Learning sentences and clauses is foundamental to parse complex syntax tree in Japanese, this title describles the comprehensive classification in Japanese.
Translation used
Base on “国語”: 主語・述語・修飾語・接続語・独立語
- 語: It can’t be translated, depending on the context.
- 節: Clause
- 主体: Main topic, functioning grammatically as a noun, encompassing both single noun and noun clauses. such as “鳥が鳴く”, the bird in the sentence servers as the main topic.
- 主語: Subject, which primarily consists of a noun and mainly a particle(は・が・より), such as “鳥が鳴く”. It has an additional particle while the subject in English doesn’t.
- 名詞節: Noun clause which functions as noun. Same as English.
- 主節: Main clauses, or Independent clause. Same as English.
- 従属節: Dependent clause, or subordinate clause. Same as English.
- 補足節: Nominalized cluase that can’t be tranlated as “Dependent clause” in Google.
- 文節: clause/setsu, 節は語が情報を加えられることで述語を伴ったものだと考えられる[1].
Syntax/文
Summary
Hint
- The diagaram is not based on wikipedia.
Condition and contrast sentences can be considered both subordinating and sentences in English
Modifier/修飾
- 修飾: As a prefix, the modifiler modifies the meaning of the next words to emphasis or provide contextual information, such as “I’m very happy”.
- 連体修飾: Aka 名詞(を)修飾, attributive modifier, the adjectival phrase that only connects with 体言 (noun, including formal noun), turning a non-adjective into an adjective. Similar to relative clause in English but diffs in an overt pronoun (that/which/who) element.
- 連用修飾: Aka 副詞修飾, continuative modifier, the adverbial phrase that only connects with 用言 (i-adj, na-adj, and verb) and adverbs (副詞), providing additional information such as time, space, and causation. Similar to adverbial clause in English.
- 連体修飾節, attributive clause, aka noun-modifying clause, which functions as an adjective. Similar to a relative clause in Enlish but diffs in lacking an overt pronoun (that/which/who) element. Eg. きれいな女だ
Attributive modifier
Continuative modifier
Usecase
- 条件節: conditional clause, which is not the same as English.
- 順接条件節: aka 順接条件節
- 仮定: base on hypothetical situation.
- 事実: based on facts
- 逆接: a outcome despite an action
- 順接: when one action is required for another to occur.
Technologically, the “conditional clause” in English is only for hypothetical situation, there is no one-on-one mapping between English and Japanse in the conditional clause.
Nouns
Atomic nouns
The following nouns are nouns that you can search in dictionaries.
Nominalized clause/補足節
Nominals are phrases that function as nouns (topic in subject, or predicate).
In English, we only use relative clauses, phrases, or participle phrases to enrich or create nouns. Japanese grammars resemble English in grammatically structure, but diff in an overt pronoun (that/which/who) element. The diagram below outlines the major types of nominalization process in Japanese.
Appendix
という/called
It is classified as a phrase in Japanese dictionaries, 格助詞「と」＋動詞「いう」, which can form a diverstiy of grammatical elements.
- Form an attributive modifier (連体修飾) [2], which has similarity with the adjectival prepositional phrase in English that functions as an adjective.
光の御子という騎士: The knight (who is) called son of light
言峰という名の神父, The priest (who is) called Kotomine.
魔術というの: The one (who is) called magic.
というわけだ: reason
というものだ: definition
- Form a quotational clause (引用節) , similar to “the fact that [Sentence]” in English
鈴木部長が社長の親戚であるというのは有名な話だ。-- 現代日本語文法6
The fact that director suzuki is relative to the boss is widely known.
広い公園だというのに人気がないのは、何か理由でもあるのか?
Is there any reason why despite the fact that the park is large but not popular?
- Form continuative modifier (連用修飾 N3)
四年前、慎二から紹介された時はまだ少女というより女の子の趣が強かった桜
Sakura, who has been more like a young lady rather than a child since 4 years ago introduced by shinji.
Summary
Tbd