What are the “original form”, “dictionary form” and “termination form” in Japanese?

Original link: https://sanguok.com/blog/genkei-jishokei-shushikei-in-japanese/

in short:

“Original shape” = “Dictionary shape” = “Terminal shape” ≠ “Basic shape” ≠ “Ordinary shape”.

“Original form”, dictionary form, and final form refer to the same form of Japanese verbs, such as “lai る”, “go る”, and “relief む”. This form is usually recorded directly in the “dictionary” (dictionary).

The author will continue to write some Japanese-related articles. Readers and friends who are interested in this, welcome to lock the ” Japanese ” tab of the website. Friends who are accustomed to using RSS readers can also subscribe to the “Japanese” article RSS feed .

preface

I believe that readers and friends will come into contact with the terms “prototype”, “dictionary shape” and “termination shape” from different materials when learning Japanese grammar.

What do they refer to, are they the same thing?

Although I don’t think that learning a language requires clarification of grammar, it is necessary if the terminology is mixed up to the point of being confusing.

So, in this article, let’s explore this question.

The “prototype” as a relative concept

Look at the “original” first.

Prototype, in fact, both in the Chinese world and in Japan, are more used for English education.

In English, come, go, clamp are the prototypes. The original form must have its deformation. When forming a predicate with an auxiliary verb or a modal verb, the verb should use the original form. This is mentioned in English classes in secondary schools or remedial classes.

Whether in the Chinese-speaking world or in Japan, as long as it is not a foreign language school or a foreign school, the first foreign language of students will be English. And grammar is a way that is often used in second language acquisition – after all, it is not necessary to buy a grammar book to acquire a mother tongue.

Under such circumstances, Japanese who are unfamiliar with grammar theory in their native language, or Chinese who learn Japanese by themselves and following extra-curricular tutoring classes out of interest, may refer to a form of Japanese verbs as “prototype” for convenience. .

Whether it is original or changed, it is actually a relative concept.

“New Standard Japanese for Sino-Japanese Communication” (hereinafter referred to as “New Standard Japanese”) teaches verbs, starting with “ますform” – a polite and appropriate verb conjugation in ordinary social situations, so It has a wide range of applications. The design of the new “Standard Day” can actually show a very valuable concept-based on the pragmatic fact that the Japanese value politeness, the editor hopes that learners can maximize and decently interact with the book from the start of picking up the book. Japanese communication; then the depth of thinking that the learner can express in this language can be increased with the depth of learning.

If the “ますshaped” is taught in the later chapters, or even taught in a special “honorary language class” (this is the case with the Japanese education I have experienced in Japan), then the learner can only use the A form (タメ口) that is quite disrespectful to a less intimate listener. Although it was unintentional, the other party’s resentment and even conflict were caused by the inappropriate transformation. I have a personal experience of the horror of the consequences.

The new “Standard Day” is not the only textbook designed in this way, as is “Comprehensive Japanese” by Peking University Press. The Okinawan language textbook “Elementary Okinawa” for Japanese also started with honorifics.

If a learner starts his studies and reads the new “Standard Day”, then for him, isn’t the original form “ますform”? But it seems a lot of people don’t see it that way.

One of the criticisms of the new “Biji Day” is that it starts with “ますform” rather than “original form”, which does not help learners’ understanding of Japanese verb conjugations… Wait, what these critics say What does “original” mean?

Dictionary form and “original form”

Let’s take a look at what the critics of the new “Standard Day” are advocating –

Learning verbs needs to start from the “original form” such as “来る”, “GO る”, “repeace”, not the ます form such as “来ます”, “GO ります”, “銀みます”; because Japanese verbs have more than one inflection of the ます form, Starting from the “original shape”, and then various deformations, it is full of simple and regular beauty.

Forms such as “来る”, “GO る”, and “貴む” are called “dictionary forms” in “educational grammar” for non-native Japanese speakers. The reason for the name is very simple, because the verbs printed on the Japanese “dictionary” (dictionary) are all in this style.

Although Yuan and Change are a set of relative concepts, in both China and Japan, “Yuan Xing” is conventionally used to refer to the dictionary shape. The word “prototype” is usually just talk about it, and it can’t enter the elegant hall of grammatical theory research.

The name “dictionary-shaped” is recited according to the oriental characters, because the Japanese call it “dictionary-shaped”. Most of the training institutions in the society also call it a dictionary shape, and more authentic Chinese textbooks will be translated as a “dictionary shape” (such as Peking University’s “Comprehensive Japanese”).

Termination form

There is also the concept of “termination form” that is not mentioned. In fact, it is another alias for the dictionary shape.

The traditional Japanese grammar theory, for example, the representative school grammar based on Hashimoto Shinyoshi’s Hashimoto grammar (Japan and Taiwan are used to say “grammar”, while the mainland is used to say “grammar”), will use the form part. for:

  1. unpredictable;
  2. connected form;
  3. termination form;
  4. conjoined;
  5. already form (presumed form in Japanese modern language);
  6. command form.

Among them, the forms such as “来る”, “GO る”, and “receive む” are called termination forms.

The term terminating form comes from the position of this type of form in the sentence – the end of the sentence (the end of the text). Tojo Yoshimon’s “Speaking of Japanese Words” (1833) called it a “cut-off statement”, and Kurokawa Maura’s “Ci no Shirashidawen” (1890) called it a “termination statement”. The current ending form (“form” is a noun affix with a modern color, and it used to say “word”, so there are also “tiyan” and “yongyan” in Japanese grammar theory. It can be seen that it is related to “movable characters”, “dead characters” and “substantial words” and “function words” in traditional Chinese grammar.)

This chapter also refers to the concept of school grammar. Grammar, the Chinese point is called “grammar”. In contrast to school grammar, the “educational grammar” described in the previous chapter is an “improved version” for non-native Japanese speakers. This grammar is used in the new “Standard Day” and “Everybody’s Japanese” (also translated as “Everybody’s Japanese”). The ます form mentioned in the previous chapter is also the name of educational grammar – it is really simple and easy to understand.

Extension: basic shape, common shape

Through the above introduction, we have understood that “prototype” = “dictionary shape” = “termination shape”. In fact, there are two terms we often encounter – “basic shape” and “ordinary shape”. What does this mean?

The basic shape is actually the superset (or parent set) of the aforementioned “prototype”. Basic shapes include:

  1. “original form”;
  2. The use of words.

E.g:

  • 傀む (original form)
  • 傁る (possible state)
  • Tie ま れ る (passive)
  • 進ませる (serving state)
  • 進ませられる (Passive)

It should be noted that the basic form does not include the past form of the use of words and forms. For example: 進まった, 進まなかった, which do not belong to the basic form.

“Ordinary shape” is a larger concept, a superset of basic shapes. If we take “relief” as an example, then:

ま ま, な い, ん ん だ, かっ かっ かっ かっ た た, ま ま せる せる, ませ な な ませ ませ た た かっ かっ かっ ん ん ん い る, ん ん な い な い, ん ん い い た, ん ん かっ な かっ た

All are ordinary.

Ordinary form, also known as “Simplified”.

It should be noted that the ます form (that is, the verb conjunctive form), て form, ば form, and volition form do not belong to the category of the “original form”, basic form, and common form of verbs.

postscript

When I wrote a blog post to analyze the difference between “復えば”, “國動えれば” and “國動い” and “國動え”, I encountered a problem in the use of Japanese grammar terms.

In order to distinguish these two sets of words, I tried to return to their “original form”…

—Wait, while we use the word “prototype” a lot, how should it be defined?

What are “dictionary forms” and “termination forms”? Why do I hear so many versions of the term? I can’t help but start looking back on my Japanese learning career.

My Japanese study went through a number of distinct stages:

In the beginning, it was self-study out of interest. The source of grammar knowledge was the famous “Japanese Little Yellow Book” – the new “Biao Ri”, as well as articles written by the great gods on a social question-and-answer website;

Later, he received undergraduate education in China, where he studied Japanese, and the textbook was “Comprehensive Japanese” published by Peking University Press;

Later, I went to Japan to study, still learning Japanese.

This gave me the opportunity to come into contact with various sayings about the teaching of Japanese.

Although all kinds of vocabulary and terminology are at peace in my mind, since I want to write words, it is still necessary to clarify. Then I want to combine some literature and my own experience to write this article.

This article is reprinted from: https://sanguok.com/blog/genkei-jishokei-shushikei-in-japanese/
This site is for inclusion only, and the copyright belongs to the original author.

Leave a Comment