Making Sense of Japanese Grammar

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ISBN: 9780824825836 | 0824825837
Cover: Paperback
Copyright: 4/1/2002

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Making Sense of Japanese Grammar explains in a lively and highly informative manner basic principles that underlie a wide range of phenomena in Japanese. Students -- irrespective of proficiency level and linguistic training -- will find clarification on matters of grammar that often seem idiosyncratic and Japanese-specific, such as avoiding the use of certain pronouns, employing the same word order for questions, hidden subjects, and polite and direct forms.

Acknowledgments	p. ix
Introduction	p. xi
Grammatical Categories and the Basic Architecture of a Sentence	p. 1
The subject corresponds to an item around which an event evolves	p. 3
Use the verb at the end!	p. 5
An explicit subject is optional	p. 6
Pay attention to the last part of a sentence	p. 7
There are three types of verb-like constituents	p. 9
The noun in the sentence gakusei-desu is not the subject!	p. 11
Japanese speakers avoid certain pronouns	p. 13
You cannot always guess the grammatical category of a Japanese form from the grammatical category of its English counterpart	p. 15
Dictionary forms of all Japanese adjectives end with -ii, -ai, -oi, or -ui	p. 16
"Noun" is an open category in Japanese	p. 17
Use the same word order for questions. Attach -ka to a statement to turn it into a question	p. 19
Do not hesitate to use the same verb over and over again	p. 22
Japanese particles are postpositions	p. 23
Classification of particles	p. 25
Phrase Particles: Marking the Functions of Noun Phrases in a Sentence	p. 29
A phrase particle determines the function of the noun	p. 31
The particle -wa identifies what the sentence is about and urges the listener to pay attention to the part that follows	p. 33
The particle -mo adds the preceding noun phrase to a list of objects	p. 36
Use of -wa and -mo presupposes a contextual set	p. 38
-ga is the subject marker; -o is the direct object marker	p. 40
-ga and -o mark a fresh participant; -wa marks a familiar participant already anchored in a context	p. 43
Do not attach -wa to interrogative WH-phrases	p. 46
Only one direct object particle -o appears per verb	p. 48
The subject and the direct object are the primary grammatical categories	p. 50
Two types of locational particles: -de and -ni	p. 53
Three reasons not to use phrase particles	p. 57
"Exceptional" uses of -ga	p. 60
Grammatical reasons for alternations of particles	p. 64
The person marked with the particle -ni is an active participant in an interaction	p. 66
The person marked with the particle -to is a "reciprocal" participant in an interaction	p. 71
Certain auxiliary verbs take the non-subject participant particle -ni	p. 73
The auxiliary verb-morau comes with -ni; the auxiliary verbs -ageru and -kureru do not	p. 76
Another consequence of the double-o constraint	p. 79
Phrase particles are powerful!	p. 80
Expanding Noun Phrases	p. 83
The particle -no between two nouns turns the first noun into a modifier	p. 85
A noun modified by an adjective functions like a noun	p. 87
The modifier consistently precedes the modified	p. 88
Spatial relationships are expressed with stacked nouns	p. 90
The particle -no mediates a wide range of relationships. Mekishiko-jin-no tomodachi, for instance, means either "a friend of a Mexican" or "a friend who is Mexican"	p. 92
The particle -to connects noun phrases representing separate objects	p. 94
Na-nouns behave like nouns, but they have "fuzzy" meanings	p. 96
To say something more complex, use complex noun phrases	p. 99
The head noun of a complex noun phrase carries with it only the particle which marks its function in a larger sphere	p. 101
Japanese does not employ WH-phrases for creating complex noun phrases	p. 103
Mekishiko-jin-no tomodachi "a Mexican friend" is a complex noun phrase	p. 105
Atarashii tomodachi "a new friend" is also a kind of complex noun phrase	p. 107
One more way to create a complex noun phrase	p. 109
No is for a familiar event; koto is for an abstract idea	p. 111
Tense and Events	p. 115
There are only two tenses in Japanese: non-past and past	p. 117
Special use of past tense forms	p. 119
Te-forms connect very closely related events	p. 121
Tense markers separate events	p. 124
Events are tied with varying degrees of cohesion inside a sentence	p. 129
Two perspectives for tense inside a subordinate clause	p. 133
The main clause perspective means involvement	p. 137
The speaker's perspective means incidental connection, speaker's recollection, or speaker's reasoning	p. 140
Miscellaneous Topics	p. 143
Hai and ee mean "I agree" or "I hear you"; iie means "I disagree"	p. 145
Are "that" is for things known to both speaker and hearer; sore "that" is for something just mentioned	p. 149
The longer and vaguer, the more polite	p. 152
Polite forms and direct forms	p. 153
Reality consists of continuous-grade scales; language makes things discrete	p. 156
Interpretations of -te-kuru/-te-iku	p. 159
Expressing solidarity with -te-kuru/-te-iku	p. 163
-n-da expresses expectation of mutual understanding	p. 165
-n-da-kara does not provide personal information. Do not overuse it!	p. 167
There are ways to identify hidden subjects	p. 170
Do not be intimidated by apparent complexity	p. 175
Answers to the Questions	p. 179
Glossary	p. 193
Index	p. 197
Table of Contents provided by Syndetics. All Rights Reserved.

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