Japanese adjectives
Encyclopedia
According to many analyses, the Japanese language
does not have words that function as adjective
s in a syntactic
sense, i.e. tree diagrams of Japanese sentences can be constructed without employing adjective phrases. However, there are words that function as adjectives in a semantic
sense. This article deals with these words.
), and verbs taking the attributive form (連体形 rentaikei); see attributive verb
. These are considered separate classes of words, however.
There are two main types of words that can be considered to be adjective
s in Japanese, and one minor grab bag category; sometimes a few minor categories are also included. The main ones – which can be considered variants of verbs and nouns, respectively – are:
Both the predicative forms (終止形 shūshikei "terminal form") and attributive forms (連体形 rentaikei) of adjectival verbs and adjectival nouns can be analyzed as verb phrase
s, making the attributive forms of adjectival verbs and adjectival nouns relative clause
s, rather than adjectives. According to this analysis, Japanese has no syntactic adjectives.
The grab bag category is:
Minor categories which are sometimes classed with the above include:
sentences and inflect for past, negative, etc. As they head verb phrase
s, they can be considered a type of verbal
(verb-like part of speech). Their inflections are different and not so numerous as full verbs. Conversely, the negative plain form of a verb is an adjective: it ends in 〜ない -na-i, which then inflects as an i-adjective.
(noun-like part of speech). Together with this form of the copula they may also predicate sentences and inflect for past, negative, etc.
generally take a (sometimes optional) 〜と, though these are different word classes.
There are rather few of these words, and they usually considered somewhat stiff or archaic; this word class is generally not covered in textbooks for foreign language learners of Japanese. One of the most common is 堂々 dōdō "magnificent, stately". These are referred to in Japanese as ト・タル形容動詞 (to, taru keiyōdōshi) or タルト型活用 (taruto-kata katsuyō – “taro, to form conjugation”).
See 形容動詞#タルト型活用 for discussion in Japanese. Historically, these developed in Late Old Japanese as a variant of na adjectives, but the form mostly died out; the remaining taru adjectives are fossils
.
It can be seen that attributives are analysed variously as nouns, verbs, or adjectival nouns.
The de wa in the conjugation of the copula is often contracted in speech to ja.
s. In the case of adjectival verbs, -i changes to -ku:
and in the case of adjectival nouns, na changes to ni:
In a few cases, a 〜に form of a word is common while a 〜な form is rare or non-existent, as in – is common, but is generally not used.
function; its only purpose is to make the utterance more polite (see Honorific speech in Japanese). With adjectival nouns, desu is used in its role as the polite form of the copula, therefore replacing da (the plain form of the copula) in the plain form of these adjectives.
The Japanese word keiyōshi is used to denote an English
adjective.
Because the widespread study of Japanese is still relatively new in the Western world, there are no generally accepted English translations for the above parts of speech, with varying texts adopting different sets, and others extant not listed above.
has exactly the same three word classes as above, called 형용사 hyeongyongsa, 형용명사 hyeongyongmyeongsa, and 관형사 gwanhyeongsa respectively.
Japanese language
is a language spoken by over 130 million people in Japan and in Japanese emigrant communities. It is a member of the Japonic language family, which has a number of proposed relationships with other languages, none of which has gained wide acceptance among historical linguists .Japanese is an...
does not have words that function as adjective
Adjective
In grammar, an adjective is a 'describing' word; the main syntactic role of which is to qualify a noun or noun phrase, giving more information about the object signified....
s in a syntactic
Syntax
In linguistics, syntax is the study of the principles and rules for constructing phrases and sentences in natural languages....
sense, i.e. tree diagrams of Japanese sentences can be constructed without employing adjective phrases. However, there are words that function as adjectives in a semantic
Semantics
Semantics is the study of meaning. It focuses on the relation between signifiers, such as words, phrases, signs and symbols, and what they stand for, their denotata....
sense. This article deals with these words.
Types of adjective
Firstly, in Japanese, nouns and verbs can modify nouns, with nouns taking the 〜の particles when functionally attributively (in the genitive caseGenitive case
In grammar, genitive is the grammatical case that marks a noun as modifying another noun...
), and verbs taking the attributive form (連体形 rentaikei); see attributive verb
Attributive verb
In grammar, an attributive verb is a verb which modifies a noun as an attributive, rather than expressing an independent idea as a predicate....
. These are considered separate classes of words, however.
There are two main types of words that can be considered to be adjective
Adjective
In grammar, an adjective is a 'describing' word; the main syntactic role of which is to qualify a noun or noun phrase, giving more information about the object signified....
s in Japanese, and one minor grab bag category; sometimes a few minor categories are also included. The main ones – which can be considered variants of verbs and nouns, respectively – are:
- adjective (Japanese: 形容詞, keiyōshi, literally "adjective"), or i-adjectives
- These can be considered specialized verbs, and have a conjugatingJapanese verb conjugationsThis is a list of Japanese verb and adjective conjugations. Almost all of these are regular, but the conjugations of the very few irregular verbs are also listed. Japanese verb conjugation is the same for all subjects, first person , second person and third person , singular and plural. The plain...
ending -i which can become, for example, past or negative. For example, atsui (暑い) "hot":- 暑い日 (Atsui hi) ("a hot day")
- 今日は暑いです。(Kyō wa atsui desu.) ("Today is hot.")
- adjectival noun (形容動詞, keiyō-dōshi, literally "adjective verb"), or na-adjectives
- These can be considered a form of noun; these attach to a form of the copula, which then inflects, but use 〜な -na (rather than the genitive 〜の) when modifying a noun. For example, hen (変) "strange":
- 変な人 (Hen na hito) ("a strange person")
- 彼は変だ。(Kare wa hen da.) ("he is strange.")
Both the predicative forms (終止形 shūshikei "terminal form") and attributive forms (連体形 rentaikei) of adjectival verbs and adjectival nouns can be analyzed as verb phrase
Verb phrase
In linguistics, a verb phrase or VP is a syntactic unit composed of at least one verb and the dependents of that verb. One can distinguish between two types of VPs, finite VPs and non-finite VPs . While phrase structure grammars acknowledge both, dependency grammars reject the existence of a...
s, making the attributive forms of adjectival verbs and adjectival nouns relative clause
Relative clause
A relative clause is a subordinate clause that modifies a noun phrase, most commonly a noun. For example, the phrase "the man who wasn't there" contains the noun man, which is modified by the relative clause who wasn't there...
s, rather than adjectives. According to this analysis, Japanese has no syntactic adjectives.
The grab bag category is:
- attributives (連体詞, rentaishi, literally "attributive")
- These may only occur before nouns, not in a predicative position. They are various in derivation and word class, and are generally analyzed as variants of more basic classes, where this specific form (possibly a fossil) can only be used in restricted settings. For example, ōkina (大きな) "big" (variant of 大きい):
- 大きなこと(Ōkina koto) ("a big thing")
Minor categories which are sometimes classed with the above include:
- taru adjectives (ト・タル形容動詞, to,taru keiyōdōshi, literally "to, taru adjectival noun")
- These are a variant of the common na-nominals (adjectival noun; see article for naming) that developed in Late Old Japanese and have mostly died out, surviving in a few cases as fossilsFossilization (linguistics)In linguistic morphology, fossilization refers to two close notions. One is preserving of ancient linguistic features which have lost their grammatical functions in language. Another is loss of productivity of a grammatical paradigm , which still remains in use in some words. Examples of...
; they are usually classed as a form of 形容動詞 (adjectival noun), as the Japanese name indicates.- naru adjectives
- These are words that were traditionally earlier forms of na-nominals, but that followed a path similar to taru adjectives, surviving in a few cases as fossils. These are generally classed as rentaishi.
i-adjectives
Adjectival verbs (keiyōshi) may predicatePredicate (grammar)
There are two competing notions of the predicate in theories of grammar. Traditional grammar tends to view a predicate as one of two main parts of a sentence, the other being the subject, which the predicate modifies. The other understanding of predicates is inspired from work in predicate calculus...
sentences and inflect for past, negative, etc. As they head verb phrase
Verb phrase
In linguistics, a verb phrase or VP is a syntactic unit composed of at least one verb and the dependents of that verb. One can distinguish between two types of VPs, finite VPs and non-finite VPs . While phrase structure grammars acknowledge both, dependency grammars reject the existence of a...
s, they can be considered a type of verbal
Non-finite verb
In linguistics, a non-finite verb is a verb form that is not limited by a subject and, more generally, is not fully inflected by categories that are marked inflectionally in language, such as tense, aspect, mood, number, gender, and person...
(verb-like part of speech). Their inflections are different and not so numerous as full verbs. Conversely, the negative plain form of a verb is an adjective: it ends in 〜ない -na-i, which then inflects as an i-adjective.
na-adjectives
Adjectival nouns (keiyō-dōshi) always occur with a form of the copula, traditionally considered part of the adjectival noun itself. The only difference between nouns and adjectival nouns is in the attributive form, where nouns take no and adjectives take na. This has led many linguists to consider them a type of nominalNominal (linguistics)
In linguistics, a nominal is a part of speech in some languages that shares features with nouns and adjectives.- Examples :Nominals are a common feature of Indigenous Australian languages, many of which do not categorically differentiate nouns from adjectives.Some features of nominals in some...
(noun-like part of speech). Together with this form of the copula they may also predicate sentences and inflect for past, negative, etc.
taru-adjectives
A variant of na adjectives exist, which take 〜たる -taru when functioning attributively (as an adjective, modifying a noun), and 〜と -to when functioning adverbally (when modifying a verb), instead of the 〜な -na and 〜に -ni which are mostly used with na adjectives. taru adjectives do not predicate a sentence (they cannot end a sentence, as verbs and i-adjectives can) or take the copula (as na-adjectives and nouns can), but must modify a noun or verb. Note that sometimes na adjectives take a 〜と, and Japanese sound symbolismJapanese sound symbolism
This article describes sound symbolic or mimetic words in the Japanese language. Most languages have such words; for example, "bang", "zap", "ding", "slither", "pop", etc. in English. Sound symbolic words occur more often in Japanese than in English—they are found in formal as well as vernacular...
generally take a (sometimes optional) 〜と, though these are different word classes.
There are rather few of these words, and they usually considered somewhat stiff or archaic; this word class is generally not covered in textbooks for foreign language learners of Japanese. One of the most common is 堂々 dōdō "magnificent, stately". These are referred to in Japanese as ト・タル形容動詞 (to, taru keiyōdōshi) or タルト型活用 (taruto-kata katsuyō – “taro, to form conjugation”).
See 形容動詞#タルト型活用 for discussion in Japanese. Historically, these developed in Late Old Japanese as a variant of na adjectives, but the form mostly died out; the remaining taru adjectives are fossils
Fossilization (linguistics)
In linguistic morphology, fossilization refers to two close notions. One is preserving of ancient linguistic features which have lost their grammatical functions in language. Another is loss of productivity of a grammatical paradigm , which still remains in use in some words. Examples of...
.
naru-adjectives
There are also a few naru adjectives such as 単なる tannaru "mere, simple" or 聖なる seinaru "holy", which developed similarly to taru-adjectives. As with taru adjectives, these cannot predicate or take the copula, but must modify a noun (though not a verb – these only modify nouns via なる, not verbs via ×に), and often occur in set phrases, such as . In Late Old Japanese, tari adjectives developed as a variant of nari adjectives. Most nari adjectives became na adjectives in Modern Japanese, while tari adjectives either died out or survived as taru adjective fossils, but a few nari adjectives followed a similar path to the tari adjectives and became naru adjective fossils. They are generally classed into rentaishi.Attributives
Attributives (rentaishi) are few in number, and unlike the other words, are strictly limited to modifying nouns. Rentaishi never predicate sentences. They derive from other word classes, and so are not always given the same treatment syntactically. For example, ano (あの, "that") can be analysed as a noun or pronoun a plus the genitive ending no; aru (ある or 或る, "a certain"), saru (さる, "a certain"), and iwayuru (いわゆる, "so-called") can be analysed as verbs (iwayuru being an obsolete passive form of the verb iu (言う) "to speak"); and ōkina (大きな, "big") can be analysed as the one remaining form of the obsolete adjectival noun ōki nari. Attributive onaji (同じ, "the same") is sometimes considered to be a rentaishi, but it is usually analysed as simply an irregular adjectival verb (note that it has an infinitive onajiku). The final form onaji, which occurs with the copula, is usually considered to be a noun, albeit one derived from the adjectival verb.It can be seen that attributives are analysed variously as nouns, verbs, or adjectival nouns.
Inflection
Adjectival verbs (i-adjectives) are inflected by dropping the -i from the end and replacing it with the appropriate ending. Adjectival nouns (na-adjectives) are inflected by dropping the -na and replacing it with the appropriate form of the verb da, the copula.| present | past | present neg. | past neg. | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| i adjective | あつい (atsui) | あつかった (atsukatta) | あつくない (atsuku nai) | あつくなかった (atsuku nakatta) |
| na adjective | へんだ (hen da) | へんだった (hen datta) | へんではない (hen de wa nai) | へんではなかった (hen de wa nakatta) |
The de wa in the conjugation of the copula is often contracted in speech to ja.
Adverb forms
Both adjectival verbs and adjectival nouns form adverbAdverb
An adverb is a part of speech that modifies verbs or any part of speech other than a noun . Adverbs can modify verbs, adjectives , clauses, sentences, and other adverbs....
s. In the case of adjectival verbs, -i changes to -ku:
- atsuku naru "become hot"
and in the case of adjectival nouns, na changes to ni:
- hen ni naru "become strange"
In a few cases, a 〜に form of a word is common while a 〜な form is rare or non-existent, as in – is common, but is generally not used.
Polite forms
Both adjectival verbs and adjectival nouns are made more polite by the use of desu, but the way that desu is used is different. With adjectival verbs, desu is added directly after the inflected plain form and has no syntacticSyntax
In linguistics, syntax is the study of the principles and rules for constructing phrases and sentences in natural languages....
function; its only purpose is to make the utterance more polite (see Honorific speech in Japanese). With adjectival nouns, desu is used in its role as the polite form of the copula, therefore replacing da (the plain form of the copula) in the plain form of these adjectives.
| plain | polite | polite past | neg. polite | neg. polite past | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| keiyōshi | atsui | atsuidesu | atsukatta desu | atsuku arimasen atsuku nai desu |
atsuku arimasen deshita atsuku nakatta desu |
| keiyōdōshi | hen da | hen desu | hen deshita | hen de wa arimasen | hen de wa arimasen deshita |
Terminology
| This page | Japanese (kanji) | Japanese (rōmaji) | Other names |
|---|---|---|---|
| adjectival verbs | 形容詞 | keiyōshi | adjectival verbs, i-adjectives, adjectives, stative verb Stative verb A stative verb is one that asserts that one of its arguments has a particular property . Statives differ from other aspectual classes of verbs in that they are static; that is, they have undefined duration... s |
| adjectival nouns | 形容動詞 | keiyōdōshi | adjectival noun Adjectival noun An adjectival noun or sometimes just adjectival is a noun that functions as an adjective by taking the particle 〜な -na... s, na-adjectives, copular nouns, quasi-adjectives, nominal adjectives, adjectival verbs |
| attributives | 連体詞 | rentaishi | attributives, true adjectives, prenominals, pre-noun adjectivals |
The Japanese word keiyōshi is used to denote an English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
adjective.
Because the widespread study of Japanese is still relatively new in the Western world, there are no generally accepted English translations for the above parts of speech, with varying texts adopting different sets, and others extant not listed above.
Korean
KoreanKorean language
Korean is the official language of the country Korea, in both South and North. It is also one of the two official languages in the Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture in People's Republic of China. There are about 78 million Korean speakers worldwide. In the 15th century, a national writing...
has exactly the same three word classes as above, called 형용사 hyeongyongsa, 형용명사 hyeongyongmyeongsa, and 관형사 gwanhyeongsa respectively.
External links
- Why does Japanese have two kinds of adjectives? (-i adjectives and -na adjectives), Boaz Yaniv, 2011 Jun 13, Japanese Language & Usage, Stack Exchange