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TJP's Username Policy

血まみれ剣術師 — Wed, 01 Dec 2010 05:42:01 GMT

血まみれ剣術師:

Generally here at TJP this is not an issue we face too often; however there have been some cases of people creating questionable, confusing or an offensive username. If you wouldn’t want someone calling you it in real life, then it is probably best you don’t use it here or elsewhere on the internet either.

 Failing to comply with all the following can lead to a permanent ban. Returning repeat offenders IP address will be completely banned from viewing [http://www.thejapanesepage.com/ The Japanese Page] website. 

1. Profanity in a username is not tolerated. 

2. A username may not contain sexist, racist or even ageist words. 

3. Please don’t scramble your username in complete gibberish such as 4g5d6sbd or dedvsh. This is both hard for you and our members to memorize/recognize. Quite simply it makes no sense to do this. 

4. Your username can be in either Latin-based or Japanese characters; no other characters are permitted to be used. If you’re planning to use Japanese characters, know what it actually means before you go using it. Your username should be unique enough that a novice Japanese reader won’t confuse you with another member of a similar name. 

 


 


 

[[Category:TheJapanesePage.Com]]

Conjugation Bases

Blutorange — Fri, 21 May 2010 16:35:31 GMT

Blutorange: /* ??? (Renyoukei) */

[[Category: Grammar]]

Conjugations bases are the "true" forms in which Japanese verbs and i-adjectives can be conjugated. They each convey a certain nuance, different from what English verb conjugations mean. Some of these bases can be used by themselves, especially in Old Japanese. In modern Japanese, these bases mostly important for the compound conjugation, which expresses meaning such as tense, mood, attidude of speaker and much more by adding suffixes, verbs and adjectives.

This article lists all the bases and the nuance they convey. See [[Verb conjugation]] and [[Adjective conjugation]] for more formation.

==終止形 (Shuushikei)==

Literally, "ending form", also called predicative form. This is the classical form used in [[Classical Japanese]] for ending sentences, hence its name. Dictionaries before [[Modern Japanese]] often listed verbs and adjectives under this form. In modern Japanese, this form was replaced by 連体形 (see below) and is only used to make sentences sound more literary/archaic/fancy.

酔(ゑ)ひも'''為'''(す) (yoi mo su) Also see illusions.
す is the 終止形 of する

==連体形 (Rentaikei)==

Literally, "continuing body form"attributive form. In classical Japanese, it was only used for attributing a sentence to a noun, for example:

人病気で死ぬる (終止形) [A human dies of illness.]
病気で死ぬ人 (連体形) [A human who dies of illness.]

The first sentence uses the 終止形 to form a simple sentence, the second sentence attributes the sentence "to die of illness" to "human", literally translating to "a 'dying of illness'-human".

Modern Japanese, however, uses this base instead of the 終止形 for ending sentences as well. In modern Japanese dictionaries it verbs and adjectives are thus listed under this form, hence its alternate name "dictionary form".

It should be noted that although the 連体形 is sometimes described as a "base/basic form" or "infinitive form", there is nothing more basic or inifinite to the 連体形 than to other forms. Verbs in Japanese do not have an "infinitive". It is simply convenient to agree on a base when speaking of a verbs plain form.

It is interesting to understand why this base replaced the 終止形:

Firstly, due to the fixed word order when attributing a sentence to a noun and that the verbs always comes last to end sentences, there is no special need to distinguish between a predicative (終止形) and attributive (連体形) form. No confusion can arise. From the viewpoint of convenience and making things uncomplicated, it is reasonable to expect that in normal conversation, this distinction is lost. Indeed, the colloquial language that later became modern Japanese did just this.

Secondly, there may have been more ways of doing this. In the end, common usage agreed on one way: 
As a remnant of old Japanese, the 連体形 could also a nominal meaning (used as noun). The particles が originally was quite like の nowadays, linking to nouns. Thus saying, instead of

人死ぬる

which uses the 終止形 normally,

人が死ぬ (the dying of a human)

expresses the same meaning within the bounds of classical Japanese grammar. This is also the explanation why が is used to mark the subject in Modern Japanese.

==連用形 (Renyoukei)==

Literally, "continued-use form", also called "continuative" or "conjunctive" or "adverbial". This base is used to, in general, link words or sentences together.

Used to link sentences, it connects them in a loose way:

花咲き、鳥鳴き、春が来る flowers are blooming, birds chirping and spring coming

With adjectives, it links them all to a noun:

赤く長く大きいペン a red, long, big pen

Sometimes, for the words it connects, one stands in a modifying relation:

敬い申す to speak reverently
恋しく思う to think lovingly

The relation between the words can be quite complex:

焼き殺す burn to death
醜い (from 見難い) hard to look at

So it is best to simply remember that it connects words and have a guess using context.

This is also the form frequently used with helper verbs/adjectives to express many shades of meaning:

-ます polite form
-たい want to ~
-たり listing
-た/き past
-つ/ぬ affirmative
-くる gradually start to
-いく gradually stop to
-はじまる begin to
-治す redo / do again
&c.

It also serves as a noun form of verbs in Japanese, in which case it means "the act of doing [verb]". It can also be joined with other nouns.

使い方 (lit. "using-way") instructions

==未然形 (Mizenkei)==

Literally, "uncompleted state form", also called Imperfective (not to be confused with the Imperfect in languages such as French), opposite of 已然形. This base is used for things not yet completed or done. It it used for conditions, the [[future]], [[negation]], [[passive verb]]/[[potential verb]] and [[causative verb]]. In detail:

In classical Japanese it is used with ば for a yet unrealized condition:

読まば if/should he read(s)

A remnant of this usage in modern Japanese can be seen in the 未然形 of たり:

御金を持ったら新しい車を買います If I had money, I would buy a new car.

It is used for the [[future]] form in classical Japanese using the helper verb む:

我(わが)世(よ)誰(たれ)そ/常(つね)'''成(な)らむ''' ([[イロハ]]) What in this world / Will remain as it is?

As well as for the "pseudo-futurum" in modern Japanese, which is just the form above with some sound changes:

成らむ > 成らう > 成ろう

Further, it is the base used for the negation:

飲まず (not drink)
有りません (not exist)
座らない (not sit)

It appears to be used for the passive/potential form, however, this is probably due to a sound change and originally used the 連用形. See [[Potential verb]]

Lastly, it serves as a base for forming causative verbs:

'''サカヤ'''シメタマエ deign to cause (them) to flourish
メノヲムナニアヅケテ '''ヤシナワ'''ス (Taketori Monogatari) he gave it (the child) to his wife to bring it up
話させる cause to talk

This is the only base that cannot be used on its own suggesting that it may be composite. However, as there is not much known on the etymology and origin of the 未然形, this is only speculation.

==已然形 (Izenkei)==

Literally, "completed state form", also called Perfective, opposite of 未然形. In classical and especially Old Japanese used as a form for completed actions. It could be used on　its　own,　for　example

我(われ)忘(わす)るれや Have I forgotten? (Manyoushuu)

As a related sense, it was also used to express reason or a "completed condition":

hotoke no ... sakiwaetamau mono ni ari to '''omoe''' (because we think the Buddha was a thing bestowing blessedness)

This can be thought of as "having thought".

In modern Japanese, this base is only used for yet unrealized conditions (formerly expressed by the 未然形), which is why it is also called 仮定形 (assumption form). In this use, modern Japanese adds the particles は in its voiced form ば. Note that "unrealized condition" here means not "if X should be the case", but "when/the moment that X is the case". The conditions is yet unrealized, although quite possible. For example:

御金を貰えば新しい車を買います When I get the money, I will buy a new car.

Observe the difference:

行(ゆ)かば (未然形) if he goes / should go
行(ゆ)けば (已然形) since he goes / has gone

Lastly, in Classical Japanese it was also used in

行(ゆ)けど though he goes / has gone

do express a restriction (concessive).

==命令形 (Meireikei)==

Literally "commanding form". Etymologically, this may simply be a special usage of the 已然形. It is only a small step from saying "as a fact, verb action is completed" to "verb action has to be completed" or "I want verb action to be completed."

This form expresses a very direct command. For 五段活用動詞, this form is used on its own, for 一段活用動詞 the suffixes よ or ろ and others in certain dialects are added to express a command. These suffixes had origninally only an emphatic meaning (do! verb action).

行け!(Go!)
食べろ! (Eat!)
見よ! (Take a look!)

Rentaikei

Blutorange — Fri, 21 May 2010 16:18:50 GMT