New answers tagged i-adjectives
2
Question 1
～ますまい is grammatical, but it's already fairly uncommon. It's mainly heard in role languages for stereotypical samurai and pompous/noble elderly people.
～ですまい is ungrammatical, although ～ではありますまい is okay.
Question 2
Basically if you used ある for a person, it would sound more or less archaic.
～くありましょう is grammatical, but it's fairly uncommon and ...
2
「箆深{のぶか}く射{さ}された矢{や}がなかった。」
「箆{の}」, in this context, means a "bamboo arrow shaft". There is indeed a 「竹」 ("bamboo") radical used at the top of the kanji.
「箆深{のぶか}し」 is an adjective which 大辞林 defines as:
矢が根元{ねもと}まで深くささっている。
"(of an arrow) stuck through (an object)"
「箆深く」 is the 連用形 of 「箆深し」 functioning adverbially.
The arrow was not there to ...
7
「珍{ちん}」 and 「珍{めずら}しい」 are two fairly different words in terms of usage.
「珍しい」 ("rare", "uncommon", etc.) would be much easier for Japanese-learners to use as it can precede and modify almost any type of noun -- wago (originally Japanese word), Sino-loanword and non-Sino-loanword.
When you find something to be rare, uncommon, etc., you can describe it as 「...
2
Question 1. Is it also possible, either historically or currently, to use the 〜ます form on the ある portion of the "historical adjective inflections" above?
We can find plenty of examples for 高くありませんでした. Even if we limit our search to Google Books, to weed out other Q&A sites like this one. :)
Likewise, searches for 高くありました and 高くありません find sensible ...
4
That is indeed correct. The -く form is the 連用形 (infinitive) of the adjectives, and from the earliest times it had the possibility to attach the verb -ar as an auxiliary to ease the further conjugation in the verbal categories (such as negation, mood, aspect). But, with the great reshuffle of the verbal paradigm during Late Middle Japanese (Ashikaga shogunate)...
8
Is it by any chance the case that, historically, the い-adjective ending 〜かった is a contraction originating from 〜くあった, where あった is the past inflection of ある?
That's exactly what you're seeing.
For ～い adjectives, there were three base conjugation forms:
～し -- 終止形【しゅうしけい】: terminal / conclusive, for ending a sentence of clause.
～き -- 連体形【れんたいけい】: ...
Top 50 recent answers are included
