A Simplified Grammar of the Japanese Language (modern Written Style)

The functions of the Japanese verb differ in some important respects from those of the verbs of European languages. Distinctions of person and number are utterly foreign to it. On the other hand, many of the tenses have two forms,—an attributive and a conclusive,-while there is a general indefinite form which does duty for all the tenses.* THE VERB AND

ADJECTIVE THUS CLOSELY RESEMBLE EACH OTHER; AND IT IS IMPOSSIBLE TO UNDERSTAND THE GRAMMAR OF THE VERB, UNLESS THE CONSIDERATIONS ADVANCED IN THE CHAPTER ON ADJECTIVES HAVE BEEN THOROUGHLY MASTERED.

To recapitulate briefly what has there been set forth :

I. The indefinite form stands at the end of each member of a set of clauses excepting the final member; and the tense or mood by which it should be rendered can only be known when the verb or adjective of that final clause is reached. Thus:-Natsu kitari, haru yuku, "Summer comes and spring goes." Here the indefinite form kitari must be rendered by the present, because the final verb yuku is in the present. The indefinite form of verbs is likewise used to form compounds

Many grammarians give the name of root to the indefinite form of the verb. As, however, the latter is but one of several inflections, theory and practice are alike confused by such a misnomer. It is convenient to use the word "stem" to designate that part of the verb (or adjective) which suffers no alteration, and to which all the terminations are suffixed. Sometimes this stem coincides with the

real root, as sam, the stem of samuru, "to grow cool." More often it is a lengthened form, as samas, the stem of samasu, "to make cool,"

(in adjectives it is the stem that performs this function), as kitari-tou, "to come and ask."*

II. The conclusive forms stand only at the end of a sentence, Thus :-Hito kitareri, "The people have come." III. The attributive forms serve to qualify nouns, herein resembling the participles of European languages. Thus :Kitareru hito, lit, "the have-come people," i. e. "the people who have come." They are moreover themselves used substantively, followed by postpositions, and also instead of the corresponding conclusive forms at the end of sentences when an interrogative word or the postposition zo precedes, thus: Hito no kitareru wo mite, lit. " Seeing the having come of people," i. e. "seeing that people had come." Ii-keru wa, "What he said [was]".

N.B.-Verbs, like adjectives, originally had other forms in e, as yuke, homure, sure, used only after koso. See koso, p. 23.

What obscures this threefold distinction and thereby perplexes the beginner, is the fact that some of the tenses which are capable of being used both as conclusives and as attributives have but one inflection to perform the two functions. Furthermore, the modern colloquial of Tōkyō has dropped all distinctively conclusive forms, thereby introducing a second element of confusion for those who acquire the colloquial before commencing the study of the written language. The student acquainted with the colloquial should specially note that the written language has no such forms in the present tense of verbs of the second and third conjugations as

Many nouns coincide with the indefinite form of verbs, as tanoshimi, "gladness" (tanoshimi, u, "to rejoice "); mi-harashi, a view" (mi-harashi, u, to view from a distance"). They are however, so far as modern usage is concerned, true substantives, felt to be distinct words from the like sounding verbal indefinite forms.

homeru, ireru, or sugiru. These are replaced, according to circumstances, by

When there are two Verbs derived from the same stem, such as iru, "to go in" and iruru (Colloquial ireru), "to put in," one belonging to the first conjugation, and the other to the second, the conclusive form of the present tense is therefore identical in both. Thus iru, at the end of a sentence, may signify either "goes in " or "puts in," according to circumstances. In the case of the attributive form there is no ambiguity, as it is iru, "goes in," in the first conjugation, and iruru, "puts in," in the second.

Note also from the above example of kitareru and from the examples given on pages 16 and 17, how the existence of the attributive form of verbs (and adjectives) supplies the absence of relative pronouns.

The regular conjugations are four in number.

All the inflections are added to the stem, which is itself invariable. Some of the inflections consist of a single vowel, whose original meaning is obscure, as yuki, yuku, yuke. But by far the greater number are obtained by agglutinating fragments of old auxiliary verbs, and in some few cases postpositions and adjectives, to the single vowel forms, thus: yukiki, yukishi, yuku-beshi, yukeba. It is for this reason that grammarians have given to the simple vowel forms and to one or two others the name of "Bases". The paradigms of the verbal forms in common written use are as follows. Note that mo may be omitted from the terminations of the various concessive forms, thus: yukedo, for yukedomo,

INDICATIVE MOOD.

FIRST REGULAR

Indefinite Form for all

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yuki

Conclusive yuku

{Attributive yuku

Yuku, "To go." (Stem Yuk.)

S Conclusive yukeri.
Attributive yukeru
Conclusive yukiki
Attributive yukishi
Conclusive yukitari
Attributive yukitaru
Conclusive yukitariki...
Attributive yukitarishi ...

Conclusive yukinu
Attributive yukinuru

...

yukan, yuki

nan, or yuku

naran

......

yukeba

Past Conditional.......................

[I, you he, she, it,
we, you, they] go.
[I, etc.] went, have
gone, or had gone.
[I, etc.] went, have
gone, or had gone.
[I, etc.] went, have
gone, or had gone.
[I, etc.] went, have
gone or had gone.
[I, etc.] went, have
gone, or had gone
away.

[I, etc.] shall pro-
bably go.

as, since, or when [I, etc.] go.

yukishikaba... as, since, or when [I,

...

etc.] went, have gone or had gone.

yukitareba

yukaba

if [I, etc.] go..