未然形
JapaneseEdit
| Kanji in this term | ||
|---|---|---|
| 未 | 然 | 形 |
| み Grade: 4 |
ぜん Grade: 4 |
けい Grade: 2 |
| goon | kan’on | |
EtymologyEdit
Compound of 未然 (mizen, literally “not yet occurred”) + 形 (kei, “form”). Historically called 将然言 (shōzengen), 未然段 (mizendan).[1]
PronunciationEdit
NounEdit
- (grammar) a Japanese verbal inflectional category: the irrealis form
- Indicates that something has not yet happened, or not yet begun.
Usage notesEdit
This term is used in the traditional description of Japanese grammar. In 日本語教育文法, this is called the ない形 (-nai kei, “-nai form”) as it is used before the suffix ない (-nai). In the western analysis of Japanese grammar, it is not an inflected form but a derived stem, called for example the "a- stem" in Bjarke Frellesvig's works. Some analyses such as John R. Bentley's A Descriptive Grammar Of Early Old Japanese Prose even do not posit such a stem at all, instead analyzing the a as part of the suffix (e.g. yuk-azu instead of yuka-zu).
Related termsEdit
- 已然形 (izenkei, “realis”)
- 仮定形 (kateikei, “conditional”)
- 終止形 (shūshikei, “conclusive”)
- 命令形 (meireikei, “imperative”)
- 連用形 (ren'yōkei, “adverbial”)
- 連体形 (rentaikei, “attributive”)
See alsoEdit
ReferencesEdit
- ^ 1988, 国語大辞典（新装版） (Kokugo Dai Jiten, Revised Edition) (in Japanese), Tōkyō: Shogakukan
- ^ 2006, 大辞林 (Daijirin), Third Edition (in Japanese), Tōkyō: Sanseidō, →ISBN
- ^ 1998, NHK日本語発音アクセント辞典 (NHK Japanese Pronunciation Accent Dictionary) (in Japanese), Tōkyō: NHK, →ISBN
- ^ 1997, 新明解国語辞典 (Shin Meikai Kokugo Jiten), Fifth Edition (in Japanese), Tōkyō: Sanseidō, →ISBN
- Shibatani, Masayoshi (1990) The languages of Japan, Cambridge University Press, →ISBN, pages 221-224