The sentence in question
彼に集中するよう注意を促しといたよ。
Meaning
I urged him to concentrate.
Confused as to what role the よう is playing here?
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1I'm not sure how to explain the function of よう, but I'm pretty sure that just 彼に集中する注意を促しといたよ。 would be nonsense. It reads to me like the 注意 itself is somehow 集中する, rather than that being what you want 彼 to do.– Karl KnechtelCommented May 14 at 14:49
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Where did you get that sentence from? Coz it does seem like nonsense– dvx2718Commented May 15 at 6:40
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@dvx2718 its an example sentence from core6000.neocities.org/sentences (#3541) . I have found other weird translations so there could be a mistake with this one.– HNaamCommented May 16 at 17:34
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@HNaam Disregard it. This is absolutely wrong– dvx2718Commented May 17 at 3:12
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@dvx2718 why? It seems like a perfectly good sentence to me and that is the meaning.– ZorfCommented Nov 15 at 8:13
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2 Answers
I am not a Japanese grammar expert but just a native Japanese speaker.
I think the よう here is an auxiliary verb(助動詞) of よう. So I think it express that the person who is received the 注意 need to be focus on their job by them selves.
I think the following meaning in the Japanese dictionaly is what is used here.
Expresses the speaker's will or determination. It can also be used to encourage others to join in an action.
My another dictionary(名鏡国語辞典) explains that the this auxiliary verb has a meaning of intention, invitation and offer(There are also other meanings of this auxiliary verb too).
Here's examples which I think similar:
お茶をいれようか
この問題を解決するよう努力してください。
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I don't think it's related to “いれようか” certainly not etymologically since that derives from the classical Japanese “いれむ” which for pentagrade verbs would be “はいらむ” deriving to modern “はいろう” looking very different.– ZorfCommented Nov 15 at 8:12
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The いれむ can be devided into いる(to enter) and む(old auxiliary verb). It can't be considered as a single word. はいろう is also not a single word. It's 入る(未然形) + う.– tatmiusCommented Nov 16 at 9:31
Tatmius answer of usage is of course correct, but I don't think it's an auxiliary verb, it's simply a noun used adverbially:
This is I feel the same “よう” as in “集中するように” as in “in order to concentrate” and is a noun. It's simply often used when giving orders or telling people what to do:
- “撤退するよう命令された。” -> “We were ordered to retreat.”
- “会議を始めるように言ってくれ” -> “Tell them to start the meeting will you?”
- “静かにするように言われた” -> “ was told to be quiet.”
As can be seen, just like in “in order to”, this sense of “よう” can occur with or without the “〜に”。With the lack of it making it sounding a bit formal. I don't think it's related to the volitional form of verbs at all; they certainly have an entirely different etymology as in “食べよう” originally came from “たべむ” -> “たべう” -> “たびょう” -> “たべよう” as far as I know and of course for pentagrade forms the volitional form looks entirely different. It is however I believe related to the other use of “たべよう” as in “食べようによっては” as in “depending on how you eat it” which for pentagrade verbs would be say “作りようによっては” while the volitional form would be “作ろう”
You can find a lot of example sentences of this usage say here:
https://ejje.weblio.jp/content/%22%E3%82%88%E3%81%86%E8%A8%80%E3%82%8F%E3%82%8C%E3%81%9F%22
https://ejje.weblio.jp/content/%22%E3%82%88%E3%81%86%E5%91%BD%E4%BB%A4%E3%81%99%E3%82%8B%22
https://ejje.weblio.jp/content/%22%E3%82%88%E3%81%86%E8%A6%81%E6%B1%82%E3%81%97%E3%81%9F%22
All of these also work with “ように” 'd say.
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I'm not sure what the development of “たべむ” -> “たべう” -> “たびょう” -> “たべよう” mean but it seems not accurate for me because old たべる is たぶ, not たべむ. Also, たべむ is たぶ+む(old auxiliary verb). たべよう can't be considered as a single verb. Sorry if it's not what you try to say.– tatmiusCommented Nov 16 at 9:24
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I also noticed that the たべよう and 作りよう is not related to the original question, the たべよう and つくりよう can be divided like 食べる + よう and つくる + よう. This よう is a stem of a word ようだ which is a different auxiliary verb I mentioned.– tatmiusCommented Nov 16 at 10:07
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@tatmius as far as I know this is not the etymology of the volitional forms in verbs. In Classical Japanese, it was formed by adding “〜む” eventually simply “〜う” to the irrealis of verbs. While it's true that the old conclusive form of “食べる” was “食ぶ”, it's irrealis was still “たべ”. The resulting /j/ in “たべよう” is the result of “たべう” first contracting to “たびょう” as it did in many other places, as in why “今日” is pronounced as it is today while the older pronunciation was “けう”, though spelled “けふ”. “作ろう” is again the result of a shift from “つくらむ” -> “つくらう” -> “つくろう”.– ZorfCommented Nov 16 at 11:48
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I searched it a little and now understand that there’s an idea of “volitional form” in terms of Japanese learning for non native speakers. In Japanese school, we don’t classify this like that. We learn it as verb+ auxiliary verb. So I think it consists of two words.– tatmiusCommented Nov 16 at 12:08
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I also note that my answer is not related to the volitional form. I divide the sentence based on a Japanese grammar one by one.– tatmiusCommented Nov 16 at 12:17