Japanese language

Grammar

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Main article: Japanese grammar

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The basic Japanese word order is Subject Object Verb. Subject and object are usually marked by particles which come after the word.

Related Topics:
Subject Object Verb - Particles

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The basic sentence structure is topic-comment. For example, Kochira wa Tanaka san desu. Kochira ("this") is the topic of the sentence, indicated by the particle wa. The verb is desu ("be"). As a phrase, Tanaka san desu is the comment. This sentence loosely translates to "As for this person, (it) is Mr./Mrs./Ms. Tanaka". Thus Japanese, like Chinese and Korean, is often called a topic-prominent language, which means it indicates the topic separately from the subject, and the two do not always coincide. For example, the sentence Z? wa hana ga nagai. literally means, "As for elephants, the nose is long." The topic is z? "elephant," and the subject is hana "nose."

Related Topics:
Topic-comment - Chinese - Korean - Topic-prominent language

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Most Japanese nouns have neither number nor gender. Thus hon may mean "book" and "books". It is possible to explicitly indicate more than one, either by using numbers, often with a counter. Words for people are usually singular. Thus Tanaka san usually means Mr. Tanaka. They can be made plural with noun suffixes that indicate groups, such as -tachi.

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Verbs are conjugated to show tenses, of which there are two: past and present, or non-past, which is used for the present and the future. For some verbs, that represent an ongoing process, the -te iru form indicates a continuous (or progressive) tense. For others, that represent a change of state, the -te iru form indicates a perfect tense. For example, kite iru means "He has come", but tabete iru means "He is eating".

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Questions are formed by adding a question element to the end of the verb, usually ka. For example,

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:Kore de ii desu. "This is OK."

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becomes

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:Kore de ii desu ka. "Is this OK?"

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Negatives are formed from verb conjugations. For example,

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:Daigaku ni iku. "Go to university.",

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becomes

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:Daigaku ni ikanai. "Don't go to university.",

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with iku "to go" changing to the negative form ikanai.

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The word desu/da is the copula verb. It corresponds approximately to the English be, but often takes on other roles. A separate function of "to be" is to indicate existence, as in "there is", for which the verbs aru and iru are used for inanimate and animate things, respectively. For example,

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:Neko ga iru. "There's a cat.",

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and

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:Ii kangae ga nai. "I haven't got a good idea."

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The verb "to do" (suru, polite form shimasu) is often used to make verbs from nouns (aisuru "to love", benky? suru "to study", etc.). Japanese also has a huge number of compound verbs (e.g. tobidasu "to fly out, to flee," from tobu "to fly, to jump" + dasu "to go out").

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There are three types of adjective:

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• keiy?shi, or i adjectives, which have a conjugating ending i which can become, for example, past, or negative. For example atsui ("hot")
• :atsui hi "a hot day".
• keiy?d?shi, or na adjectives, which are followed by a form of the copula, usually na. For example hen (strange)
• :hen na hito "a strange person".
• rentaishi, also called true adjectives, such as onaji "the same"
• :onaji hi "the same day".

Both keiy?shi and keiy?d?shi may predicate sentences. For example,

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:Gohan ga atsui. "The rice is hot."

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:Kare wa hen da. "He's strange."

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Both inflect, though they do not show the full range of conjugation found in true verbs.

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The rentaishi are few in number, and unlike the other words, are limited to modifying nouns. They never predicate sentences. Examples include ookina "big" and onaji "the same" (although there is a noun onaji that can be used as a predicate, as in onaji da).

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Both keiy?d?shi and keiy?shi form adverbs, by following with ni in the case of keiy?d?shi:

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:hen ni naru "become strange",

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and by changing i to ku in the case of keiy?shi:

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:atsuku naru "become hot".

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The grammatical function of nouns is indicated by postpositions, also called particles. These include

Related Topics:
Postposition - Particles

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• no for possession,

:watashi no kamera "my camera"

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• ga for subject,

:Kare ga yatta. "He did it."

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• o for direct object

:Nani o suru ka. "What do I do?"

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• ni for indirect object,

:Tanaka san ni kiite "Ask Tanaka",

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• wa for the topic

and many others.

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Japanese has many words that are translated as pronouns in English, such as watashi or boku, both meaning "I". Which one of them is used depends upon many factors, including the sex and status of the speaker, and who is being spoken to, and the social setting. Their use is often optional, since Japanese is described as a so-called pro-drop language, i.e., one in which the subject of a sentence does not always need to be stated. For example, instead of saying

Related Topics:
Pronoun - English - Pro-drop language

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:Watashi wa by?ki desu. "I am sick.",

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if the speaker is understood to be the subject, one could simply say By?ki desu. A single verb can be a complete sentence:

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:yatta! "(I / we / they / etc) did (it)!".

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Politeness

Main articles: Japanese honorifics and also Japanese titles

Related Topics:
Japanese honorifics - Japanese titles

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Unlike most western languages, Japanese has an extensive grammatical system to express politeness and formality.

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Broadly speaking, there are three main politeness levels in spoken Japanese: the plain form (kudaketa ???), the simple polite form (teineigo ???) and the advanced polite form (keigo ??).

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Since most relationships are not equal in Japanese society, one person typically has a higher position. This position is determined by a variety of factors including job, age, experience, or even psychological state (e.g., a person asking a favour tends to do so politely). The person in the lower position is expected to use a polite form of speech, whereas the other might use a more plain form. Strangers will also speak to each other politely. Japanese children rarely use polite speech until they are teens, at which point they are expected to begin speaking in a more adult manner. See uchi-soto

Related Topics:
Society - Uchi-soto

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The plain form in Japanese is recognized by the shorter, so-called dictionary (jisho ??) form of verbs, and the da form of the copula. At the teinei level, verbs end with the helping verb -masu (-??), and the copula desu (-??) is used. The advanced polite form, keigo, actually consists of two kinds of politeness: honorific language (sonkeigo) and humble (kenj?go) language. Whereas teineigo is an inflectional system, keigo often employs many special (often irregular) honorific and humble verb forms.

Related Topics:
Copula - Verb - Keigo - Inflectional - Irregular

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The difference between honorific and humble speech is particularly pronounced in the Japanese language. Humble language is used to talk about oneself or one's own group (company, family) whilst honorific language is mostly used when describing the interlocutor and his group. For example, the -san (-??) suffix ("Mr", "Mrs" or "Ms") is an example of honorific language. See Japanese titles. It is not used to talk about oneself or when talking about someone from one's company to an external person, since the company is the speaker's "group".

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Most nouns in the Japanese language may be made polite by the addition of ? o- or ? go-; as a prefix. o- is generally used for words of native Japanese origin, whereas go- is affixed to words of Chinese derivation. In some cases, the prefix has become a fixed part of the word, and is included even in regular speech, such as gohan 'rice, meal.' Such a construction often indicates deference to either the item's owner or to the object itself. For example, the word tomodachi 'friend,' would become o-tomodachi when referring to the friend of someone of higher status, though mothers often use this form to refer to their children's friends. On the other hand, a female speaker may sometimes refer to mizu 'water' as o-mizu merely to show politeness; this contrasts with the more abrupt speech of men (though men may also use very polite forms when speaking to superiors). See Japanese honorifics.

Related Topics:
Noun - Japanese honorifics

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Many researchers report that since the 1990s, the use of polite forms has become rarer. Needless to say, many older people disapprove of this trend.

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Most Japanese people employ politeness to indicate a lack of familiarity. That is, they use polite forms for new acquaintances, but if a relationship becomes more intimate, they no longer use them. This occurs regardless of age, social class, or gender.

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Young people usually receive extensive training in the "proper" use of polite language when they start to work for a company.

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