The following are brief explanations of some grammatical terms most frequently used in this dictionary.
A sentence which describes an action from the agent's point of view. (Cp. Passive Sentence) In active sentences, the subject is the agent. Sentences (a) and (b) below are an active and a passive sentence, respectively.
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One who initiates and/or completes an action or an event. The agent is not always in the subject position. Compare the positions of the agent Bill in (a) and (b).
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A clause which modifies a noun (or noun phrase) and explains what the modified noun is. In (a), Meari ga Tomu ni atta 'Mary met Tom' is an appositive clause, and is what jijitsu 'the fact' refers to.
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A dependent adjective that is preceded by and attached to a verb or another adjective. The bold-printed parts of the following sentences are typical auxiliary adjectives.
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A verb which is used in conjunction with a preceding verb or adjective. The bold-faced words of the following sentences are typical auxiliary verbs.
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A particle which consists of more than one word but functions like a single particle. For example, the compound particle to shite wa consists of the particle to, the te-form of suru and the particle wa, but it is used like a single particle to mean 'for'. (Cp. Double Particle)
A sentence which consists of clauses combined by coordinate conjunctions such as ga meaning 'but' or by the te-forms of verbs, adjectives or the copula meaning ' ~ and'.
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A particle which marks contrast. For example, when X is contrasted with Y, it is typically marked by the particle wa. X and Y usually appear in S₁ and S₂, respectively in S₁ ga S₂, as shown in (a).
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A conjunction that combines two sentences without subordinating one to the other. A typical coordinate conjunction is ga 'but'.
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The direct object of a verb is the direct recipient of an action represented by the verb. It can be animate or inanimate. An animate direct object is the direct experiencer of some action (as in (a) and (b) below). An inanimate direct object is typically something which is created, exchanged or worked on, in short, the recipient of the action of the verb (as in (c), (d) and (e) below)
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Although direct objects are marked by the particle o, nouns or noun phrases marked by o are not always direct objects, as shown in (f) and (g). (=> o2; o4)
A sequence of two particles. The first particle is usually a case particle and the second is an adverbial particle such as wa 'topic/contrast marker', mo 'also, even', and shika 'only'.
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A sentence within another sentence is an embedded sentence. The bold-faced part of each sentence below is the embedded sentence. An embedded sentence is marked by a subordinate conjunction such as kara 'because', keredomo 'although', node 'because', noni 'although', to 'if', the quote marker to 'that', a nominalizer (no or koto) or the head noun of a relative clause.
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The person who receives a spoken or written message. In this dictionary the term "hearer" is used in a broader sense to mean the person to whom the speaker or the writer communicates.
A conjugated verb form that indicates a command, as in Hanase! 'Talk!', Tabero! 'Eat it!', Shiro! 'Do it!' or Koi! 'Come!'.
A pronoun which does not refer to something specifically. No in B's sentence in (a) is an indefinite pronoun. Here, no is used for jisho 'dictionary', but does not refer to a specific dictionary.
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A verb which does not require a direct object. The action or state identified by the intransitive verb is related only to the subject of the sentence. For example, the verb hashitta 'ran' in (a) is an intransitive verb because the action of running is related only to the subject. (Cp. Transitive Verb)
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Intransitive verbs typically indicate movement (such as iku 'go', kuru 'come', aruku walk', tobu 'fly', noru 'get onto'), spontaneous change (such as naru 'become', kawaru 'change', tokeru 'melt', fukuramu 'swell', hajimaru 'be- gin'), human emotion (such as yorokobu 'rejoice', kanashimu 'feel sad', omou 'feel'), and birth / death (such as umareru 'be born', shinu 'die'). (=> Appendix 3)
An adjective whose nonpast prenominal form ends with i. Examples of i-type adjectives are takai 'high, expensive' and tsuyoi 'strong', as seen in (a). (Cp. Na-type Adjective)
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I-type adjectives are further subdivided into two types: i-type adjectives which end with shi-i and those with non-shi-i endings. Most adjectives with Shi-i endings express human emotion (such as ureshii 'happy', kanashii 'sad', sabishii 'lonely', kurushii 'painful'); the non-shi-i adjectives are used for objective descriptions (such as kuroi 'black', shiroi 'white', hiroi 'spacious', takai 'high, expensive').
Adjective An adjective whose nonpast prenominal form ends with na. For example, shizukada 'quiet' and genkida 'healthy' are na-type adjectives, as in (a). (Cp. I-type Adjective)
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Na-type adjectives are very similar to nouns. Some na-type adjectives can be used as real nouns as shown in (b). All na-type adjectives behave as nouns when they are used before the copula da, as shown in (c).
A nominalizer is a particle that makes a sentence into a noun phrase or clause. There are two nominalizers no and koto: the former represents the speaker's empathetic feeling towards an event / state expressed in the nominalized noun phrase / clause; the latter represents the speaker's relatively anti-empathetic feeling towards an event / state. (no³; koto²)
|
Noun Phrase / Clause |
Particle |
Predicate |
|
|
Sentence |
Nominalizer |
||
|
日本語を読む Nihongo o yomu |
の/こと no / koto |
は wa |
難しい。 muzukashii. |
|
(Reading Japanese is difficult.) |
|||
The nominalized sentence can be used in any position where an ordinary noun or a noun phrase / clause can be used.
A sentence which describes an action by someone from the viewpoint of someone else who is affected by that action. (Cf. Active Sentence) Examples (a) and (b) below are passive sentences.
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A verb form that expresses competence in the sense of 'can do something.' The formation is as follows:
| Group | Formation | Example | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gr.1 Verbs | Vcond+ る ru |
話せる hanase-ru |
'can talk' |
| Gr. 2 Verbs | Vstem+られる rareru |
食べられる tabe-rareru |
'can eat' |
| Vstem+れる reru |
食べれる tabe-reru |
'can eat' | |
| Irregular Verbs | 来る | 来られる korareru |
'can come' |
| 来れる koreru |
'can come' | ||
| する | 出来る dekiru |
'can do' |
The part of a sentence which makes a statement about the subject. The core of the predicate consists either of a verb, an adjective, or a noun followed by a form of the copula da. Optionally, objects and other adjectival and/or adverbial modifiers may be present. In (a), (b) and (c) the predicates are printed in bold type.
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The verb / adjective form which immediately precedes a noun and modifies it. The bold-faced verb and adjectives in (a), (b), (c) and (d) are prenominal forms.
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A verb that represents a momentary action which either occurs once, as in (a), or can be repeated continuously, as in (b).
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With the auxiliary verb iru (i.e., iru²), the punctual verbs in (a) express a state after an action was taken, and those as in (b) express either a repeated action or a state after an action was taken. (=> Appendix 2)
A verb which represents a state of something or someone at some point in time, as in (a). (=> Appendix 2)
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The subject is an element of a sentence which indicates an agent of an action in active sentences or an experiencer of an action or someone or something that is in a state or a situation. The subject is normally marked by the particle ga in Japanese unless it is the sentence topic.
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A clause which is embedded into a main clause with a subordinate conjunction. Typical subordinate conjunctions are ba 'if', kara 'because', node 'because', keredo 'although' and noni 'although'. Thus, in (a) below, the bold-faced clause with the subordinate conjunction node is embedded into the main clause Nakayama-san wa gakko o yasunda, 'Mr. Nakayama was absent from school.'
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The informal form of a verb / adjective is usually used in a subordinate clause.
A verb that requires a direct object. It usually expresses an action that acts upon s.o. or s.t. indicated by the direct object. Actions in- dicated by transitive verbs include real causatives (such as ikaseru 'make / let s.o. go', korosu 'kill', miseru 'show', nakasu 'make s.o. cry', noseru 'put, place'), exchange (such as ageru 'give', morau 'receive', kureru 'give'), creation (such as tsukuru 'make', kaku 'write', kangaeru 'think'), communica- tion (such as hanasu 'speak', oshieru 'teach', tsutaeru 'convey a message') and others. Note that some English transitive verbs are intransitive in Japanese.
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A sentence in which a person expresses his will. The main verb in such sentences is in the volitional form, as in (a).
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A question that asks for information about who, what, where, which, when, why and how, as exemplified by (a) through (f) below. (Cp. Yes-No Question)
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An interrogative word which corresponds to English words such as who, what, where, which, when, why and how. The following are some examples.
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Note that Japanese WH-words are not always found in sentence-initial position; they are frequently found after a topic noun phrase, as shown in (b) and (c) below.
A question that can be answered by hai | ē 'yes' or ie 'no'. (Cp. WH-question) Examples follow:
Examples: