I noticed a lack of case marking particles in mathematical sentences:
- 1足す2は3である。
- 3掛ける4は12である。
足す and 掛ける are verbs, does subject and object analysis apply to this? Do they take on the numbers as arguments despite not being marked by case particles? What part of speech are 足す and 掛ける? They do not seem to be syntactically acting as verbs.
Compare this with the English version:
- 1 plus 2 is 3
- 3 times 4 is 12
After a cursory dictionary search, it is revealed that plus
and times
are not verbs, but prepositions. "plus 2" and "times 4" are prepositional phrases. It seems that the structure for English is 3(times 4). While the structure in Japanese appears to me as (3掛ける)4
If we parse 3 × 4 = 12 into English or Japanese, does the difference in grammatical syntax result in a different situation? Which situation comes to mind in English and in Japanese?:
a. 3 × 4 = OOOO + OOOO + OOOO
b. 3 × 4 = OOO + OOO + OOO + OOO
1 + 2 = 3
, why not call+
a coordinator? But really, it seems like we're just pronouncing the symbols as English words, and+
is really an infix operator, not a preposition. – snailcar♦ Jan 31 '16 at 3:20