Japanese particles

Particles have a basic grammatical function in the Japanese language. In Japanese, they are called tenioha (てにをは) as joshi (Japanese助词, " auxiliary words " ) or after the four most common particles. They are basically used as postpositions.

This first distinction must be made between phrase particles on the one hand, identify the individual parts of a sentence according to subject, direct object, target movement, possessor of a thing, and other criteria, functions that have in the German case and prepositions. On the other side are the final particles that come after the predicate at the end of a main or subordinate clause. With this second type of particle questions and the different types of subordinate clauses ( relative clauses, conditional, Time clauses, etc.) are marked. They are therefore consistent conjunctions.

This distinction is so crucial because there are a number of particles as a member of a sentence or final particles have very different meanings depending on usage. In the example sentence

Comes the particleのno front only as " possessive " particles, which is used to determine " 7 Clock " by " morning " in more detail. Theにni marks the site of the incident, " at 7 clock ". At the end of the sentence, however, acts as aのno question particle, as it is used by women colloquial.

This article is dedicated exclusively to the phrase particles; to the final particles see Japanese grammar.

• 3.1 as a topic particle wa
• 3.2 interrogative sentences
• 3.3 contrastive wa
• 3.4 ga
• 3.5 ga as an object particle

List

Enumeration particles

The main bullet particles areとto for a complete list ,やya for an incomplete enumeration andかka meaning " or". Also in this category belongsなどnado that is appended to the last link in an incomplete enumeration meaning " for example " or " and so on," contributes.

Kasuspartikeln and postpositions

The Kasuspartikeln and postpositions take over the tasks of the cases and prepositions in European languages. Follow directly the noun.

Modal particles

The modal particles follow the Kasuspartikeln / postpositions. The Kasuspartikelがga always omittedをo remains in rare cases beforeもmo get. The modal particlesはもmo ha and are mutually exclusive.

はha ( is "wa" spoken ) indicates the topic or serving of contrasting.

もmo 'also' means.

Orthography

Japanese particles are written in modern Japanese Hiragana since 1946, before that were, especially in official texts, Katakana used. A number of particles has also Kanji spelling, but these are only used in demanding literature.

The particlesを, andへは, a historical case has received, but are nowadays not spoken as where, hey and ha but as o, e and wa. In this article, the particles will be transferred to their pronunciation, as is standard in the Hepburn system.

Theme and subject :は(wa) andが( ga)

The distinction betweenはandがga wa is complex enough to be the occasion of some linguistic debates in their details. Therefore, either here on the further works of ( Shibatani 1990) and ( Kuno 1973) (see bibliography) referenced.

For simplicity, are referred to herein as a topic particle (wa) and subject particles ( ga) both. In the first approximation, the difference between wa and ga is a matter of focus: wa puts the emphasis on the action of the sentence, so the participle, while ga directs attention to the subject. This very theoretical definition is to be explained by means of examples.

Wa as a topic particle

The use of wa is to put a new theme in the discourse. The issue here is what the sentence itself and also the following sentences relate. The corresponding construction in German is to draw a particular part of the sentence before the verb to the first position in the sentence, or a phrase such as " what XY As ... ".

In this simple example, the subject in German is simply given by the fact that one makes Tatsuya to the subject. Other examples are as complicated.

The set僕 は 鰻 だ( boku wa unagi da) uses the same grammatical structure, Aは​​Bだhere but not in the sense of A is B, then the translation would be "I am an eel ." Instead, it is a colloquial shortening with the meaning " As for me, I'll take the eel " ordering in a restaurant., Much as " takeaways - German ", "I 'm the sausage, and it's the fries. "

The key is the difference betweenはandがwith subordinate clause constructions. Withは, the subject of the main clause is always marked, subjects in subordinate clauses stand withが. Therefore, there is a phrase withはbeginning of the sentence and it follows a subordinate clause, the phrase refers to the entire set withは, and not just on the subordinate clause.

I have stolen the sought wallet.

( He ) has stolen the wanted from me wallet.

Since no topic is selected in the second example sentence, is the subject of the main clause, so the thief, regardless of the person who was last talked about. The subject of the main clause is missing in the Japanese sentence, therefore, is one in the German translation of "he" in parentheses.

Interrogative sentences

In the formulation used in questions with question words, there are two possibilities. In the first the subject is left undefined, the question is asking you to nominate a topic. Therefore, in such sentences always the particleがga is used after the question word. The same applies to statements that do not specify exactly who they are ( anyone ).

On the issue but also an issue can be set in this case is the subject, together with the particle wa, before the question word.

The difference lies in the emphasis: The first question emphasizes that the questioner wants to find out the culprit, in the second formulation is emphasized that it is exactly about this cake and not another.

Contrastive wa

Another use of wa is to delineate two different subjects from each other and put against each other in contrast, comparable to the German "but" and " however ".

In practice, thematic and contrastive wa differ only in nuances. In most cases the contrastive use is when, how, several wa in a sentence are in the above example. Based on the difference of the following example (after Kuno ) will be illustrated.

In the first interpretation of a thematic wa is believed there is "People I Know" ( boku ga iru hito Shitte ) as the theme of the predicate "no one has come" viewed. The connotation of the sentence would be the fact that I did not expect that someone would emerge from my circle of friends, but this was not so.

In the second interpretation of the contrastive wa a counter point is made to a previous statement or an implicit assumption, namely, that a larger number of people has come. Therefore, one would have expected that even someone comes to know the speaker. In fact, no one has come from these people.

Ga

With the subject particle ga a relationship between predicate and subject is established. In the connotation of the subject is aided by other kinds of things that are being discussed, defined and expressed that the statement refers exclusively to this subject. In German, there is this connotation not, here it must be expressed by additional description.

Ga as an object particle

For intransitive verbs ga is used to select the object, the use of o is here purely colloquial.

Local Scoreboard: ni and de

Both ni and de are used to mark a location. ni is exclusively for static verbs such as iru ( be) aru ( have to be present) and sumu ( live ) used exclusively with action verbs such as de suru ( do).

Static:

Dynamic:

Bibliography

• Kuno, Susumu. (1976). Subject, theme, and the speaker's empathy: A re -examination of relativization phenomena. In Charles N. Li ( Ed. ), Subject and topic (pp. 417-444 ). New York: Academic Press. ISBN 0-1244-7350-4.
• Shibatani, Masayoshi. (1990). The languages ​​of Japan. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-5213-6070-6 ( hbk ); ISBN 0-5213-6918-5 ( pbk ).
• Katsuki Pestemer, Noriko (2003): Japanese Postcards positions: Theory and Practice. Munich: LINCOM. ISBN 3-89586-855-8
• Katsuki Pestemer, Noriko (2004): Basic Studies Japanese first Troisdorf: Education Publisher ONE.
• Katsuki Pestemer, Noriko (2006): Basic Studies Japanese 2 Troisdorf: Education Publisher ONE. ISBN 3-427-00921-1

• Part of speech
• Japanese Language