Article on learning grammar I wrote...

How to learn Japanese grammar

How grammar as opposed to what grammar is

Describing grammar as opposed to listing

After having mastered kanji the next step in learning Japanese will be grammar. The reason why grammar is next is because if one learns one grammatical structure one can read many sentences.

For example if one learns that x ですtranslates into English as it’s an x one can understand a great many sentences: 本です、猫です、犬です、猿です。However if you learn a piece of vocabulary you just learn one ‘thing’ which cannot be learnt in that many situations. Learning grammar is a key to learning a language. Language is a good example of where the whole is more than the some of the parts

Myths about Japanese Grammar

Myth 1

Japanese grammar is simple

Truth

Japanese grammar is different to Euopean grammar. Whereas French has ‘conjugations’ Japanese does not. To be is desu in all ‘persons’ in Japanese. This does not mean that Japanese is easy. The very fact that Japanese is so different to the English Brain makes it harder to learn.

New statement: Japanese grammar is different. Some parts are harder, some parts are easier.

Myth 2: there are only 2 irregular verbs in Japanese kuru and suru

Truth aru is irregular, iku is irregular, many verbs are irregular in the honorific. Using European language terms like ‘irregular verbs’ is a silly way to look at Japanese grammar. The verb ai suru does not conjugate like other verbs

New statement: Japanese has many verbs that could be judged to be irregular although the verbal system is better behaved than French.

Myth 3: Japanese grammar is written with hiragana kanji are never used in grammar

New statement Kanji are sometimes used in grammar, and if one knows this kanji one will go on to know the grammar. Just as in german if you know that krank means ill and haus means house you will know hospital, so in Japanese Kanji and other motivated symbols can tell you the meaning

Types of grammar

Verb ‘conjugations’ Conjugation Grammar

which ‘tense’ the verb changes into. This bit is added on to the verb and the sound and spelling of the verb changes when it’s added on. Adjectives also conjugate in Japanese.

For example 読むbecomes読んだin the past tense.

‘Vocabulary Grammar’ ‘No New Rule grammar’

this grammar can be learnt as vocabulary. All that needs to be remembered is it’s meaning and where it goes in the sentence. For example など、ほとんど、can simply be remembered as ‘ and so on’ and ‘hardly’ respectively. Kono is simply this and all that need be remembered is that it goes before the noun. No major further explanation is needed. Makino’s entry for滅多にない

is simply　one page long the entry for の is x pages long. This grammar is the easiest grammar type to remember. This grammar may be quite easily be remembered by way of translation.

‘derivational morphology’

although grammar this is treated in a separate chapter.

New rule Grammar

Stuff that changes the meaning of the sentence and has it’s own rules of usage. Stuff with no direct equivalent translation in English

Grammar like’と　で　に These grammars need teaching of the rules surrounding them. Whereas hotondo can safely be translated as ‘scarcely’ The majority of the time で has no similar ‘direct’, ‘normal’ translation in English. It’s meaning depends on what other words it is used with whereas hotondo’s meaning does not. Further explanation is needed. Explanation of usage is needed. When teaching nomi one needs to understand what it qualifies. Is ｘのｙ x’s y or Y’s x? Further explanation is needed. This grammar is separate to conjugation grammar as the verb before it does not change. This grammar changes the sentence, but nothing else in the sentence need change grammatically. In order to say I want to go you must change the verb before adding an auxillary, but for this type of grammar nothing need be changed. For otoko no piano, only no is added and nothing else changes. One needs to understand what effect this grammar has on other words in the sentence: In otoko no piano is it the piano the property of the boy or the boy the property of the piano?

Some grammars fit into several categories for example てほしい is a conjugation grammar as the verb may be changed before adding te, but when adding hoshii nothing else need be chang

ed.

Grammar has been described as the rules governing words. Words belong to classes and if you read a grammar of Japanese IE Jonathan Bunt’s you will see Grammar put into classes. Grammar is best learnt in the beginning in word classes. Words fit into the following classes

• adjectives
• adverbs
• interjections
• nouns
• verbs (except auxiliary verbs)

• Closed word classes:
  • auxiliary verbs
  • clitics
  • coverbs
  • conjunctions
  • determiners (articles, quantifiers, demonstrative adjectives, and possessive adjectives)
  • particles
  • measure words
  • adpositions (prepositions, postpositions, and circumpositions)
  • preverbs
  • pronouns
  • contractions
  • cardinal numbers
• Relative clauses
• One should learn via makino and furiei which part of speech is doing what to what

word order and sentence structure

word order in Japanese is basically subject object verb, which means that the sentence ends in a verb, the copula or an I adjective

The basic sentences in Japanese are ( see makino, oxford japanese dictionary )

After having understood the above you should actually start to learn grammar.

First of all Get hold of, buy, loan, steal several grammar books. Somewhere between three or ten. If you do not understand something in one grammar book, refer to it in another, then another and so on. I have often not understood something in seven books and then understood in the eighth as the point was explained differently. I cannot underestimate how important it is to use as many grammar books as humanly possible

The first grammar we will study will be closed class like demonstratives as these are simpler than verbs to understand. Check that you understand this grammar and after having understood it learn it parrot fashion. DO not learn without understanding.

Things likeあの means that one over there are not hard to remember. These may be learnt like vocabulary

Next study pronouns. These may be learnt like vocabulary. Ie Boku=I, rough male. On one side write the Japanese on the other write a translation and note on usage. For kanojo note that it is not often used and that it may also mean girlfriend. N Japanese pronouns are used very differently to English pronouns. Note translations but also note usage.

There is no real equivalent to ‘it’ in Japanese

Possessive pronouns these are used in Japanese, but not as much as in English:

They are formed by taking a subject pronoun and adding no

Watashi no kuruma my car

Relative clauses　: Yes it really is that simple

In Japanese grammar there is no word for that in the sense ‘The mouse that roared”

To make this statement the describer or “modifying element” goes in front of the described or “modified element” and there is no “connector” between these two elements.

In English the modified (mouse) goes first and then we have ‘that’ and we have the modifier roared.

In Japanese we have the reverse but without the‘ that‘

た鼠 the that .

So to make the relative clause in Japanese you simply take a verb and but it before the NOUN.

The person who brought the pen ペンをった

　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　読んだ猫

The cat that read the book 本をんだ

The cat that reads the book 　　　　　　　　　　　　本を読む猫

The cat that reads the book 　　　　　　　　　　本を読んでいる猫　　　

The tv programme that I watched た

It really is that simple to make the relative clause. You put the modifier before the modified, and that’s it.

In all reality there are relative clauses in Japanese, they just aren’t marked.

Now we will come to nouns and note one of the myths of Japanese: Japanese does not have plurals: This isn’t strictly true: Japanese pluralises with duplication, etc (seemakino3)

something which

modifies a noun is an adjective in the red car red modifies car the red car. In my grammar explanations the modifier is shown in coloured font, and the modified is shown in with a background color the same color as the font as the modifier.　赤い車

this concept was invented by myself to explain the concept of modified and modifier in Japanese which is one of the most important concept in Japanese grammar.

Adjectives in Japanese are traditionallt divided into two camps although there are further divisions with in these camps

The first group if adjectives is called ‘I’ adjectives as these adjectives always end in ‘I’

An ‘I’ adjective may end in ai: ‘umai’ ii oisii ui ‘samui’ or omosiroi. No ‘I’ adjective ends in ei.

‘I’ adjectives are often caused verbal adjectives as they change there endings like verbs.

The second group is ‘na’ adjectives

When used in the attributive sense, which means when they are used before a noun they have to have a na in between them and the noun: shizuka na machi.

When these adjectives are used predicatively, this meaning at the end of a sentence they need the copula or desu.: machi wa shizuka desu.

Unlike I adjectives na adjectives do not change their form to show tense mood and aspect although the copula does change

Some na adjectives end in I but these can be easily spotted as they end in ei and as is written above no ‘I’ adjective can end in ‘ei’

There are several I adjectives with na forms in front of a noun although these are not na adjectives.

Although Japanese is said to be a regular language there are irregular adverbs

Onaji reqires desu at the end oif a sentence but one may not say onaji na machi, but should say onaji machi

Chiikaku tooi and ooi are not used before nouns in the I form, instead we say tookuno: we take off one I and add a kuno.

We now get onto grammar that is extremely different to English

Next study postpositions and conjunctions as these too should be easier to remember as they may be learn like vocabulary. When learning them note the similarities and differences between their English translations. でdoes not just mean at, but has many different depending on context. Be extremely cautious of learning by translation. Don’t just learn one translation but learn the rules associated with it.

Sometimes when doing furiei with makino symbols like + and- can be used to show with or without

respectfully. 　Arrows may also be used, for example　恵美智子. This arrow shows, reminds that megumi is in someway related with tomoko.

ペン家族　A family without a pen. Arrow shows that the pen is lacking

For prepositions, arrows may also be used ロンドンへ行きました　to show that ‘he’ goes to rondon and not ikimasita. These arrows and symbols are a type of metalanguage, a language that defines another language. This is useful for learning and understanding: you are making a model of the language

Makino splits Japanese conjunctions into several camps, perhaps following halliday:

Conjunctions which indicate cause and effect a

Conjunctions which mean but

Conjunctions which mean and

Conjunctions which mean or

Conjunctions which mean to change the subject

Conjunctions which indicate paraphrasing

Conjunctions which mean for example

Conjunctions which mark a reason for something

Conjunctionsnwhich indicate contrast

Now study counter words: Note that these are learnt in English and also note that they are much more common in Japanese. After understanding their concept learn each vocabulary counter 1-10 like vocabulary. Think of it like slices of pizza.

Counters are a concept best described by equivalence

if you go a beach you do not say to your children “there are many sands” you say to them “there are many grains of sand” and grains is a counter although this term is not used in English as much.

Other examples of English counters:

Slices: There are six slices of bread.

In Japanese this system is much more developed

Counters often use the ichi ni san shi go roku nana hachi kyuu juu sequence as opposed to the hitotsu futatsu mittsu sequence

Kuruma nidai means two cars.

If an article is present the number and counter is usually placed after the noun and particle

Neko wo 6biki wo kaitai

The pattern

X y no z

May also be used where x=a number y= a counter and z= a noun

8piki no sai: 8 rhinoceroses

articles: note that Japanese does not have these, but also note ある町 is probably best translated as a town and not “A certain town”.

Now we will come to verbs and adjectives which are the hardest parts of Japanese to learn as they are so unlike English verbs and adjectives in the way they function. This is what makes \Japanese difficult , it’s difference to European languages. DO NOT TRY TO COMPARE THE JAPANESE VERBAL SYSTEM TO THE EUROPEAN Verbal SYSTEM although pronouns and demonstratives can to a certain extent be translated, explained, by means of a European example the verbal and adjectival system may never be. It is just too different.

I will first try to describe the verbal system

Unlike European verbs verbs do not conjugate for person: I go is the same as he goes in Japanese.

Japanese verbs mark in there form: levels of formality. TWO tenses: Past and Non-Past

If the last mora of a verb is た　だ this shows that the verb is in the past tense and that the action the verb describes happened in the past if we read　“僕はホンを読んだ “ knowing that x is a verb we know that the verb happens in the past without knowing anymore information

Voice. The passive and active voice are marked, though the passive voice can mean polite or potential depending upon context

Whereas in languages such as French and Spanish auxillary verbs are added in front of the verb to make a two verb construction in Japanese they are added to the end. Most of what is Japanese verbs is added to the end of verbs.

Whereas in French one must learn how to conjugate verbs for person in Japanese the main battle with verbs is learning how to add auxillaries.

To change a Japanese verb you add things to the end and not to the front. But before adding these things you must change a part of the original verb

When grammarians describe Japanese verbs they start with the plain form, and this is how we will start. The plain form of a verb is easily recognized, it’s final sound is “U”.

In Japanese there are two types of verbs “ichidan” and “Godan” as well as two very irregular verbs “Suru “ “Kuru” and quite a large amount of quite irregular verbs. To continue the analogy of Frech grammar Kuru and Suru could be seen as being like avoir and etre whereas the likes of iku and aru and ai suru could be perceived as being mangers and allers

All verbs which fall into the ichidan group act entirely the same where as within the godan group there are subgroups which act differently. Because of this we will address ichidan verbs first. As the name implies this verb only needs one “step” to change it to a state where an auxillary may be added.

A n example of an ichidan verb is食べる, which may be glossed as “eat”. To say I eat one would say Watashi wa taberu” but this verb is in the plain style which is used for informal speech: see politeness in Japanese. In Japanese the next highest level of politeness is marked with masu. To make taberu polite one must add masu.

Before adding masu we must take the last kana of the ichidan verb away: for 食べるwe take away ru　たべる,たべ

We are now left with たべ and all that is that is left to do now is add no masu, and we have have apolite form of the verb食べます

All verbs which are ichidan verbs follow this simple rule. A good dictionary will say which group a verb belongs to

Other auxillaries are added to ru verbs in exactly the same way: simply take off the last kana and add the auxillary

The auxillary tai simply means to want to do something: tabetai simply means I WANT TO eat.

たべる

たべ

食べたい

いる

い

いたい

Nai simply means “not” and is known in grammar as the negative version (Halliday) for ichidan verbs youn simply add it after taking off the last kana:

たべる、たべ、たべない　I don’t eat

Must is formed by the auxillary なければなりません、or more informally なければならない

Again you simply add it after you have cut off the last kana.

To add auxillaries to ichidan verbs all you need to do is remember which kana to take off( the last one) and which series of kana mean which things, and that you must add the auxillary after you have taken the last kana off

(chart of main auxillaries)

Godan verbs have groups within the godan group. Some auxillaries are added in exactly the same way to every godan verb, where as others are added in a different way . We will first describe each group of godan verbs