the state of having come to an end. An on-going state involves a period of time in which an activity is in a dynamic situation (is ~ing). A resultative state involves a situation wherein the activity is completed by the animate entity and the state resulting from the completion of the activity remains as static (have ~ed). T O - S can be interpreted as expressing "~ing" or "have ~ed" in English, and therefore is not exactly an equivalent to the English "~ing" construction (see Johnson 2004). Although it is true that T O - 5 in general can be used to express either an on-going meaning or a resultative meaning, there are some verbs that can express either meaning depending on the environment, while other verbs with T O - 5 may be able to yield only a resultative meaning. For example, M T U - 5 can be interpreted as expressing either "I am watching" or "I have watched," whereas can only mean "(something) is dead (= in the state of having died)" and cannot mean "(something) is dying," unlike in English. The meaning of T O •5 sentences depends on the type of verb, and there is quite a difference the way that T O - S is used compared to the English progressive "~ing" form. Therefore, as mentioned, a T O - 5 sentence does not immediately translate into an English progressive ("~ing") sentence. In Japanese, activities that are controlled by a animate entity's volition can often be perceived as repetitive activities, either conceptually or concretely. For example, for some activities, such a s ^ O T O - 5 "walking" and ^ T O S "eating," the notion of repetition is visualizable, and the action can be more concretely recognized as a repetitive action (alternating legs moving ahead and bringing food to mouth to eat respectively). Some actions, however, may be contp £ ceptual and abstract, such as H o T O - 5 "is buying" and H O T O - 5 "is listening." However, there is a commonality in these activities, that is, the constant

149

F U N D A M E N T A L S OF J A P A N E S E G R A M M A R

energy input required from the animate entity to maintain the situation. In other words: If the attribute of a verb is perceived as satisfying "volitionally controllable," "visually or conceptually repetitive," and/or "requires energy input to maintain the situation," then the T U - 5 phrase expresses either an on-going state or a resultative state. Lef s do a test using the following verbs: Table 1 Volitional

Repetition

Energy input

•

•

•

•

1

•

•

V.

/

X

•

X

control j*< a tf Wz> »» i, mtm* The verb type as

in

satisfies only one category, repetition, but is the same

5 6 I was eating dinner from 6:00 to 6:30.

b.

(8 i f t l c ^ f f f f i o f c l f t i a C b s M c T t S S a ^ T l ^ L f c . (When my husband returned home at 8:00,) I (already) had eaten dinner.

5

J t ^ v T U S " ? " can be interpreted as expressing "I will already be eating" in daily conversation. Howver, the grammatical Japanese equivalent would be fc O B f e C T i S ^ f e ^ ^ f e T l ^ ^ " "I will already

start eating."

153

FUNDAMENTALS OF JAPANESE GRAMMAR UK

_Jlh

It

flftZTfiS^i^TUi

Ufc alone, without context, can be interpreted either as "I

was eating" or "I had eaten." Here are some more examples: (4) I am drinking. /1 have drunk, (ambiguous) (5)

a. I am watching a movie now. b.

-tOttSlifc^ATl^. Speaking of that movie, I have already seen it

(6)

a.

^Wfcli^&A/CUS. Speaking of that book, I amreadingit now.

b. Speaking of that book, I have already read it (7)

a.

tr*

kz*>

^aix^fcuTus m

I am writing a term paper now. b. I have already written a term paper. tit)

(8)

a.

^MtfttoTUS. It is raining now.

b. (9)

a.

We havek'tl had a ~lot of rain this year. FCFRU LT « Takashi is sleeping peacefully in the J.next room now. O I L R O I J 5

FATF

The reason Takashi cannot fall asleep easily is that he has slept a lot during the day.

3.2

One-time events

As mentioned above, one-time events are perceived as events or situations that occur once and only once to bring about a physical and situational change in the subject. Also, the change is not realized by the repetition of the same event. For example, reaching the point of arrival may be realized by a gradual progressioa but not by repeating the arrival itself. Events described by non-volitional intransi-

CHAPTER 10

154

tive verbs are mostly perceived as one-time events. These verbs, when attached to T O - 5 express only a residtatioe meaning. They do not express an on-going meaning as, for example, in "an airplane is arriving" in English.

in Japane-

se exhibits only a resultative meaning that is equivalent to "an airplane has arrived (is in the state of having arrived at the airport)." This is an important difference found between English and Japanese. "An airplane is arriving" is then expressed simply by the non-past form

"will arrive" or some different

sentence patterns, such as i f < ¿ C Ö T ' f " "is about to arrive." Compare the difference between the use of T U - 5 with a repetitive event and a one-time event (10)

*
ft O U S ? (police) ( C S f S L f c . r f < i c * T < f c * S U . A # 5 E A , T I

J

circumstance)» £ J; 5 < ftic

* f f l f « : l ! i w r « i (when I explained the «>n k

tt&li^O A

as

*

«t^A^Tl^fc. (owner of the house) dtyft o TJfcfco

zx

(mannequin) maker) T ,

l"l N

ft

C t D ^ O ^ i A l i S J g C D i t ^ f E - S A (theater prop (prop)

ifllli^-fr

J

Excerpt sentences of aspect and provide a meaning for each sentence indicating either an on-going or a resultative meaning.

4.

Tfc
means that an intended action has been undertaken and that the resulting situation continues up to the present moment The function of T & - S and T t \ -5> is somewhat similar in that both are used to describe a resultative state, that is, something in the state of having been done. The difference is that T & - 5 is used when someone intended to cause the state that has resulted. Therefore, can accompany only an activity verb.7 The diagram below helps capture the similarities and differences between T l

and T I bought cake and juice and put them in die refrigerator. Itl! In the fridge? They aren't there.

m:

•

• .

•

•

That7s strange... I bought them this morning and put them in the fridge, ¿f C ( Z A t l T I wonder where I put them. a» ac R :

What are you looking for? The cake and juice I bought this morning. Oh, those? I put them away in my stomach. 6. is used when a speaker tries something to see how it is. The difference between H ^ S f

and l ^ T ^ S ' f

is that while f f c ^ S f indicates a

speaker's will torealizethe activity, J l t ^ T ^ S l l " creates a connotation of a trial: the speaker will try the food to see how it tastes. The result of the trial remains to be seen at the time of speech. (1)

Please try on this dress and see how you like it

163

F U N D A M E N T A L S OP JAPANESE GRAMMAR

(2)

1 I will take the 1st level exam and see how it goes.

(3)

Ztfr^tcTt* I tried rice wine to see how it was, but it tasted bad.

(4)

iflXTifclx* Would you like to try a new restaurant and see how we like it?

Sample dialogue BFCB

UXIU

Please sample my food. UMI

It

Please sample this and see how you like it. "If:

^

^

UoliU^fe'.

Well... I've justfinishedmy meal, so I'm full. That7s not nice! You think that it tastes bad, don't you? lilt o< My mom made it. $>.

t

Z

i

f

k

*

(

5

• • •

!)

Is that so? Well, thea I will by it. (Wuuu, yuk!) How do you like it? Is it good? To tell you the truth, I made it... ! I knew it!

7. 3 itself means "to put things away," but when it is attached to the T form of a verb, the compound verb expresses an "unrecoverable event" as a result of being put away. This notion communicates two extended meanings: (1) completion of actioa and (2) a regrettable event (since both are completed events that cannot be recovered). Therefore a sentence such as

\ L — A > " C US o

f t can carry the connotation of "He finished up the beer," or "(Unfortunately/

CHAPTER 10

164

unexpectedly) he finished up (my) portion of beer," or it can be both. The meaning depends on context but when completion is emphasized, the sentence is often accompanied by adverbs such as ll~ o ¿MJ "completely." In casual communication, T U S O is pronounced

tfcA.i C O. Since T

t>Z> or M/^O a s i n ^ l ^ t a - ^ P and

U S O expresses the concept of regret it often occurs in a

passive sentence that exhibits an adversity meaning. Observe the following sentences: (1)

QUIA,

L.»L;A,

it

^fiSliiA^^HUlCfc^^TUS^SU^:.

Speaking of dinner, I had already eaten up before my husband returned. (2)

Lit. Many people, it is sad to say, died in the war.

o) (4)

WM^Ijii'ro^y&tooTus^sufco The city of Tokyo has unfortunately completely changed, fe bib ih *> MlC&bttT, f o ^ U a i t l T L S l x S Since I did not have an umbrella, I got rained on and completely soaked, u s TA.it tt» si»* mr Unfortunately, I got my wallet stolen in the subway this morning.

Sample dialogue 1iA/«tl>

VAmZhj.

a.

lilC

flMmztTb&zi^TTfr.

Ms. Matsuda, you look happy. Did something good happen to you? tBffl: I H X i L lyiCo

fcfc*VBI4«>o


# J: J

jfcfe « H S A A ^ B l i S m & S - ^ T - f t a x . . Hoislt/uTtfr? Ms. Matsuda, you don't look very happy today. What's wrong? 14»EB: X p l .

DO

FCK-SA,

HImfrttUtz^ltfvXt.

Yes, I had a hard time since this morning. What on earth happened? t£>) L»*> ft

if

My dog ate the homework I did yesterday. Then I accidentally erased the term paper from the computer... Oh, poor girl...

A:

8.

tfht it i bt>

froiit

T U < / T < 5

The motion verbs f r < and JÜ-S do not always correspond to "go" and "come" in English, respectively. i r < and 5)5-2) are consistently used in a speakercentered manner in Japanese. When someone/something approaches the speaker, JR-5 is used, and when someone/something moves away from the speaker, i r < is used. For example, in English, when you are on the phone and are telling the interlocutor that you are visiting to see him/her, you would say, "I am coming to your place." In Japanese, since the speaker will move away from his/her place toward the interlocutor's place, ft < is the appropriate verb, as in am coming to your place." ft < and Jfc-S can also be used as auxiliaries to form compound verbs such a s $ # o T < £ "to bring" and llmoT
ft in the past tense form is appropriate, since the non-past form i S T indicates a future event, which itself temporally and conceptually moves away from the speaker. When a situation/event moves away from the speaker toward the future, ~f is the appropriate verb to use. For these conceptual movements, Ucr^lt" and cfSlf" are usually written in hiragana. The following picture represents the concept of U < and < -5. \

Past

eft;^¡òlihUh,

Present

Future

In the next section, examples are given in terms of U < / < movement and for temporal and conceptual movement

8.1

for physical

I ^ < / < £ expressing physical movement

/ < -5 are added to specify the direction of the physical movement of the preceding verb. Compare the verb with/ without and < and visualize where the speaker is in each sentence. I3Z

(1)

tP^tik,

6

a. A cat went down the stairs. b.

mtm&wjT*sut. A cat came down the stairs toward me.

c. A cat went down the stairs (moving away from me). (2)

a. Johnreturnedhome.

Fundamentals o f Japanese Grammar

b.

v a

167

£ Ufco

John came back to his home (where I am). c.

v 3

T l ^ S LtCo

John went back home (moving away from me). (3)

a. Mary will hold the flower. b. Mary will bring theflower(to me). c. Mary will bring theflowerssomewhere. •S.51ÎA,

(4)

-te

»

a. A balloon ascended skyward. * b.

Ufco A balloon ascended skyward toward me. (You must be somewhere above the sky.)

c. A balloon ascended to the sky (moving away from me).

8.2

IN < / < £ expressing temporal/conceptual movement

U < / < -5 are added to specify the direction of the temporal/conceptual movement of the preceding verb. Compare the verb with/without visualize such temporal/conceptual movement. (5)

a.

* 4 . m d h j t c h M < & 'J £ The sky gradually became dark.

b. The sky gradually became dark (since a little while ago), c.

QmzhjtzhjV£< U o T É J t . The sky is gradually becoming dark (toward the future).

(6)

a.

WmttbfrVZto I understand Japanese.

b. I came to understand Japanese.

and < -S and

CHAPTER 10

168

? c.

10

I will probably start understanding Japanese. (7)

a. The phone rang. b.

«EaWfro Someone called me.

* c. (8)

(9)

I g A W o T U t S L t

a.

mtltit. I get tired.

b.

ftntiSl/fc. I became tired.

* c.

mtlT^ZZt*

a. I wonder if the young population in Japan will become smaller (looking toward the future). * b.

As can be observed from the above example sentences, when the verb describes an abstract condition of a state or an event UcfS"3~isnot appropriate. U $ is most appropriate and gives a clear picture of the event's movement when it follows an activity verb. 9. Although the word 13: UU is morphologically an U adjective, (5 UI * functions like the English verb "want" and takes an object as in "I want a car." 13: L I Ms used only for the speaker him/herself, and does not represent a second or third person's desire. Remember that the object with (5 UI \ is marked by tfi since 15 UI ^ is a pure stative predicate. Observe the following examples:

'"Sentence (6c) is awkward, though it may be encountered in daily communication. In order to describe the change of state, in this case, from not understanding to understanding, £0 Ul/t IUiSr»jW3:U\. I want a new car.

(2)

m I want my own house.

(3)

mi

M: c Z «>

iih,iti>it

aiz

B£H©yi/-li>MifilJ&*BWt?

What do you wantforyour birthday? fm

=m-.

ts&tflauo.

I want money. Well, then what about a Christmas present?

=Hk

! Money!

When 13 L I \followsthe T form of a verb, it is used as a request. T I 5 U U expresses that the speaker would like the activity described by the T form of the verb done by someone else: "I want someone to do %Lt£fclZ:tA,UZtm-DTlZlsy$.ii:/uo I do not want you to say things like that.

(7)

• I want you to buy a kimono in Japan (and bring it to me), but (what do you think...)?

Since T I 3 U U is a pattern of request 1 5 L U can also be replaced by various expressions that indicate different degrees of politeness depending on to whom

CHAPTER 10

170

and in what circumstances the speaker is making the request as exemplified in the following: Low

I

t&^T&bX.&lv-CL.fcpfr •

»

High

X

T

l

L

«fc ? fr

Since "Vf" appears in every expression in the above examples, they are already considered formal. However, than

o f o is much more polite

The appropriateness of the ordering of the expressions

listed above may not receive complete consensus among native speakers of Japanese. However, it is certainly the case that a request made in a negative expression is more polite than the affirmative form. For example, in I&X.TI ^fcfiilfZ) T* U J; O fr and ^ L X X ^ t z t z i l i U

the latter is perceived as more

polite than the former. Sample dialogue

•

UA.UA/

mx: ? ? ? it u r t>A,tt

•

•

.

e

it,

&6~

ttt

Itur

-3tP

tflt

U

O IJ U

T

B

U

^

I

S

J

O^IJTTO

I

S

tSliZ/v:

M

A

.

4>A,

^ • T L Ä Ü Ü W ^ S E ^ S

TSTZAFI

J

ES Ü

T

L

I * * »

\

T^ F C

L V C * - «FC. T T & K L

E S * . ;

«> FCSLJÄFO

E Ä I ^ S U I M T N T ' T )

•

•

•.

C H A P T E R 11

ft Form Compounds

The fundamental notion of the fc form is "perfective," which means that an event described by the fc form indicates the completion of the event. Such a notion is applicable to an event that has occurred in the past or to an event that will have been completed in the future. In this sense, the fc form does not necessarily act as the past tense form, but creates a similar notion to "after."1 Thus, the f t form is used to describe a past event or a future event, both of which indicate the completion of events, regardless of the tense in the main clause. 1.

fc&T Verb fc.

1 j-

Noun CD Uj: f£ adjective Noun y

fcu-fcu

t&/tzv~tzytz

frofcy$E/tyt"§ go back and forth tik^ftVlt/ufzVfz it rains on and off tA* # i*-ta< t t U A ^ / r U tT-S sometimes free, sometimes busy BA/ii ÎÉTcofcy iT-S sometimes true, sometimes a lie tz y U is used when activities and states of things are listed randomly and are unsolicited. The predicate used in this construction represents some of the activities or the ways things are. The English equivalents may be that one does things such as X and Y; that things are in ways such as X and Y; and that situations X and Y alternate. Though sentences in this construction usually end with ft U when states of affairs are described, rather than activities, f t y y tz may be used, such as ^ ® l i M ^ K o f t y it/ufz U tzt V V t "I hear that it will rain on and off this week." When activities are listed randomly, those activities should be able to be conducted in a similar framework and scale in order to carry them out. Going to

175

FUNDAMENTALS OF JAPANESE GRAMMAR

Japan from die United States, for example, may require heavy preparation and may not occur on a daily basis, while watching TV can be considered a daily rou•5

IDBA,

H

tine activity. 6 E I C l i 0 ^ i r o f c U ,

*

T

U

J

U

L S f "In June, I do

things such as going to Japan and watching TV" sounds very awkward. These l

two activities should not be mixed as random events in the

J

it,

U

i

construction. The sentence should be, for example, 6 ^ o

I^FCY

8A,I2>

Verb +

means "someone has an experience of doing something"

or "someone has ever done something" and is used especially when one's experience is being emphasized; therefore, activity verbs can occur with However, the desiderative form (e.g., J t ^ i t U ) or some & adjectives may occasionally be used. Since an experience is something that has been done, the perfective form f t (denoting completion of an event) is used. It can be translated as "I have (ever) done but due to the emphasis on the event as an experience, everyday routine t> ir liA/ activities may not be described by this construction, fifl CTfifiirlfc'^fcC. t . "I have had an experience of eating breakfast," for example, is ineligible for use with this construction. U is repeated. C also follows the verb dictionary form, meaning "I sometimes do Observe the following examples: (1)

a.

5 [ZZ&^tzZ.

£ff$> y

£tt)\

Do you have (Have you had) the experience of eating sea urchin? b.

&y No, I don't (haven't).

Cf.

c. Did you eat sea urchin?

177

FUNDAMENTALS OF JAPANESE GRAMMAR

d.

IH\;1. No, I didn't

Sentence (la) demonstrates that i t ^ f c d

indicates a particular experi-

ence which may be unique to the individual, while in sentence (lc),

l/fc

fy is not concerned with the individual's experience, but simply asks about the listener's activity in the past. (2)

a.

S±0JIcI

o t C i ^ U S M

Do you have (Have you had) the experience of climbing Mt Fuji? b. Yes, I do (I have). a.

c.

(t>5)S±iiji;:gij$u;t^„

Have you (already) climbed Mt. Fuji? d. No, I haven't climbed it yet Sentence (2a) g i l l j I C g o / c C

U

may be translated as "Have

you climbed Mt. Fuji?" which seems to be the same as sentence (2c) (i) z>) S i l i l ICS U $

Although the difference is circumstantial, since both can be in-

terpreted as expressing one's experience, a subtle difference may be that Z. k. tfi $> U

:

"TiP is uttered to see if by chance the listener had the experience of

climbing Mt. Fuji, while ( i o ) S ± l l j l C g U $ LfcXP is uttered when the speaker has some expectation that the listener has already climbed Fuji. A negative answer in negative form confirms this observation: $> U j£"tiA/ conveys that the listener does not have the experience, while S t f f H o T l ^ l i ' / i » indicates that the listener has not yet climbed Fuji, but suggests that s/he will do so in the near future.

(3) a.

EUR*,

SI*

U titfr.

Do you have (have you had) the experience of shouting?

b. ttl\. &{)£to Yes, I do (I have).

CHAPTER 11

178

a.

tit

c.

Do you have the experience of wanting to shout? d.

|Jl\. bZZ^

$>V£t,

Yes, of course, I do. The difference between sentences (3a,b) and (3cd) is that the individual in (3b) actually did shout at some time in the past and considers that event as an experience, while sentence (3c) is concerned with the desire of the listener, and whether the individual actually shouted or not is not an important concern. Thus, the desiderative form fcfyz>fc may also be used, depending on context. (4) I have had the experience of having Med an exam several times. Sentence (4) is another example where a & adjective is used.

can represent

various meanings, such as "not good," "fail," "does not work/'^etc., and in this case, it represents a situation that can be described by the verb ife

L f c "failed."

Sample dialogue * hs

y rttA, ftith aa $>0)*(D-&±\zmr>ftZtt)y3iTt)\

$>Z>t>o (stare)&fUZC.ttfi»V&tfr,

m?

4.

IH**.,

ftivfc).

£ ¿ ¿ 5

¿ < 1 3 canfollowthe dictionary form of die verb, the aspectual form (Tl^-5), or the fz form, and it generally indicates the point in time at which something is about to happen, is happening, or has just happened. For example, j5fc/S£:lJ~ refers to the time of completion of the event. The verbs used with

¿«.fc's

e

My friend came over when I'd just taken a shower. (2)

^ ¿ o E & m Z f t t t t z t ^ - Z t . I've justfinishedmy meal.

0 )

^ m ^ m - o t z t ^ i 3 T - f

0

I've come home just now. (4)

M ^ k t f W i icilMt t Z Z - Z t , The airplane has just arrived at the airport.

(5)

m<AjfztZZTto It has just stopped raining. Ztl>tl

(6)

m

f> tfmffc

fa^

«

t

A cat came over at the time when thefishwas grilled. Although ZVMtmmtftte&yiiZtZtctblz,

E/utzzt&VtlstiUfcfr.

3. S 1/ «fc ? is the formal version of the jo O form and the equivalent of "Let's" in English when a speaker tries to involve an interlocutor in an activity. Therefore, only an action verb can occur in the

L> J; O form. fc^/SUj;^ can also be

used in a question with the meaning "Shall I/we

when the speaker wonders

about the activity or offers something to someone. Although it is used to involve someone in an activity, when used as an invitation, it may give an impression that the interlocutor's intention has already been confirmed. If an invitation is intended,

with a rising intonation or l£.~\±Aj£)'i "Won't you like to do

may be preferred, since these forms are used to sound out whether or not the interlocutor is interested in the activity. Observe the following examples, which make use of these forms:

185

FUNDAMENTALS O F JAPANESE GRAMMAR

(1)

a.

VHfr&SGtolcteHirUfcS. Starting today, I shall do my homework seriously. What shall I do if I receive a C grade?

C.

Shall we walk to the library together? Why don't we walk to the library together? d. Would you like to walk to the library with me? (2)

a.

IBLYJ;

UJJU

*

L>

Lef s go to see a baseball game together. b.

HKUJJSSOftte«: J l l Z f j * Z L x v f r o Shall we go to see a baseball game together?

c. Would you like to go see a baseball game with me? TOFCU

IT

What shall we dofromnow on? The appropriateness of the use of these forms depends on the relationship between the speaker and the interlocutor, and the environment they are in. The HAjfr form is most commonly used for invitation, although the English equivalent "Would you like to do

fcl^'C't't)'* is not considered appropriate, espe-

cially when the speaker is inviting someone who is older than s/he is. (See Chapter 9, Section 1.) Sample dialogues

U l t :

W B l t ± B H < D l & £ B t o o

"torch, •,m: VV:

o f v .

x ! ? UE>v

CHAPTER 12

186 li A. til

• ¿f pronouns.

1.

The Non-anaphoric (Pointing) Use of C

¿f

Look at the picture below, which represents the very basic usages of C. • $> • ¿f. Note that the entity is referred from the speaker's viewpoint.

187

•

188

C.: $>: H:

CHAPTER 13

closer to the speaker; usually used in a non-anaphoric way.1 closer to the listener than to the speaker. at a distance both from the speaker and the listener. which, what type of, where, etc.: location or attribute unknown to both the speaker and the listener.

d series demonstratives are used when an entity is close to the speaker or in the speaker's hands; when it is close to the listener; , when the distance from the speaker and the listener is comparable; and H, when the location or attribute is unknown to both the speaker and the listener. See thefollowingchart for various usages. things things

way3

place

place

or

extent

sort kind

direction

person

a

kind 4

2

c

person

Ctl

CO

Cp

» i

cse.

i-tl

i"©

t o

-5-C

« e .

ifctl

$>\

SisiiSlWjG».

How did you like it? Is the price affordable? A: X.X.S

r - # j ,fcyii®i\T-r«fc.

Yeah, it is so-so. It is cheaper than Ichiban. r B: $>. b l r a t l & ^ T T f r b t e Z . ! That restaurant is expensive, isn't it! The listener first uses indicating that he has never been to Akasaka, but uses $> informing the speaker that he also knows Ichiban. Thus, the use of or $> depends on the knowledge the speaker and the listener may share.

22

C

When the C series is used anaphorically, it can be used for indicating something as if it were visible to both the speaker and the listener at the time of the conversatioa and thus it imparts vividness to the conversation. This use is often seen where the speaker wants to emphasize some attribute of the entity.

192

(6)

CHAPTER 13

The speaker refers to Mr. Sasaki using C as if he were present. e

£

»

tic

! I met a man called Sasaki yesterday, but this man is two meters tall! B: (7)

Two meters? That7s unbelievable. Two people are in a classroom waiting for the class to start. The speaker brings A: c out o mthe0placement * 1 1 3 test he has taken recently. CtfJSm m tfA/tfA*

I took a placement testforthird-year Japanese the other day, but this exam was extremely difficult and I could not handle it at all. B: 8>s fcOttllTS'bWtfctt^ That exam? I also took it but I couldn't do well at all. A: tcfrZ&ttZOZ?*lZ\.\ZlH\ may be interpreted as expressing

"cheap and, whafs more, delicious"1 and "not only beautiful, but also smart," respectively. (10)

¿fees

tt>

tat

-5-LT,

My friend's father is a lawyer. And his mother is a doctor.

(11)

My friend'sfatheris a lawyer, and his mother is a doctor. *tt *'.

CHAPTER 15

Interrogative Pronouns and Interrogative Sentences

There are two types of question sentences. One is the so-called "yes/no questioa" and the other is the interrogative question formed by using an interrogative pronoun. In the following, the formation of interrogative sentences as well as the formation of phrases with interrogative pronouns will be discussed.

1. 1.1

The Functions of & Yes/no questions

Yes/no questions are formed simply by adding the equivalent of a question mark fr at the end of a sentence in Japanese. There is no change in the sentence's movement on its surface structure. For example, in order to change

S ^ÀTlf"

fflffè/vit

"Mr. Tanaka is Japanese" to a question, add fr at the end of the

sentence and form H ^ c E / u l i B ^ À T f ti> "Is Mr. Tanaka Japanese?" Since functions as a question marker, there is no need to add a question mark after tf>. The question mark may be used when the sentence is not in the form of a question sentence, but the speaker or the writer wishes to indicate that the sentence is intended to be a question. For example, C t l » itf-cÈ ? "Do you like this?" may occur instead of C t l *

In oral communication, these

questions can be identified by the intonation, but in written communication, without the question mark, they may be mistaken for declarative statements. When answering the yes/no question, a straightforward device for beginners is simply to repeat the predicate in the correct form to practice answering the question. In the following, sentence (a) is a question, (b) is an affirmative answer,

207

CHAPTER 15

208

and (c) is a negative answer. For the equivalent of yes or no in Japanese, there are some variations.1 (1)

a. b.

c.

l U T S M i . VB©/t-x-fldfe$-fj&>. Is Ms. Yamashita coming to today's party? (X.X.* is alsofine,but may sound a little feminine.) Yes, she is coming. IH^A, 3j|l£j£A;o ( l ^ may also be used, especially by male language speakers.) No, she is not.

(2)

a.

$> "make it to/become" and d b. decides to do-/it has been decided that

/ C to

4>

XKTi t

1M/1tl>

I finally came to understand grammar. I became able to speak, too. On top of that I became able to write kanji. So, I became able to get a good score and came to be praised by the teacher. (6)

A:

5Ttfe. I hear that your graduate student became veal after graduation. 6i
cfc 5 ic u t < tz s ivfco Oh, no, no. She became an instructor. Try to pay attention to your intonation. A verb followed by if-a

irt

It was decided that I will work in Canadafora month starting next month.

222

CHAPTER 16

(5)

-5 is given as the topic/sub-

ject of the sentences, with the rest of the sentence as a comment on y a

CHAPTER 17

230

l i automatically locates the marked noun outside the relative clause. Also, in sentence (19), the subject of the relative clause is missing, and from the sentence alone, the listener cannot tell who bought the book. Contrary to this, the subject of the main predicate Wihjtz "read" is missing in sentence (20), and the listener cannot tell who read the book which John bought. These missing pieces of information will cause misunderstanding between the speaker and the listener unless both of them are in an environment where they canfillin the missing information. Here are some more examples:

(21)

a.

?A

It

I know the place where John lives. (tfilt À

Ifis

V RC If A* A. A/

iitjt

000 R T $

5

Ic^ofc.

The person who picked up my bicycle that I abandoned sold the bicycle for 1,000 yen to my brother. If there is more than one embedded relative clause included in a sentence, the sentence may become difficult to comprehend. However, this happens often in Japanese writing, as a sentence can include a number of such clauses without breaking up the sentence into several short sentences. Try to figure out the meaning of the following sentences, taken from various written materials. (26)

EE+HBii. Cl-ttli

rTts^-f h • x - J

J

:

t

A

¿»flittSHlc&oT^

X. 1

Sample reading The following story is based on a fairy tale called

*>«

IJIIUTA,

"A

Restaurant with Many Orders," originally written by Kenji Miyazawa. It has been 'Excerpted from Miura and McQoin (1994).

CHAPTER 17

232

rewritten for the purpose of identifying relative clauses. Once you identify the relative clause, eliminate all the clauses and read only the remaining skeleton structure. You will understand the basic idea of the sentence. etili,

Cifil. «
tf J>fcU l/A/U *ift*«ilftfcSl\:iA©tt± te -NA.

jilCiioTUSUSLfco U-3IÌA, «-3 1/ tfUJ:5U iJOt*,

fSfaCltA, #ÌHiJ£-liJ»ÌTJ

-Aitzomvit

tt/uin* siaicii 111»

i> l.ti T ¿»Ivtt&SÌLMtiTUSUfc. lt-3

tm^T&vzto

J:5C aa> s A / C f icAUSUfco t< i t t>i

J:

r®

-X^fSlzA^t.

zhfcmtziszb^ytf&ztimztifr^/t-Mt 0 i/s

tzt> to*

ivWfn

68 iòC

re

l> ¿»iv-c&yjrr.

s i ^ i e .

"tcoFTZ&MZt.

fc.

rctilit>-3/£.

-Ali

¿ l o t .

^oTiciinixflso

li?

fc&^iTfc-fUTU-SiDTv

è l fricfc -3 T U £ -a Aliifc©»«^ A o l»5l»S ^cicii. y, i-nicii. il>r OH Oli tlfr U6 fc. réf^tfe^u^tetofti^Tj roh.

Ò'

• • •¿lOCérfcA/fc' ! J

S

Ut>

£ Ufco • • •. J

C C ^ T ^ o i ^ n ^ ^ p f c - A l i s

233

FUNDAMENTALS OF JAPANESE G R A M M A R

1.5

Noun-complement clause (NC) + noun

A noun-complement clause is the same as the English subordinate clause used in sentences such as "I know the fact that idea that

"I heard a rumor that

"I have an opinion that

"I have an

and "I reached the conclusion that

That clause follows a noun that requires a description of the content or attribute of the noun. In Japanese, this formation is realized by the use of b. I *

that links a

noun and its description. A

clause appears to be the same as a relative clause in its surface

structure, since a noun-complement clause also comes before a noun in the form of a sentence and explains the noun in further detail. However, as the different terms "relative clause" and "noun-complement clause" suggest, their use is not exactly identical. While a relative clause restricts the attribute or type of the modified noun, a noun-complement clause explains the content of the modified noun. In other words, a relative clause creates a hierarchical relationship, while a nouncomplement clause creates an appositional relationship between the clause and the noun by the use of t . O z>. As exemplified in Johnson (2005a), CO

precedes a noun such as 91 I t "fact," It A,

usually

L.

LITTU

Itltf

X "idea," E M "opinion," IS "story,"

"rumor," in b "t£ "informatioa"

tfA,»

DIIFCU

"result," and ft M "situation." See

thefollowingexamples:

(27)

m^ftiumt&mts t .

Until today, I didn't know that Yoko was going to get married to Yamada.

CHAK

E

(28) I heard a rumor that afootballstadium will be constructed at the university.lite

C

5

lil>

The news came that my cousin gave birth to a baby boy. (30) We often hear the story that a dog saved his owner's life. Sometimes nouns may function as head nouns for a relative clause or a nouncomplement clause. The use of b. I ^ O and the context are decisive for determining the meaning of the sentence. See thefollowingsentences:

234

(31)

fcxfco tf C

a.

CHAPTER 17

'J # 5

^-Oiitl^^lCiEo/iiaaiiSfc'to^oTl^Oo

(RC)

The reason why/for which the building caughtfirehas not become clear yet

»HU»

b.

kith

(NQ

For the reason that the building caughtfire,the company went bankrupt (32)

a.

^Bltiit^btUElNo

(RQ

As a result of eating too much food yesterday, I cannot eat anything today. (NC) Since I ate too much yesterday, I came to a result that I cannot eat anything today. The difference between the RC and the NC may be difficult to detect but one of the crucial syntactic characteristics is die possible use of I J in the NC. The RC cannot include it, but the NC can. This is due to the fact that the NC is a clause that describes the content of the head noun with elements of the same kind as the head noun.

Content

= 1tffl)

The piece of information that Japanese wear nothing but kimono is wrong. Note that tfi can also be used in a NQ but It cannot be used in a RC. (34)

(RQ The kimono Japanese wear are usually made of silk.

235

FUNDAMENTALS OF JAPANESE GRAMMAR

2.

Modifying Verbs: Adverbs

A verb is modified by an adverb. There are basically three types of adverbs in Japanese: (1) words that are morphologically and semantically identified as adverbs, including onomatopoeias and mimetics; (2) I ^ adjectives and & adjectives t> Lr fc that change their form to modify a verb; and (3) time nouns, such as ^ 0 "tomorrow" and 15 E "every month" that explain, for example, when and how often an event described by a verb happens. In any case, the function of these words is consistent in that they all modify a verb. The following are some examples that express the frequency of occurrence of an event, the degree of the situation described by the verb, and the degree of probability that the event described by the verb will come true or be realized.

2.1

Adverbs of frequency

S 0

I go every day.

loi)

lOfclvTt.

O is to indicate the occurrence of a change in an activity or state.4 This fundamental meaning extends its function to mean "already" with an affirmative predicate and "no longer" with a negative predicate. In either case, use of fe 5 shows that a change occurred in an event; and the state is not maintained in the same fashion as it was before. Observe the following sentences:

if (14) I've alreadyfinishedwriting the thesis. (15)

ifll&OlC,

ioB§(,\ 0

Although it is 4:00, if s already dark.

(16) *>Otz!totz !

I'm already doomed,

(17)

frti

a>® c t

t>

He will probably no longer meet her. (18)

fc^i^ttfEUo I am too full and cannot eat any more.

2.6.2

£ £

The fundamental meaning of ^.tz is to express a continued, unchanged situation. This attribute contributes to the creation of two interpretations: "still" and "not yet." In either case, a sentence with %tz describes a situation where no change has yet taken place in the situation described. For example, if one says "I still like him," the feelings of the speaker for that person continue in the same manner as

4 The

change can be associated with either the onset of the activity or its completion—completion being the attainment of the endpoint (goal) of the activity. See Jacobsen (1983).

239

FUNDAMENTALS OF JAPANESE GRAMMAR

before. If one says "I have not eaten yet," the situation of not having eaten continuesfroma point in the past up to the current moment. (19) (20)

lli^/clloTU-So It is still snowing. A* *>s usi; fc are inappropriate responses to a i> O

\stz

1P question.5 (23)

UA,

it

a. fc 9 [tkj c n S * * * *

lstzfi\

Have you already eaten dinner? b.

|il\ i o & ^ S U f c . Yes, I have.

c.

SyiSrSTllSSAy. No, I haven't eaten yet.

(£fc\

/u or

^S-t^TLfcareungrammatical

responses.) (24)

a. b.

Have you already cleaned your room? fcpUSLfc. Yes, I have.

Infact,depending on the type of the verb, t h e S ^ i — L S l t A / pattern can be used. However, since the use of T O - 5 is always appropriate; it is recommended that beginners use T O 5 with S / f . Further discussion isfoundin Johnson (2001,2002). 5

CHAPTER 17

240

c.

gfcbTUg-fr/u. No, I haven't cleaned the room yet.

(25)

a.

K(it>5ii. Has it become dark outside?

b.

X.X.,

toBSCteUSLfccto

Yes, it has become dark. No, it hasn't become dark yet. 2.7

^ I t a n d U ^

/ ¿ I t and

are both dependent constituents that have to follow another word.

The English equivalent of ^ f l t and

is "just" and/or "only," and the primary

function of the words is to constitute an adverbial phrase that modifies a verb or an

adjective. Although their English equivalent is "only," the syntactic and

semantic functions of /¿I t and UA'1 differ slightly.6 felt mayfollowa noun and constitutes a nominal phrase, such as iftcZfc A{&fo£Zfzfzlj'T''t~ 'The only person I like is you," or it mayfollowa noun that is used as an adverbial phrase, such as ^BQcEA/^flt^ife "Only Mr. Honda came." L>t>\ on the other hand, when used in an adverbial phrase, requires a negative form of the predicate7 to occur, and emphasizes the fact described by the affirmative of the predicate or that the event, situation, number, and so on is worse or less than what the speaker expected. For example, if UA* replaces ti\1f in

ttZtiMthUtttf-Qt

c^&Ali&te/l

and * f f l £ A/fc'ltJfcfc the sentence has to b e : » 'There is no one except you whom I like" (not

with the copula tz but with the verb U-5) and StpZAjlsfrlfcfefr-ofc "No one except Mr. Tanaka came." Compare the following sentences in terms of meaning and structure.

6

Further discussion isfoundin Kuno (1998a).

7

In casual communication, however, a word with a negative connotation is sometimes used with l/Av

This is similartothe phenomenon of the adverbial i f A j t f fv "not at all," which is often used with a word with a negative connotatioa For example, ZX\\>lT>ti$>1i. "only this is bad" indicates the same meaning as "only this does not work," and "tf A/1?hli.#>tL "it is all bad" indicates the same meaning as "it is not good at all."

FUNDAMENTALS OF JAPANESE GRAMMAR

(26)

ttt

a.

241

0>C

fc-fUtf-Ofc'ltSloTl^.

Just one piece of sushi is remaining, b.

fcfLjft*—OUWi-aTUfcl*. Nothing is remaining except one piece of sushi./Only one piece of sushi is remaining. (The sentence implies that the speaker expected more sushi to be remaining.)

(27)

a.

iMCli&ftfcAcltUSo The person I have is just you.

b. I have no one but you whom I love./The person I have is only you. (28)

a.

fc^AlifefcUSUfcltfc. The attribute of that person is just "interesting." (Implies that there is no other particular characteristic that the person carries.)

b.

bOMtZtllWcllfZo The attribute of that person is just "pretty." (Implies that there is no other particular characteristic that the person carries.)

c.

fciDAI^tlU'CWP&O. That person is pretty, but just that.

The use of fzlt and L>tf> in sentences (26) conveys what the speaker's expectation was. When U fr is used, the speaker's expectation about the number of remaining sushi is clearly indicated, but fzlf does not express any strong expectation. fzlt states the event/situation rather objectively, indicating the fact without the speaker's evaluative feeling. For this reason, sentence (26b) sounds better than (26a). As may be seen in sentences (28a) and (28b), f z t f can occur with both I ^ and

adjectives, while

between the copula T and

can occur only with a tS. adjective and is located V

Sample dialogues -RSU^ftlMtd: • • • "I don't have any money, except 10 yen..." t i c t>5 frta n>

CHAPTER 17

242 etc #§: iiAy/I & :

*c A» to

10RTIUVufc*. USAA/Ct —R110 ? (with ten pennies?)

u t i ^(Ditmrdim !

5 (¿1 \ o tc I f-fcT:

••

i^iCotTfi^T,

iy-;*(onedozen)

fc©

?frk1sAl3.1t.t P) Cm

fttfi

fc>.

rmtztffci J:. Mtoti-^U-C.

(You are kidding me, aren't you?) (Pinoveit)

CHAPTER 18

Nominalizers: f

Modal

following the casual form of a part of speech is used to express something a tofcU S speaker heard. A O sentence is semantically the same as U/t "I heard that Since a-?" 5 sentence implicitly includes the subject it should not have an explicit iAIi in it. In casual conversation, o T is often used as a contracted form of t z ^ O Remember that only one hiragana character decides the meaning of the sentence. I heard that it is going to rain.

It is going to rain; thaf s what I hear. (6)

UifcUU I hear that sushi at that restaurant is delicious, but sushi at the next restaurant is not good. ttA,ttt> life If*,« fad I hear that the professor's dog isfine,but her cat is not in good health. ¿5 «1>0I< Ji'SVtK

(8)

m z o f z t o v t o

I heard / learned that the professor's father was also a university physics professor.

259

F U N D A M E N T A L S OF JAPANESE GRAMMAR

12 A>H

Verb dictionary form

eeaí>

t ^ adjective

4

v

»r

IC 11 A, CA,

Noun t i adjective

IC A A, Z

ÜL/J

&

II«

« A, f

Proposition

Modal

ta adjective The visual "Ç" 5 and ct 5 are very similar in that both involve a speaker's visual impression of the situation. J ; O is also usually translated as "looks like," with the slight difference that 5 O, and

L

l i l T expresses the highest degree of speaker conviction. As mentioned earlier, modals may not be used to form interrogative sentences, and I i s no exception. (1)

TT A, X.

CD 9 (¿1000 R G & o i t ^ b * Since I spent 1000 yen yesterday,

Since I spent 1000 yen yesterday, there should be 500 yen remaining in my wallet. (2)

. Ms. Honda is already home, I'm sure. (= Ms. Honda should already be home.)

O)

m a ^ D u s u f c ^ E K

sfc'irft^fciWT-f.

Since I cleaned yesterday, I'm sure it is still clean. (4)

ICIJA,

«I

C*R-5 ICTTA,

(18)

(19)

I think that I probably will have gone back to Japan around this time next year. fc$>$UZ^ttttdtbtdZo» I did not do well on the bar exam this time, either. I guess I won't pass this year, either.

Note that has another function: it is used in tag questions (although T L J; O is commonly used as well). Whether tiTiO is used as a modal or a confirmation marker can be identified by intonation and context. (20)

TI/U

a.

U

T L J:I>A/

FCL'SK

2.» The city library does not have that book, but the university library probably has it. Speaking of that book, the university library has it right? (21)

a.

•3 J».

mtlfizfiiZz). I guess you are tired.

b. Your are tired, aren't you? Sample dialogue

268

CHAPTER 19

SSfc*

SS

A,T"f m -

Í 5 »

fcU^A.

«vi*,-

2.4

OA, t i

• • •.

M

t/T*> t z t b t z o

i5*>

¿5

¿"blstiftli Verb I \ adjective adjective Noun 1 Proposition

>f Modal

i C i A. fflli COAU-lifr&l^til/ft&l*. i>n » i i t>s «li^HliGfr'bW'imx.

fy t> L tl^C t ^ literally means "it cannot be known." Its root form is fundamentally negative, and the phrase acts in much the same way as an U adjective. ^ i ) U I ^ can be used when a speaker does not possess firm evidence, but judges a situation based on his/ her intuition and the surrounding environment Therefore, fyi) L t l f e U is often used in reference to totally unknowable, imagined situations which are in the domain of epistemic possibility. A sentence with ifi i ) I s t l can be interpreted as "it is possible that X happens," and it is simultaneously compatible with "it is possible that X does not happen."

U t l & l ^ implies

269

F U N D A M E N T A L S OF J A P A N E S E G R A M M A R

neither that X will happen nor that X will not happen, but is compatible with both. For the most part it is used to express situations whose outcome cannot be determined by the speaker, i.e., indeterminable situations. The probability of the proposition's being true is low, since it is based solely on the speaker's intuitive judgment. Therefore, fot) U t l f a U reflects the hypotheticality of the proposition. frib L t l & l * can be attached to both past and non-past forms of verbs and I \ adjectives, and it selects a zero-form copula (without fc) when attached to nouns and f< [tCDMZI^m&fr o t l ^ t U M l The person may have been short (but I don't remember.)

(29)

[ - t o A l i 0 * A / £ - 3 fc]^ " b o n a : I ^ The person could have been Japanese (but I am not sure).

As seen in sentences (26) and (27), when the proposition is in a past context and is combined with an "if' clause, In general, tf* t)

U n & l ^ renders a counterfactual meaning.

I ^ creates the meaning "It may be X but it may not be X."

CHAPTER 19

270

Sample dialogue

mmr]

in a ggfl: "If:

»£ A & « There are young people who are interested in politics. «Ktilt ttA/ttlt fcu fcA.< It ( Students complained about the teacher; there was no such case. - » Students did not complain about the teacher.

CHAPTER

20

Giving and Receiving

In Japanese, there are three verbs that are roughly equivalent to "give" and "receive" in English: $ > l f £ and < t l - 5 are equivalents to "give," and i>

0 to

"receive." Since there are two verbs to express "to give," learners have to know the difference between $ > l f £ and < t l - 5 and make a clear distinction in the use of these verbs. Thefollowingdiagram summarizes the use of these verbs: someone gives something to someone else llfCDA

T&^Ztltlfrlfilfrib.

hamburger because it tasted bad, so I gave it to the dog."

J ^ I C ^ o f c . "I couldn't eat that

279

FUNDAMENTALS OF JAPANESE GRAMMAR

(2)

* 'J - \ t $ L # I C 7 - Y

U f c l f $ Ufc.

Mary gave a bottle of wine to die president. Mr. Schwarzenegger gave a bunch offlowersto his wife. (4)

U

*H

The presidentjgave a subsidy to the state of California. (5)

y £ ufc. My mother gave water to the plant.

(6)

a.

"Wit

S^iCa^tii-^ftAlfSl/fc.

My brother gave my sister a computer. b. My brother gave my sister a computer. hi

in sentence (6a) is used to describe an objective view of the act conducted

by the brother, while

in sentence (6b) may be used based on the speaker's

empathy (Kuno, 1987): the speaker is looking at the situation from the brother's viewpoint. When the issue of empathy becomes involved, irregularity in the use of •^•S may arise. The use of

varies from person to person, and the gener-

alization of this verb cannot be considered as always pragmatically valid. X l Z ^ lt/u lift ftc "I fed my dog," 7ElC7.k££>(ffc "I watered the plant" are examples of this. Here,

or $ > l f £ is used depending on personal preference, i.e., how

the person feels about the event or situation.2

12

< * * • < £ «

XIJ Ylcjz*

5

is also used as an informal equivalent

o(~i~Z> "to do."

and

are interchangeable when

•5 carries the meaning "to perform." For example; the equivalent of "a movie is showing" is TU3,andnot0*B£: UTO-5.

~!f

CHAPTER 20

280

The difference between $>l f£> and < t l - 5 is that when someone gives something to the speaker (or someone in the speaker's group) out of goodwill, < t l - 5 has to be used. The giver is recognized as the subject of a good deed for me. See the following example: (7)

v a >ifi

tifcL

ft

f £ < hfc.

John was kind enough to give me a souvenir. The use of < and & b

is perhaps more complicated and problematic than that of $> because the people in the in-group vary depending on the so-

cial setting, the relationship between the speaker and the people in his/her group, the empathy that the speaker shares with the person in questioa and so forth. Observe the following examples:

(9)

The teacher gave me an English-Japanese dictionary. G i K lit^-tfA/t^A/

(Dj>mm\z&)!$.&£ l f / t should be used.) a. ^ - ( D i l i i m t f < f t f c & T t f r o

*> if t> «n

Who gave you thering?(I want to know, so please explain.) b.

* c.

f7U>K#lffc/uV?t)\

and the answer

should be v 3 > t f $ > l f f c A j T t .

1.3

•

Werdest xiä

YI fromY

Although the equivalent of fc b 2 is "to receive," it carries the nuance of a favor requested by the receiver. Compare the following sentences: Between my friend and me (13)

a.

¿FCFC'S

IL'BCTAI

H L m t f m & m z < n s ufc» My friend was kind enough to give me an English-Japanese dictionary.

b.

(lMi)£iIic£?nSffc b I I received an English-Japanese dictionary from my friend.

Between John and Mary (14)

a.

v 3

U - l l i l i i l k & l f i ; Ufc„

John gave a ring to Mary. b. Mary received a ring from John.

CHAPTER 20

282

Thefirstthing one may notice is the difference in the subject of the sentence. The subject of $}l f%> and < ft-5 is the giver, while the subject of t> b O is the receiver, though the result of the activity remains the same. The speaker chooses either sentence depending on whose activity s/he acknowledges. However, a slight nuance may be detected in the way i> 6 O is used, that is, the existence of a request behind the receiving. If the receiver requests something, & b 5 may be more appropriate. For example, certain people mayfindthat sentence (13b) presumes speaker's request for the dictionary. Observe the following example sentences: (15)

^Oy-A,

ioOb&frofcbv

U.

If you don't need that game anymore, give it to me. ?Aa

lH\cfco £lf-g> 0

Sure, I'll give it to you. Later, ToyotafindsHonda playing the game and says: Mm:

t S l t - 5 , can form sentences, including (indi-

rect object) IC (direct object) £ (give a favor to someone), while regular transitive verbs that take only one object cannot form a sentence in the same manner as those that take two objects. For example, WM^Wi-h "to take a picture" and j$fc Z) "to wash" cannot involve IC since they cannot be used with an indirect object. 3 4

5fc£IC B^STSiWOfc US Ufc would be better. S^roftfr 'J I C S S t fcS U L £ Ufc/ fcB U Vt

Lfc would be better.

284

CHAPTER 20

tofcl/ IÀ iC^IÎ^rffilo T < tlft "someone took me a picture," for example, is an ungrammatical sentence in Japanese. For intransitive verbs, when the person who receives the favor of some action must appear in the sentence, that person is generally marked by (Otztb\Z (for the benefit of

Observe thefollowingsentences,

which use three types of verbs: Ditransitive verbs [SOOV]

Mr. Yamada was kind enough to send Ms. Tanaka a package.

Transitive veibs [SOV]

\hm£/v\tm*2/u(D M SriSfcoTfclf£ Lfc. Mr. Yamada was kind enough to wash Ms. Tanaka's car.

Intransitive verbs

liiffl^A/liffltf'i/uiDfci&lCils K l C i r o T & l f

[SV] Mr. Yamada was kind enough to visit Ms. Tanaka at the hospital.

2.1.1 Ditransitive verbs tt/uttn

ta

Mr. Tanaka was kind enough to take the documents to the teacher. tifcu

tti/izfrtou j:

TA.*>iiA,ri

co

I was nice enough to tell my friend the phone number. I was nice enough to buy my brother a souvenir.

2.1.2 Transitive verbs Vx\t9t£. e. i \ * ufc.

I had m^ friend wait for my sister. I had my sister clean my room.

289

FUNDAMENTALS OF JAPANESE GRAMMAR

Z3.3

Intransitive verbs

bitv

e

I had the section chief come to the meeting room, so a Used in the R e q u e s t Form6

The T < i l - 5 and T t ) b

constructions can be used when one makes a

request. They are combined with forms such as fcl* "-want to," the potential form, and the negative form. The degree of politeness may be different depending on the forms used. T i ) b O has more expressions than T < +1-5. See the following examples where the speaker asks someone to teach Japanese. Note that the English equivalent is an approximate one. Can you teach me? Will you teach me? Will you please teach me? Could you teach me? Would you please teach me? Can you teach me? Can I ask you to teach me? I would like you to teach me. Could I ask you to teach me?

«AT^fcfc'its-r^.

»X.T I \tzfz£tz l

^Tf

t&ATl^cfclt^itA^o

I would like you to teach me. Could you please teach me?

t & X T l ^ c f c ' l t & O T L, S J: 5

I> &

I

T/I,T>

««A,

5A/

fc«$

R*>

^coa.

T>5

A>T>«E

Ä/JÖ«ft Ä IC& o t © " P J " .

u i L t

O

e>o£ ufctf.

z/ulä&ffl&nicgKis&tf)t>

* ¿ ¡ J f c f x t t Ä < Ä •:>T U S

a ^ o i t t s ^ S ä o i s f i B - r t ,

mmmmmtzt^ CMXA, II 3 Ii

rii^S tfi- • •. J

ein»

¿W^TsiillcSLfclfSUfc.

rfcft*.

cti» ^ f e c t a s ö * .

Ä f n ^ i c Ä i f f c Ä * • • •. J

«töFOfrätt? (

)->(

)->(

)-(

M

)

CHAPTER 21

Structures of Imperatives/Commands

The fundamental notion of a command is that one orders others to realize the event described by the verb. Command forms occur in both the affirmative and "Do it the negative, as in L 5 "Do it" and t & U "Don't do it," t tin u yourself/' i t S + l "Stop," "Don't talk," a n d i r f r & U " ? "Don't go." However, in Japanese these phrases standing alone sound masculine. In conversation, the form

U is more commonly used by both female and male lan-

guage speakers since it does not sound as strong as the direct command form.1 Also, although the equivalent of T < /cc? U is "please do," this construction should be considered a form of the command, since it has the same function as the direct command. In this section we learn the constructions of the command forms L/3 and

IV

1. Consonant Verbs tr

jUtj

Affirmative to hurry

Sif

to advance

M&b

tobring

ftoTlMt

Vowel Verbs (-5 verbs) ue. UK-5 to investigate tfifvtfi

*¿ I * . l i t S t ' & i a - D f c 'The teacher told us not to talk during class," and in written signs seen in public; such as j h ^ t l "Stop." The direct quotation in this case, may be Sfcfefl* r g ^ l i f S L T I i l M i S - t t / u J "The teacher said, 'You should not talk during class'" or

¿ t o t

HglgcNiaSc?

¿ f o f c 'The teacher said, 'Do not talk during class period.'" Also, when a command form is used alone, it is usually accompanied by a sentence-final particle, such as C

!

"Come here!" and [¿frtZZ. t W

O " D o n ' t say a stupid thing." Here are some more examples: (1)

Public traffic signs lt£ft

Stop

ii^lfil^tl

Turn right

X tf— K i i i i i

Slow down

3ËÔÂ «6

Don't run Don't walk

t>fc (2)

ttA-ttO

Don't cross Z¿

li

Ü.KA,

L6

frhC

Sii o

Check the basic vocabulary by yourself. Memorize kanji correctly.

CHAPTER 21

294

"Cli. S f c & U f c . Well, I will see you tomorrow. ttA/ttl» ttlhXt Ztlt CX. A. Ui> &

A, u

ea

The teacher tells us to check the basic vocabulary by ourselves, but I don't know which ones are basic ones. Also, she tells us to memorize kanji correctly, but I don't know how to memorize them correctly. I am in deep trouble. flKtfH H « C Go to the teacher's office and ask her.

itic

(3) (4)

I if

m< L 5 J : . What are you doing? Hurry up! A: t>J:o

Noun

It is all right/ it was all right

1.1.1 Permission in non-past contexts: (1)

A:

ttA/til> ftifes

1Kfc BIAiflfl^-C-r.

Professor, I have a headache. # J; 5

B:

^Ottfro

FL>;I

^Sli'JioTfclUVC-fcfc.

Is that so? Well, you may go home today. A:

^ X l d ^ T & l U ^ - f f o Is it all right if I take the quiz tomorrow?

B: (2)

A:

^BliSltfcKTfclHvrfo Yes. You don't have to take the quiz today. rtrf^uuj I How do you write "difficult" in kanji?

a-ClUXT-i-. It is a little difficult. You don't have to write it in kanji. Hiragana is fine. fc'IMSK U i i l i U i i ^ A . Speaking of the university dormitory, even if the location is bad, it's all right. If if s cheap, it will do.

1.1.2 Permission in past contexts: (4)

S < GlCfcfcofcfrfc.

Üil^fcHoT'bföto/äÄ^fc.

Since we won the lottery, it was all right even though I bought expensive things. = I could buy expensive things.

CHAPTER 22

298 5T

life

£

I- It A,

«Ut;*)«

Since I broke a bone in my arm, it was all right even though I didn't take the exam. = I didn't have to take the exam. (6)

in}

#»5C5

tfna Even if it does not work, try one more time, ic u a, r lift ^fcte B i ) , R i t f c I \«fc y IH Even if your Japanese is pathetic, it is better than not being able to speak at all.

299

F U N D A M E N T A L S OF J A P A N E S E G R A M M A R

1.2.2 T t ) sentences in past contexts: (12)

flwIoTfc. Even though it rained, the game was not canceled.

Cf.

¡iJmofclttt^t),

H^litihlcaUS-tiA/TLfc.

Although it rained, the game was not canceled. (The speaker is stating a fact involving little of his / her emotion.) cf.

M^Bofcoc. Even though/although it rained, the game was not canceled (against my

(13)

expectations). 1111 t>
< , which are generally perceived as inward (coming toward the speaker) and outward (departing from the speaker), respectively. However, in day-to-day communication, such distinctions may not be recognized.

CHAPTER 24

308

u*

111* tt

&

First you have to take off your shoes when you enter someone's house. Also, when you drive, you have to drive the car on therightside of the road.

e n

-5-nic,

v-t i tti

111> r o«>

a±©A£K-ffcttttBSttto&itniifcys-a-A,.

What7s more, when you talk to someone who is older than you are, (2)

you have to use honorific language. as l. fc u » W B $ T l c H £ £ t t ± ( f fcltftlifc U ttfkh,. I mustfinishwriting the thesis by tomorrow. People in the nation all have to pay tax. fcfcU It^Z/i,

(4)

t>£

»fcS

tkiffitiktZMts mfi£-cts.to M» (l)

iU J$UEl\fc>ltlClil\;Mj:l\. Since it is a farewell party for my professor, there is no way not to attend the party. Ito «J;5i>L.J;

toti

to

Since these are textbooks we use in class, though I don't have money, I have to buy them. Since a thesis was necessary in order to graduate, there was no way not. to write one.

SB

tt

6»S»i

EH«/ toU

Because my father passed away, although it was in the middle of a term, I had to return to Japan. Sample dialogue xClciH/j: l Wt i c i i l ft:

£5L'fzt>Z/v0 Oh, yes, thaf sright.Of course.

CHAPTER 2 5

Terms of Respect: Polite Affixes and Honorific and Humble Forms it i> r Hfcla is used to express the speaker's sense of courtesy, respect, and modesty tornftdr -t^itocr ithcxsz ward the individual. There are three categories, T ¥ f § , and !$!§£§, all of which fall under the umbrella term "honorific language." T ^ I S is also v »> r often referred to as H i b f i "beautification of words" because its function is to make wordsIM/U^ir sound nice and polite t J or ill to various parts of speech. ¡ jby affixing o r r and IStfUfa use completely different nouns or verbs with meanings equivalent to the original nouns or verbs, or make use of a particular verbal sentence pattern. Detailed discussion is given in the following sections.

1.

: The Polite Affixes fc and ty

First, while plain forms, such as i r < "to go" and

"to see" are "informal

forms" which are used in casual conversation (between friends and family members),

/ S forms are "polite forms" which are used when a speaker talks in

public, communicates with people to whom s/ he is not close, etc. In addition to

!

forms, there are some other ways to elevate

words into a polite equivalent. The most common one is the use of the affixes t3 and iip that are prefixed to a noun, I \ adjective, or ti. adjective, and to make the phrase sound polite or let the speaker feel gracious or, sometimes, feminine. For example, one may say, ?A lifcTkX^fifc^fcUT'i'"I want to drink water." Here, a third person is not involved in the situation, and ¿3 is simply there to make 7k sound polite, fc and

are also used to formulate honorific and humble expres-

sions, such as tSfg U

"I read your book which I

tfi

tt/uttl> Ztitu lil>£


lb

J IfcWgivfcUirf ofcfc'is-r

h

aujtif!J XT So-**

t?A/

l±l vli A.

*

micftysr

JL*T

'Mfttovt

a-sTi^-j-

W Jt-bS* s CTfeys-r»

sort

iusr

if* A# li

f>

J

(fc^oi c&ystr (fcuu^icfcijrf)

w£rt fcM

fcr (fc&taicfcurf)

OFRTFI^T-T

fcWtaL** 3 4

The negative form of ?? fc4lMC&y$t\

U

fcllteicfcyrr.

is ff fc

UtalCft U

use the fc+lCfc lj S t " pattern.

317

F U N D A M E N T A L S O F JAPANESE G R A M M A R

(1)

(2)

(3)

A: ^ ( D & f f t t W & ^ & m ' m T ' t f r . Do you know the address and the phone number of the Department? hi B: ffi; No, I don't. TT/UTFU

The professor went to Japan yesterday. A: fc^li, ^ ¿ f c o l ^ O i t ^ . Speaking of your name, what is it (called)? S

B:

S

#

«>}

My name is Sasaki. £S

I th

*>

h

% 0 l i t ) ? fc®CTISv S y $ Lfc^. Have you already eaten lunch today? lUU. S/d^Tl^ttA/. No, I haven't eaten yet.

When communication takes place between a professor and a student for example, the professor may not necessarily respond using the humble form. The same thing can be said for people with an age difference. This means the honorific form and the humble form are not necessarily paired in communication. 2.2

+ v e r b stem + |C 1£ U $ T a n d fc/fBI + v e r b s t e m +

In order to create the honorific and humbleformsforverbs other than those listed above (which havefixedforms),the honorific equivalent fc verb stem/ Zl noun + (Cfe U or the humble equivalent £>/ ^ verb stem/noun + I U SlJ" may be used. 33/ZT verb stem/noun + Ofc U has a similar meaning to "I humbly do/did something for someone whom I respect" Therefore, this pattern is used only when a person the speaker respects is involved in the event described by the verb. For example, in the following instances, ¡ftffi and S i : do not indicate a humble equivalent since the activities do not involve a third individual. c ii ^ _ However, the simple humble form S ^ ^ i f t i r U Z i : U S Ufc "I humbly tell you that I traveled to Japan" or ^ l i ^ i U f c U S btc "I humbly tell you that my father humbly went home" are perfectly appropriate.

CHAPTER 25

318

Humble fc/CT verb stem/noun + LSf/OfcbSt

Honorific i s verb stem/ ¿^noun+ icfcyrr BA, B< * i s & y icfc y £ ufco

% 4

it^lC^fcjSSyUfcb^f.

The professor sent the book. utitf %

I will send the proiessor the book.

Are you going to waitforMs. Tanaka?

I will waitformy professor.

f.

ifcifeii B * i r e * * i 3 < * y l e f t y $

ot.

The professor borrowed a book at the library. 5fc±li!t m

I borrowed a bodefromthe proiessor.

l e f t y * US:.

The professor wrote arecommendationletter. i. 5 t £ I * * * fcH*lcft y $ L / t .

I will write a letter to my professor.

The professor read a book.

I read the professor's book.

ft

ff

St l V i U £ U f c .

ft^li^b^iBSfcftlCftUS-f^,, Where is the proiessor going to travel? 5t4ii t

icft y $ L t .

The proiessor has already gone home rtt-3*>i> BIBS l e f t y * * " .

a ^ t i f e ^ (CfflK WI

The professor will give an explanation.

I will explain ittomy proiessor.

2.3

fc

LS-r.

+ v e r b stem + " C 0 " or Cf n o u n + T l f "

There is another way offorminghonorific sentences. t5 + verb stem +

is a

sort of contracted version of t3 + verb stem + I C & o T O S ' i " , where the event described by the verb is usuallyprogressing. The pattern CT noun +

where

a Chinese compound, such asffllJRlSis used, usually expresses a current resultative or a future situation. Observe thefollowingexamples: u-am* (5) (6)

* &2.tt&ftlE>-Qtti\

(fcfcfclCfcoTHrrfo)

Excuse me, but who are you waiting for? 8 &

fciWT;t)\

( f c B f t X l C ^ o T U S U f c ^ / f c ^ l C ^ y S U

Section chief; are you calling me/did you call me?

319

FUNDAMENTALS OF JAPANESE GRAMMAR

(7)

Sfili^ifilHfcfcSc^T-f. The section chief reads the newspaper

YomiurL

To whom are you writing?

(9) ±m$i*&\j1htfi ' J Sfci^icftys-r f

tSlbls&tfi y r t

*

t £t>ti$T

fc^iMcfcysr

i> • s r t

tiNixr fcH^icftyst

twvt

B u r r

fcBic^ys-r

fcBT-r

B s n r r

muss

fcnyt/ic^y^-r

fcpwvt

miti$.t

lib

3.

Honorific Requests

Since requests involve a third person, they often make use of honorific forms.

3.1

Regular verbs

3.1.1 fe + verb stem + < Verb tti* A * *

n-o tt>

3 l\

"Please do" form

English equivalent Pleasefeelfree to take one. Please oome in. Please wait for a moment Please have a seat Please have some Please go that way.

w?

Don't hesitate to ask.

321

FUNDAMENTALS OF JAPANESE GRAMMAR

Please oome visit 6A/

*

•tm^JKÄiSO.

a s 13

«

fr*. »-5

3.2

Please look, by all means. Please have a good rest

«>*.

Have a safe trip home

nouns

3.2.1

fc/^

+ ^ - S noun+ "Please do" form

Verb

hA6
nnu

Please take an active role

«HKÄfSH.

Please give a command.

l»6l» «aw« TAt> S S t *

Please make a request

WOKÄiSlt.

Please call me Please respond.

IV,

(1)

M0S"C(C«iS»UJ:

MP«À
*.

it

*>£

A t m i T t t U j ; ^ .

If I had built a house, I would have built a big house. (7)

iCfcUUPo£(£>)&e>.

^¿il^tlliJ^ofoPICo

If it was that delicious, you should have eaten more. i>n htt% If he is handsome and smart, it is natural for others to fall in love with him. Sentences (6) and (7) express a counterfactual meaning—something did not turn out the way it was supposed to—due to the use of the ft form in the antecedent and grammatical devices ~C L «t Z> and 0) IC. Sentence (8) gives almost the same interpretation as the antecedent with fr £> in

A

ATSSAU H ^ b "Be-

cause he is handsome and smart." The difference is that when feb is used, the information is not in the speaker's domain, and there is still room to hypothesize about the information conveyed. By using ?

I

Iy^h¿4"'®¿TldU A i 7 > K (greyhound) ¿ T l i i - S ^ O t f t f j l l N T ' - f ^ ¿ l i T I * .

Create questions of your own:

CHAPTER 2 8

Superlative Sentences

The superlative construction is used to select the most qualified item that suits the evaluation described by the predicate. Unlike the comparative construction, the given entities are not limited to two, but can be an indefinite number. All one needs to do is identify the entity that comes to the top of the list For this reason, the word — # (best most) is always used before the predicate.1 Let's consider the creation and answering of a question sentence.

1.

Creating and Answering a Question Sentence Noun (D^ •eiifc

Xt

- S

Fill with the answer

>f a * ICH

(1)

A/

fc

few

tti>

ttlc

predicate

predicate t

A: Among Japanese food, what do you like best? B: I like sushi best.

1A

common mistake is to use ¿fib b and — 8 together in the same sentence, such as ¿fib

—Si?

"Which one of two do you like best?" The English equivalent may not sound inappropriate; but in Japanese, H t> b is used for a comparative sentence that requires selection of one of two entities, while — § is used for a superlative sentence that selects the top item of the list 2

is given as an example here. It may not be

but may be some other partide, such as £ and ^ as in

{ 5 J £ — § £ : < ^ A j t ^ S L f c ^ "What did you eat most?" and E C ' v — s f t ^ f c l v C f ifi "Where would you like to go most?"

349

CHAPTER 28

350

(2)

(3)

A:

NTf^o Who is the tallest in your family? B: U T I " . My sister is. o-iam A: W B & t J l f l J l - t m & D + H .

i

t

i

t

t f ro Among hiragana, katakana, and kanji, which do you think is the most difficult? b: (4)

A:

^ ^ ^ ^ - s t i - r ^ L u à s u s - r . I think that katakana is most difficult MJRtW£t-n.-a~2 ** UK (5) A: t \ 01IÌÌ5JTÌ What is the tallest mountain in the world? IfsMt. Everest (6)

A: 7 * U

££

U»5 U *H I ¿ ¿ ' C W .

What is the biggest state in America? B:

(7*'Jj]V-ttH,Wtt)77ZJj-Cto It's Alaska.

(7)

itvmvsmvt. Among the exams, the most difficult one was the physics exam.

(8)

-Sist

(9)

The movie I thought was the most interesting is "The Lord of the Rings." friz v #r t u -S^U^Ttìti^li^«:/

t rp- K•

The saddest event was the death of my pet.

• tf • V >ifi

Vto

FUNDAMENTALS OF JAPANESE GRAMMAR

(10)

fAliflf The time when I am doing research is the most satisfying time.

Trivia quiz Look up the words you do not know in the dictionary. (1)

4«>i\

t>e

us tth I ^»ttfflTTfr.

(2)

M \Z®Ttt)\ 66

(3) (4)

I

(5) (7) (8) (9)

It A,

a^T-SAmo^-s^^-^iiiRfT-r^. It»

ttifT-M^JIIttfil-C-i"^. ->t ¿Is to ¿f 3 A v

The question sentence that makes

such a suggestion then should be derived from the same structure, replacing the verb phrase with an interrogative noun phrase. The question that derives ll^ofc 6 as its answer is E Ò

L>tc b or E 3

therefore

Eo

Ufcb/i:?

tifi

I H ^ T ^ " ^ "What/How shall I do ~?" is the question. When the question is given in this construction, the answer can be given in various constructions depending on the situation of the speaker, with whom the speaker is interacting, etc. The choices are up to the individual.

352

353

FUNDAMENTALS OF JAPANESE GRAMMAR MjiitHst

(1)

»>

SKA

^ ^ M U f c l ^ T f ^

T>R

S l t ^ S n T l i U t U t .

I want to buy a textbook, but I forgot my wallet. What shall I do...?

r

? IH\

feÄ^flUttli?1 ifcfc'S £ Ü l o i u i l c f c & ^ f t tj

fttfl

£ÜIC £&&flt Utili l H ^ £ ü i c y n i i i m^

r ~ f c b

\ l \ ft "The teacher praised my friend's essay" is

St©^ "My friend was

praised by the teacher because his essay was well written." Although the structure is in the indirect passive construction, this sentence does not create an adversity meaning.

FUNDAMENTALS OF JAPANESE GRAMMAR «


ttC

t> *

t b o f c j 0 T 0 / ^ O ^ T - t ^ C t AtAtl Cfcoi ^ T O « l

T < t l - 5 , T i ) b O) or the use of an adverbial phrase,

a> ? x

cv i

such as RJ^lC "at one's own will" and fl fS(C "freely," is required to express the permissive meaning. When an intransitive verb is used, the use of the verb of giving/receiving is also key to expressing a permissive meaning, but the use of a different particle further differentiates the meaning.

2.1

Causative sentences with transitive verbs

When a causative sentence is formed, the person who is forced to perform an activity is marked by the particle (C since the person becomes an indirect object who receives the command/request. For example, in causative sentence (1), is the entity to whom her mother's command is directed and is marked by IC.

2.1.1 Transitive verbs urns*

v

it

Causative morpheme

©

n w f i

\z/u£/u&

a d a t t a ,o

The mother makes the child eat carrots.

My sister washes the car. 6 tit

$

I

ft

©

ftfrtt-5.

My brother makes my sister wash the car.

377

FUNDAMENTALS OF JAPANESE GRAMMAR

(2)

(g)

3M55.

The students help the teacher, i The teacher makes the students help him. Z1.2 Ditransitive verbs

9 t £ i f i

[ y a > ®

©

a-a-a

i

L

y

3

>

J

©

J*'J- ©

i-5.

The teacher makes John teach Mary mathematics. (3)

@

v a >

©

liofc.

Mary paid John money. 1 9 c £ i f i

/ ' J -

©

v a >

©

IkbltS.

The teacher made Mary pay mone^toJohn. (4)

@

i t B ^

©

V £

^ofc.

Mr. Suzuki sold a car to Mr. Toyota.

i Mr. Honda made Mr. Suzuki sell a car to Mr. Toyota. In order to express a permissive meaning, T$> I f%>, T < +1-5, or T t> to be accompanied at the end of a sentence. See the following examples: Causative 1M»ttl> flKltl» U j

-3i>

The teacher made students use the dictionary.

9 have

378

CHAPTER 32

Permissive

The teacher let students use the dictionary. The students had the teacher let them use the dictionary. The teacher was kind encash to let us use the dictionary. The teacher was kind enough to let us use the dictionary freely. If one wants to ask for permission, the causative construction can be used as exemplified in the following. Note that the T f c l U ^ f ' X P "May I ~?" construction may also be used, but the causative construction is more polite and less casual. (5) Can you let me use the computer? Since I'm feeling sick, I would like to get permission to take a day off from work. Would you let me read your thesis?

22

The causative construction with an intransitive verb

There are three basic grammatical devices that express a permissive meaning for intransitive verbs. The first is to add the verb of giving/receiving at the end of the sentences just as one does with a transitive verb. The second is to use an adverbial phrase, such asfij^lC "at one's own will" and §Efi|C "freely." The third is to use the particle IC instead of

|C is for permission, while £ is for causation.

However, the latter is rather pedantic; and die alternating use of the particles may not be very consistent in daily communication. The best way to express a permissive meaning is, after all, the use of the verb of giving/receiving just as in the case

379

FUNDAMENTALS OF JAPANESE GRAMMAR

of a transitive verb. Also, the change in particles becomes ineffective if the verb of giving/ receiving is added at the end of the causative form. Observe the following examples: Causative

The father made his son go to college. Pennissive

VMtfi

JS^F ©

frfri+fco

The father let his sonj*o to college.

xmtf &=F(J/jc)*^

1

ft.

The father was kind enough to ]et his son go to college. ( J T g )

iaicft^-tj-fc.2

The father was generous enough to let his son choose a college to go to freely.3 Pay attention to the use of the particles and the verb of giving/receiving to make sure that the meaning of each sentence is clear. (8)

a.

TTAITTH

«««IT

(g)

5S

tr>*.

The teacher made the student go home. b.

©

m^

f M t .

The teacher let the student go home. 'In the above example; (C is used to indicate that permission was granted to the son. Although this is a grammatical device that alters the meaning of a sentence; in practice the use of auxiliary verbs explicate the permissive much more appropriately. 2 The adverbial phrase can also occur with verbs of giving/receiving, which means that there are many combinations for expressing a single permissive meaning. Following are some examples: a. X.mi&TZA^ilfritTbtffii. b. iigltf&^IC^M^vttTi.lffc. c 3 EtJ icirAvttfc. d. J i i W J E i l C * * ^ S ft 3 This sentenoe may be interpreted that regardless of hisfinancialsituation, the father let his son go to a college by paying the tuition. In Japan many parents payfordie cost of their children's education.

CHAPTER 32

380

c.

ItA/tfl!

*¡1

ftifetf © The teacher was kind enough to Jet the student go home. d. © m ^ WSl+Tfclffc. The teacher was kind enough to let the student go home. If one wants to express permission, the causative construction can be used, as is conshown in the following examples. Also, the "May I struction may also be used, but the causative construction is more polite and less casual. (9) (10) (id

b

&L|C&X>vt+T< Would you please let me go? S # [ C C C T ' l j c t f t m \fcfii I t S T U J i O t ) \ Would you please let my son swim here? C A* £

14 U

mzfettT At the next marathon, let me run.

Note that when a causative sentence with an intransitive verb intends to express a permissive meaning, only an animate entity can be the recipient of the permission. See thefollowingexamples that support this idea. (12)

a.

l / S o f c , (causativemeaning) My father unfortunately made the plant die (because he did not water the plant for a long time,forexample). * b. (permissive meaning, but nonsensical) Myfatherlet the plant die. (Myfathergave the plant permission to die.) ff