How on earth are adjectives placed in Japanese? Consider the following sentences (adjectives emboldened):
Atarashii shushou wa, haiku wa jozu desu ga, seiji wa mama desu.
(New Prime Minister wa, haiku wa good desu but, politics wa so-so desu.)
Tani-san wa atama ga ii ga, Yokota-san mo ii desu.
(Tani-san wa head ga good and, Yokota-san also good desu.) *"Head ga good" = intelligent.
Watashi no ie kara suupaa wa chikai-ndesu ga, eki wa tooinedesu.
(Watashi no house from supermarket wa near desu but, train station wa far desu.)
Sugoku jyoozu VERSUS Jyoozu sugimasu ("very skilled" versus "too skilled"; not so much adjectives as intensifiers, but I am also wondering why they are treated differently)
Why are some adjectives placed before the noun, and others placed after the fact?
Tetsude kudasai!
Friday, October 26, 2007
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1 comment:
hi! was blog hopping and somehow came to your japanese blog ^^
The reason is because those put before a noun act as modifying parts for the nouns and they take the form of 名詞修飾形, while those that comes at the back as a predicate, they can be verbal adjectives or nominal adjectives, depending on what type they are.
In this aspect, the concept is similar in English:
1. The big dog.
2. The dog is big.
as for sugoku jouzu,
sugoku is an adverb, it can modify lots of things, including nominal adjectives (jouzu is a nominal adjective)
and for jouzu sugiru,
while sugiru is a verb, it's not a verb in the english sense. They have much more flexibility in word formation and word class. So it can be placed after the stem of another verb or adjectives to mean "over-doing something)
ii?
- snk
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