What do I do when I encounter “Written Japanese”?

Question

I have read in grammar dictionaries some words/phrases that are labelled as "Written Japanese" and should not be used in normal speech.

Let's take for example the sentence-ending こと indicating a command:

プールサイドを走らないこと。 "Do not run on the pool deck"

(This was taken from A Dictionary of Intermediate Japanese Grammar and it's labelled as "Written Japanese".)

What I want to know is what happens to "Written Japanese" when:

1. I read it silently

2. I read it aloud to myself

3. I read it to someone else

For the above, do I read it as it is written or do I convert it to a "Spoken Japanese" equivalent?

Answer 1

"Written Japanese" doesn't mean "forms that can only be expressed in written form". It means "forms that are generally used in writing rather than speech".

So there's no need to replace anything on the fly as you read it. You read it as written, whether it's 走らないこと, 走るべからず, な走りそ, whatever. It doesn't matter if it would be weird as a conversational utterance... because it isn't one. It's "written Japanese" that you happen to be reading out loud.

Update 12/2: Actually, let me add one caveat: If you are reading Classical Japanese, or most pre-WWII, then "reading it as written" doesn't mean the same thing as it does for modern Japanese. For example, 思はぬ is pronounced as if it were 思わぬ. This is called historical kana orthography (歴史的仮名遣) and it is related to the particles は, へ and を being pronounced わ, え, and お. But it even in this case, you don't change the actual words -- you wouldn't change 思はぬ to 思わない, for example. It's just that the rules for pronouncing certain kana in certain contexts are different.

Answer 2

You just read it as it is written. These kind of "written language" sometimes do appear in conversations, but rare. However, if you are reading it out (to yourself or to anyone else), the "spoken" "written language" will perfectly OK.

I don't know if I've made myself clear ...