Japanese Studies
Program @ York University
JP1000 Lecture 1
Characteristics of the Japanese language:
How many languages are spoken in the world? Ethnologue 2023
Origin: Ural-Altaic language family
Typology: Wikiwand
Basic word order: (S) O V {English, Chinese: S V O}
Subject [as Topic] is not mentioned when it is obvious from the context,
in particular, anata 'you' and watashi 'I'.
Agglutination: traditional subclassification [cf. isolating, inflectional]
Vstem + X1 + X2 + X3 ....
kak + ase + rare + nakat + ta
write causative passive negative past
"(I) was not made to write."
Particles [postpositions]: joshi {English: prepositions}
English: I write a letter to my mother every week.
Japanese: (watashi wa) maishuu haha ni tegami o kakimasu yo.
topic 'to' object assertive
Group 1: discourse particles [DP]
DP Function
WA : topic
MO : 'also'
SHIKA : 'only'
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Group 2: case markers [CM]
CM Case
GA : subject
O : object
NO : possessive
NI/E : direction 'to'
DE : location 'at'
KARA : 'from'
MADE : 'as far as', 'until'
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Group 3: sentence particles [SP]
SP Modality [speaker's attitude toward proposition]
KA : interrogative
YO : assertive
NE(E) : exclamatory, confirmative
NO : interrogative 'Is it the case that ...?'
:
Relative Clauses [RC]: RC - NP [English: NP - RC]
English: the students who are studying Japanese at York University
Japanese: Yooku daigaku de Nihongo o benkyoo-shite iru gakusee
York University at Japanese obj studying are students
Verbs:
Dictionary form: [Vst-u/ru] kak-u, tabe-ru, yom-u, ku-ru .....
Conjugation: verbals change their form according to what follows them
strong conjugation weak conjugation
kak-a-nai tabe- nai
kak-i-masu tabe- masu
kak-u tabe-ru
kak-e-ba tabe-re-ba
kak-o-o tabe-ro
: :
MASU-form: most commonly used in formal conversation
machimasu, hanashimasu, iimasu, wakarimasu, yomimasu .....
Function and meaning:
affirmative negative
masu: general/habitual event; masen: imperfective; future
future
mashita: perfective; past masendeshita: past
Nouns:
very few singular and plural markers [use of numeral+counters for
specific counting]
no articles ['the', 'a'] for definite/indefinite distinction
Time adverbials:
kinoo kyoo ashita
senshuu konshuu raishuu
itsumo/yoku/mainichi/tokidoki
Basic word order: (S) Tadv | O | V
| Dir |
Questions: declarative sentence + KA
affirmative: Eega o mimasu ka.
Doko ni ikimasu ka.
Itsu kaerimasu ka.
negative: Wakarimasen ka.
Shimasen deshita ka.
Answers to yes/no questions:
Affirmative questions:
1. simple yes or no answer:
Terebi o | mimasu ka. Hai/Ee,| mimasu. Iie,| mimasen.
| mimashita ka. | mimashita. | mimasen deshita.
2. adding new information:
Eega o mimasu ka. Hai/Ee, tokidoki mimasu.
Iie, yoku terebi o mimasu.
Negative questions:
1. simple negative questions:
Nihongo wa wakarimasen ka. Hai/Ee, wakarimasen.
Iie, wakarimasu (yo).
2. invitation:
Kaerimasen ka. Ee, kaerimashoo.
Iie, mada chotto....
3. confirmation:
Chotto takaku arimasen ka. Ee, takai desu nee.
Iie, soo demo arimasen.
Sociolinguistic prominence
Junior-Senior approach: rank-conscious senpai せんぱい koohai こうはい oyabun おやぶん kobun こぶん
sensee せんせい deshi でし
politeness phenomena ていねいさ
Put yourself in a junior position.
Criteria: age, position, status, (gender) - priority???
Attitude: respectful
humble
complimentary
agreeable
indirect
submissive
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Dialects of Japanese (hoogen)
5 large groups - 18 sub groups - 150 ~ 200 actual dialects (???)
Japanese Dialects (wiki_en)
Japanese Dialects (wiki_jp)
Word order Typology
© Norio Ota 2023