Questions tagged [syntax]
統語論. Rules governing construction of phrases and sentences in a language.
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Meaning of き in 唾をぶっかけて.き.やがるからな。
If I am correct, then ぶっかける and やがる are verbs but what is the き doing in between them?
Full sentence:
~
この辺では、言葉に気をつけた方がいいぜ。町のこちら側に住んでいるやつらは、口笛を吹いただけでも顔に唾をぶっかけてきやがるからな。
~
You have to be careful about ...
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1
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On the direction of もらう
When talking about verbs of giving/receiving, textbooks tent do talk about only the relation between 1st person and the other persons (i.e. くれる 2/3→1, あげる 1→2/3, もらう 1←2/3), and let learners ...
2
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1
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Development of existential verbs ゐる / いる (居る), をる / おる (居る)
How did the verbs 居{ゐ}る / 居{い}る, 居{を}る / 居{お}る develop their function as existential verbs?
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Does 表示する have the meaning of "view"?
I saw a sentence on X(twitter):
このアカウントの所有者はポストを表示できるアカウントを制限しているため、このポストを表示できません。
and was confused about the subject of "このポストを表示できません".
If 表示する has the meaning of "view", I ...
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0
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にて / で adverbializer?
にて is older form of で, and now has literary or archaic nuance. にて itself was created by adding suffix て to に, which is form of copular verb n-.
Traditional interpretation (e.g. here) is that 2 main ...
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2
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丸腰を見る and no-adjectives
There is some controversy about whether no-adjectives exist.
I have chosen a random no-adjective (not having another meaning as noun): [丸腰]{まるごし}
Sentence with this word with case particle:
丸腰を見る
Is ...
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vote
1
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Tense of sentences ending with のだ such as 楽しかったんだ
From what I can find,
楽しかったんだ
is considered to be in the past tense, which confuses me.
I would have thought that の nominalized the preceding phrase, and the sentences as a whole was then placed in ...
2
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1
answer
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Can the direct object (with を) appear before the instrumental (with で)?
I apologize if this question is too basic, but I was doing some beginner exercises on an app (no, not that app), and it marked this as incorrect:
あのアメリカ人はラーメンをフオークで食べていますね。
The correct order, it ...
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Why is 「人」から「物」を借りる wrong?
An example sentence I've seen is 「彼にビデオを借りました。」 which was prompted with "I borrowed a video from him." and for a long time I would accidentally say 「彼からビデオを借りました。」 instead the first time. ...
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1
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Past conditional with ていても/ていた
I've looked into this and it seems they are multiple ways with multiple nuances of saying "if (A) would have happened, then (B) would have happened. (third conditional ?)
My question is about:
...
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2
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Keigo ます after a noun
I found this sentence in an anime.
娘さんたちも悲しみます
The context is that this lady is dying and a guy says to her that her daughters will be sad.
I understand that he transformed the adjective 悲しい into a ...
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そこが可愛いとこでもあるんだけどね
It is my first time posting anything on a language forum, and i've come to it after searching all over the internet for the past hour to find an answer to this grammar question.
So I hope you guys can ...
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1
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Disjointed dialogue in Zelda: Ocarina of Time?
Near the beginning of the game, an NPC says this dialogue, explaining some controls:
This seems to defy all conventions of building a complete sentence, which seems strange since it's supposed to be ...
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2
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How is 役に立った ( helpful ) formed?
My guess is that the phrase is derived from the composition of the following:
役 (yaku) : service, use
に：particle for destination
立った：perfective of 立つ (tatsu)
So it's extended meaning like "...
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1
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How to analyze the structure of this sentence?
私たちの会社は、従業員のうち、エンジニアは、技術力を持つ重要な存在であるとし、経営の基盤として認めている。
My own analysis is:
1.In this sentence, 「とし」is the continuative form of 「とする」.
2.the phrase before 「とし」 should be seen as a clause， which means ...
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Why is there a comma between 初めて and the following part it modifies?
In the sentence:
大学生になって初めて、その本の本当の価値が分かるようになった
If 初めて is an adverb, it should modify the phrase behind it, which is a rule of Japanese. So here it should modify「その本の本当の価値が分かるようになった」, but why there ...
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Is this the use of には in this scentence natural? [closed]
立憲君主制を取るヴェレンシア国では、王族は政治家ではなく、外交官としての役割を期待される。諸外国に外遊し、自国のイメージを高め、商品や技術を高く売るのが王族の仕事だ。ヴァレンシア国のスポークスマンと言ってもいい。
そのため、王族の子女の世話をする保母や従者には、ネイティブの外国人が二年の任期でつく。王子、または王女が、...
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What does 適度な所で斜め上に向かって穴を掘る mean here?
出る時は斜めに掘る必要があるな。いや、待て待て。
縦の穴。酸素はどうなっている？ マズイ、死ぬ？ 俺は慌てて斜め上に向かって穴を掘り、脱出する。
反省。次は空気の通り道を考えながら、掘ってみた。
基本、斜め掘り。適度な所で斜め上に向かって穴を掘る。俺の中のイメージの井戸とは全然違うが、要は空気が流れればよい。
最終的に下に向かって掘っていれば問題はないだろう。
So, a guy tries ...
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I'm struggling to understand how to use がち
The sentence I came up with was:
私は、学生は勉強を完了するために睡眠時間を短くする寝がちですから、これが起こると思います。
So essentially I was using がち to say how students "tend to/have a tendency to" sleep less. My 先生 said I used ...
1
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1
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noun + の + verb + こと VS noun + を + verb + こと
I was just wondering if the following sentence was correct:
日本語の話すこと
It doesn't sound wrong to me, as the whole「話すこと」part becomes a noun, but I'm not quite sure.
I think the more standard way to say ...
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What's the structure of the second part of this sentence?
人と話すだけでも緊張するのに、それが年上の女性とくればなおさらだ
Here I think それ refers to 話し相手 and the second part is made from these 2 sentences:
それが年上の女性とくる
なおさらだ（no subject）
And then the particle ば is used to connnect the two ...
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Why are there multiple topic markers (は) in this sentence?
To be clear, my level of Japanese is about as elementary as it gets, so it's possible that this question is simply beyond my understanding. Still worth an ask, though!
I was looking at the Wiktionary ...
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What is the appropriate way of using 自分 with respect to the referent?
妻は私が自分を今でも愛していると信じている
(Tsuma wa watashi ga jibun o ima demo aishite iru to shinjite iru.)
My wife believes that i still love her.
In the book it is said that:
When a reflexive pronoun jibun is used, ...
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If you want to refer to a person as beautiful, would you use [綺麗]{きれい} or [美しい]{うつくしい}? What's the difference?
I'm a little confused on the difference between 綺麗【きれい】 and 美しい【うつくしい】. When is it appropriate to use either word to refer to a person?
For example, if I wanted to refer to a woman as beautiful, would ...
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0
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Can someone explain how で、だから works here diffrenttly than だ。だから?
くまは成熟したくまで、だからとても大きい。
I always see this construct as ...だ。だから never have i ever saw it used like this tried to search about it but could not find any thing useful .
How is this で、だから different than ...
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Am I understanding this 遭遇 correctly?
オートバランサは一瞬だけ装着者の動作を遅らせると言われている。人間より遙かに計算速度が速い機械がやることだ。普通の人間では気づかぬほんのわずかな時間である。
だが、その一瞬が戦場では生死の境を分けることがある。
一万人のジャケット兵が参加する作戦を三回やって、とびきり運の悪い奴がひとり遭遇するかしないかの確率であろうとも、もしかしたら女神に見放された運の悪い奴に自分がなってしまう可能性がある。...
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using は twice in the same sentence for two non-contrastive topics
In the sentence:
漢字は全部書けるようになる必要はないが、たくさん書けた方がいい。
the particle は is used twice in this sentence (漢字は,必要は). Is there any reason why we don't use 漢字を at the start of the sentence here, or is it just the ...
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1
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What does 作品の目的とする表現 actually mean?
これは、作品の目的とする表現に従った演出の結果が見るものに「リアリティ」を感じさせた場合においてであるが、演者が自身の人格や感情を演技の媒介にする（つまり「素」をだしたような）ものは、それが演者の「リアル」であっても、視聴者がリアリティと感じられるかには困難がつきまとう。
For context this is the on the definition of the word 迫真 and I ...
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Is になるなどを行う in this sentence grammatically correct?
政党の派閥の場合、その政党で統一されているもの以外の政策や主張に共通点のある者同志が集まって、意見の集約と統一された政策の形成を図り、政策の実現に向けての活動として、その政党の執行部を担当もしくは目標とし、政党の運営の基本単位になるなどを行う組織または団体
How come a verb comes before and after を here ?
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Does 「テレビで言う」 mean "The TV says ..."?
A native speaker wrote the sentence 「安いので日本で有名だとテレビで言っていました。」, with the meaning intended to be "I saw on TV that it's popular in Japan because it's cheap."
My question is about the phrase 「...
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What does 過去へ遡るほど大きいとされる refers to here?
華族制度が今なお存在する（成立時期も約300年前と古い）世界。歴史上江戸時代および鎖国が存在せず、西洋文明の普及が早いなどもうひとつの世界との差異は過去へ遡るほど大きいとされる。
This is an entry about a fictional parallel world of the novel 'ぼくのご主人様 ' i understand this as ; from a ...
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Strange Syntax with Missing Particles
In the FFX-2 song "Morning Glow," some of the lyrics seem to end abruptly with the を particle, and yet have the ending verbs that would come after it in front of the phrases.
One example is ...
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Stem-form + する - How does this work?
I saw this recently and can’t find anything about it online with a simple Google search. I’m assuming it’s literally stem-form as a nominal being done (する), sans a particle. I find this this rather ...
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The structure of this sentence: どのNも and どこにでも
So, this is a sentence from chapter 8 of Tobira:
狂言には、主人と家来、親と子、山伏など色々な人物が登場しますが、どの人物もどこにでもいる普通の人達ばかりで、スーパーマンのような超人的なヒーローはできません。
The highlighted part is what I can't understand. I have no ideia of ...
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2
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Understanding second 人
I came across the following sentence on HelloTalk, and can't figure out what the second 人 after 思ってた is doing.
いい人だなって思ってた人が、実は話しかけてきた目的が変だと気づいた時、本当に残念な気持ちになる。
I can see when using a translator that ...
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で・と・が・は - Nuance
ボブと戦ってる
Fighting with Bob (Against Bob/Bob is fighting someone, and that same someone is fighting Bob)
ボブが戦ってる
Bob is fighting
ボブたちが戦ってる
Bob and them are fighting (not necessarily together nor ...
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Problem with the meaning of a phrase
I was reading the first text of Tobira's chapter 7 and I am not sure if I understand this segment:
昔は日本でも、マンガは子供のためのものとと思われていたが、手塚はそれを小説や映画と同じような物語の表現方法の一つとして確立し。。。
My problem is with the latter ...
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1
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駆けずり回る etymology
So I encountered the title formation in a Berserk volume. Although I can infer it means "to run around aimlessly" through context, it is not quite obvious to me what the "ずり” part ...
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What makes the so-called "体言止め" to be independent finite sentences? Why can't other languages have such feature?
Maybe this question should also be posted into the linguistic part. In Japanese a NP/DP like "世界三大唐木の一つとして有名な”黒檀”。(その中でも特に綺麗な...)"may compose a sentence by itself, and this is impossible in ...
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この仕事が無事に＿ ＿ ⊛ ＿、心から感謝している。
After reviewing some old 新完全マスター material I came across this sentence, which took me a bit to parse:
この仕事が無事に＿ ＿ ⊛ ＿、心から感謝している。
チームワークが
終わるのは
ほかならず
よかったからに
My "immersion reflexes" kicked ...
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What does 本当のところ means in this context?
もっとも内面的には、今とさほど変わらない、未熟な精神的幼稚園児と言うしかない気もする。当時と今で、僕の人間性に大きな違いがあるとも思えない。だが、これはあくまで本人がそう思っているだけであって、過去を美化していたり、現在を卑下していたり、あるいはその逆だったり、そんなこんなで辻棲を合わせているだけで本当のところは色々あるのだろう。
So , here the writer speaks ...
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0
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What does くて mean in this sentence? [duplicate]
For what I have studied till know, くて is
1- the te-form for negative verbs or i-adjectives and it's used to conect the verb or adjective to another word.
2- at the end of a sentence, in the case of ...
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1
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Question about sentences that qualify nouns
(私が)望む未来
(未来を)望む私
I used the same verb behind two diffent nouns.
However the Subject-Verb-Object remains the same.
The first sentence standing for: "The future I desire.".
Would the second ...
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In ジョンは台所で本を読みました。does で modify book or kitchen?
I'm trying to teach myself about linguistics, and one example of Subject-Object-verb word order was ジョンは台所で本を読みました
Which the Wikipedia article translates as
John read a book in the kitchen.
But ...
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Difference ところで…のである。 and のである。
ところでその蕎麦を受け取ったときの会話で、くまとわたしとは満更赤の他人というわけでもないことがわかったのである。
This sentence is from a book well-known to many learners of Japanese, a compilation of Japanese short stories. It comes with partial ...
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Are these two sentences equivalent? 「トイレはあそこです。」、「あそこはトイレです。」
I've recently begun learning Japanese and was tasked with translating the sentence "The toilet is over there.". My first intuition would have been
トイレはあそこです。
However, it was suggested that
...
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1
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What does されています here? レポートには間違っていた箇所が指摘されています
in this sentence (レポートには間違っていた箇所が指摘されています)
"Xが指摘されています" can mean: "X will be pointed out" or only "X is pointed out"?
"されています" can be used to express actions ...
2
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1
answer
135
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What does どころか mean here?
This is the prologue to a video game. Below are the official subtitles in the NTSC-U release.
と言っても、これを信じている学者は、世界で数人しかいないんだが。
"However, there are only a few scholars in the world who believe ...
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たら conditional: verb+たら versus verb+ていたら
In this video, a native speaker is walking around Asakusa and describing his trip in simple sentences for learners. As he's walking, he finds an old drinking water spout, and says:
「で、歩いていたら、...
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1
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how can you use が on ある in 没までは まだあるが 出発するつもりか？
I saw this sentence in an episode of attack on titan a person is surprised that his captors seem to be having a frantic conversation about moving him and leaving from where they are located earlier ...
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