Japanese adjectives


This article deals with Japanese equivalents of English adjectives.

Types of adjective

In Japanese, nouns and verbs can modify nouns, with nouns taking the 〜の particles when functioning attributively, and verbs in the attributive form. These are considered separate classes of words, however.
Most of the words that can be considered to be adjectives in Japanese fall into one of two categories – variants of verbs, and nouns:
Both the predicative forms and attributive forms of i-adjectives and na-adjectives can be analyzed as verb phrases, making their attributive forms relative clauses rather than adjectives. According to this analysis, Japanese has no syntactic adjectives.
Japanese adjectives that do not fall into either of these categories are usually grouped into a grab-bag category:
  • attributives
A couple of small sub-categories can be distinguished in these categories, reflecting former grammatical distinctions or constructions which no longer exist:

''i''-adjectives

i-adjectives end with い in base form. They may predicate sentences and inflect for past, negative, etc. As they head verb phrases, they can be considered a type of verbal and inflect in an identical manner as the negative form of verbs. Their inflections are different and not so numerous as full verbs.
i-adjectives are considered verbs because they inflect with the same bases as verbs and their respective usages: irrealis, continuative, terminal, attributive, hypothetical, and imperative.
Among the six bases of verbs for i-adjectives, there exist two sets of inflection paradigms: a "plain" or "true" conjugation, and what is known as a kari-conjugation, which is the result of the contraction between the "plain" continuative form 〜く and the verb あり ari, meaning "to exist", "to have", or "to be". Due to this, the kari-conjugation paradigm resembles that of the r-irregular conjugation paradigm of あり ari, however the hypothetical is 〜けれ kere instead of 〜かれ kare.
The stem of i-adjectives can combine, similar to the continuative form of verbs, though this is less common than for verbs. Conversely, nouns or verb stems can sometimes prepend i-adjectives, or two i-adjectives can combine, forming compound modifiers; these are much less common than Japanese compound verbs. Common examples include , and ; while shows an adjective stem joining to form a noun.

''shii''-adjectives

A number of i-adjectives end in . These are overwhelmingly words for feelings, like or. These were originally a separate class of adjectives, dating at least to Old Japanese, where the two classes are known as and, corresponding to -i and -shii. However, they merged over the course of Late Middle Japanese, and now shii-adjectives are simply a form of i-adjectives. The distinction, although no longer meaningful in pronunciation, is still reflected by the writing system, where し is still written out in hiragana, as in.
Adjectives that end in -jii are also considered -shii adjectives, such as, and historically, which was initially a -shii adjective, and the classical negative volitional auxiliary.

''na''-adjectives

na-adjectives always occur with a form of the copula, traditionally considered part of the na-adjective itself. The only syntactical difference between nouns and na-adjective is in the attributive form, where nouns take の ' and adjectives take な '. This has led many linguists to consider them a type of nominal. Through use of inflected forms of the copula, these words can also predicate sentences and inflect for past, negative, etc.
Notably, na-adjectives are distinct from regular nouns, in that they cannot be used as the topic, subject, or object. To function in these roles, the na-adjectives must include the nominalizing suffix, broadly similar to the English suffix -ness that is used to create nouns from adjectives.

''-yaka'' ''na'' adjectives

There are a number of na-adjectives ending in 〜やか , particularly for subjective words. This is believed to be a combination of the two suffixes 〜や and 〜か , where 〜や meant "softness" and 〜か meant "apparent, visible", hence the combination 〜やか meant "appears somewhat..., looks slightly...". This was believed to have been used in the Nara era, and have become particularly popular in the Heian period, but is no longer productive. In some cases the original word is now only used in the 〜やか form, such as 鮮やか , 穏やか, and 爽やか , while in other cases the word is used in isolation, such as 雅 , which is used alongside 雅やか , and in other cases a related word also exists, such as 賑やか and the verb 賑わう . The most basic of these is 賑やか '', but many of these are everyday words. Due to the 〜やか being originally a suffix, it is written as okurigana, even though the compound word may now be a fixed unit.

''-raka'' ''na'' adjectives

Similarly, there are also a few na-adjectives ending in 〜らか , of similar origin. These are generally less subjective, but declined in popularity relative to the 〜やか construction in the Heian period Notable examples include 明らか and 柔らか／軟らか . As with 〜やか words, the 〜らか is written out as okurigana.

''taru''-adjectives

A variant of na-adjectives exist, which take 〜たる when functioning attributively, and 〜と when functioning adverbially, instead of the 〜な and 〜に '' which are mostly used with na-adjectives. taru-adjectives do not predicate a sentence or take the copula, but must modify a noun or verb. Note that sometimes na-adjectives take a 〜と, and Japanese sound symbolisms generally take a 〜と, though these are different word classes.
There are very few of these words, and they usually are considered somewhat stiff or archaic; this word class is generally not covered in textbooks for foreign language learners of Japanese. One of the most common is 堂々. These are referred to in Japanese as ト・タル形容動詞 or タルト型活用.
See 形容動詞#「タルト」型活用 for discussion in Japanese. Historically, these developed in Late Old Japanese as a variant of na-adjectives, but the form mostly died out; the remaining taru-adjectives are fossils, and conjugationally defective, having formerly held the pattern of the r-irregular class, like its component あり.

''naru''-adjectives

There are also a few naru-adjectives such as 単なる or 聖なる , which developed similarly to taru-adjectives. As with taru-adjectives, these cannot predicate or take the copula, but must modify a noun, and often occur in set phrases, such as Mother Nature. In Late Old Japanese, tari-adjectives developed as a variant of nari-adjectives. Most nari-adjectives became na-adjectives in Modern Japanese, while tari-adjectives either died out or survived as taru-adjective fossils, but a few nari adjectives followed a similar path to the tari-adjectives and became naru-''adjective fossils. They are generally classed into attributives.

Attributives

Attributives are few in number, and unlike the other words, are strictly limited to modifying nouns. Attributives never predicate sentences. They derive from other word classes, and so are not always given the same treatment syntactically. For example, ano can be analysed as a noun or pronoun あ plus the genitive ending の ; aru, saru, and iwayuru can be analysed as verbs ; and ōkina can be analysed as the one remaining form of the obsolete adjectival noun ōki nari. Attributive onaji is sometimes considered to be an attributive, but it is usually analysed as simply an irregular adjectival verb. The final form onaji'', which occurs with the copula, is usually considered to be a noun, albeit one derived from the adjectival verb.
It can be seen that attributives are analysed variously as nouns, verbs, or adjectival nouns.

Archaic forms

Various archaic forms from Middle Japanese remain as fossils, primarily uses of or forms that in Modern Japanese would usually be. Everyday examples notably include and – in modern grammar and, respectively. Similarly, uses archaic forms of and.

Inflection

''i''-adjective

i-adjectives have a basic inflection created by dropping the 〜い from the end and replacing it with the appropriate ending. i-adjectives are made more polite by the use of. です is added directly after the inflected plain form and has no syntactic function; its only purpose is to make the utterance more polite.
presentpastpresent neg.past neg.
i-adjective
polite i-adj.


is a special case because it comes from the adjective. In present tense, it is read as, but since it derives from, all of its inflections supplete its forms instead. For example, becomes. also fits the same category because it is a mash-up of and.
-adjectives like have the changed to to change them to conditional form, e.g., ;.
i-adjectives have a full verb inflection paradigm created through contraction with the former copular verb, consisting of six verb bases, that obeys the grammar surrounding verbs in Japanese. The usage of the full inflection is more limited in Modern Japanese and the majority of adjective usage in Japanese will be within the bounds of the basic inflection above. Auxiliary verbs are attached to some of the verb bases in order to convey information; only the terminal, attributive, and imperative bases are used on their own without auxiliary support.
Irrealis Continuative Terminal Attributive Hypothetical Imperative





The two irrealis stems, and, are used for different purposes. The 〜かろ stem is used to create the volitional inflection by appending the volitional auxiliary, e.g., while the 〜から stem is used for the formal negation auxiliary and all other purposes which require the irrealis stem, e.g.,.
The volitional form is generally used to convey supposition or presumption; there are also set phrases which utilize this form, a notable example being the volitional form of,, a formal or archaic expression for "very well" or "it would be best to..." and the volitional form of,, a formal or archaic expression for "probably not so".
The imperative form is rarely used outside of set expressions; a common usage is once again with, and its imperative form, in idiomatic set expressions like or, also making use of the imperative form of. The imperative form of,, is also used in archaic speech to indicate prohibition or a command not to do something or to indicate that one must not do something.

''na''-adjective

na-adjectives have a basic inflection created by dropping the 〜な ' and replacing it with the appropriate form of the verb だ ', the copula. As with i-adjectives, na-adjectives are also made more polite by the use of. です is used in its role as the polite form of the copula, therefore replacing だ in the plain form of these adjectives.
presentpastpresent neg.past neg.
na-adjective
polite na-adj.

-adjectives have added to them to change to conditional form, and just like all other form inflections, behave like an -adjective when in negative form, e.g.,.
Because na-adjectives are simply suffixed with the copula だ, they, too, like i-adjectives, have a full verb inflection paradigm with six bases that obeys the grammar surrounding Japanese verbs.
Irrealis Continuative Terminal Attributive Hypothetical Imperative









Similarly to i-adjectives, out of the multiple irrealis stems, the irrealis stem is only used with the volitional auxiliary suffix, to form the volitional form suffixed with volitional copula, used primarily to present a supposition or presumption. The irrealis stem is not considered a true irrealis stem because it is simply the continuative stem plus the case particle, but is nevertheless suffixied with standard negation auxiliary to form the negative form. The irrealis stem is used with the formal negation auxiliary and all other uses of the irrealis stem.
The attributive form exists as a fossil from the archaic, or nari-conjugation, the precursor to the modern na-adjective. Generally only the form is used for attribution, but the form may be used to add a sense of stress, intensity, profundity, formality, or an imitation of archaic speech, such as, as compared to. It may also be seen in set phrases, like in, used to open and address a letter to someone, much like English dear.
The attributive form is also used in -adjectives, like or. In almost all cases, these are used exclusively as pre-noun attributives and cannot be used in any of the other standard forms of -adjectives. In Modern Japanese, they only serve to modify nouns and cannot be used terminally nor even adverbially, as a contrast with the similar -adjectives. It is generally considered ungrammatical or unnatural to use other forms with -adjectives, even if technically syntactically correct.

''taru''-adjective

taru-adjectives have much more limited usage in Modern Japanese and generally can only be used attributively with or adverbially with. Generally, to express past or negative forms, additional other words or syntax are added to the sentence rather than using the full verb paradigm. However, nevertheless, taru-adjectives do have a full verb paradigm with six bases that obeys the grammar surrounding verbs in Japanese, which may be used in archaic or highly formal speech.
Irrealis Continuative Terminal Attributive Hypothetical Imperative



The terminal form is almost never used. Generic words like,,, and are used as fill-ins with the attributive form instead.

Adverb forms

Both i-adjectives and na-adjectives can form adverbs. In the case of i-adjectives, changes to :
and in the case of na-adjectives, changes to :
There are also some words like and that are adverbs in their root form:
adverb
i-adjective
na-adjective
taru-adjective

In a few cases, a form of a word is common while a form is rare or non-existent, as in is common, but is generally not used.

Terminology

The Japanese word keiyōshi is used to denote an English adjective.
Because the widespread study of Japanese is still relatively new in the Western world, there are no generally accepted English translations for the above parts of speech, with varying texts adopting different sets, and others extant not listed above.
The current terms as accepted in schools for adjectival words are and. Here, refers to the semantic aspect of these words as qualifying the state or condition of a "noun;" and, etymologically and historically, refers to conjugative words in general, conjugative words with ichidan, nidan, yodan, godan and irregular conjugation, or conjugative words that semantically convey action.
Historically, most grammarians used keiyōshi the same way it is used today in schools, as a specific type of word that qualifies "nouns" and that corresponds to what is known to foreign learners today as "i-adjectives". However, a few, under the influence of European grammatical traditions, deviated from this norm and considered these so-called "adjectives" a subclass of dōshi. The grammarian Matsushita Daizaburō used the term for "i-adjectives," and reserved keiyōshi, as well as its English translation adjective, specifically for any non-conjugative words that can be placed in front of a "noun," which correspond to attributive adjectives in English. Ōtsuki Fumihiko, while still following the mainstream terminology in his own grammar, expressed his opinion that Japanese "adjectives," due to their affinity with "verbs," are not at all like adjectives in English, Latin, French, German, etc., and suggested keiyō dōshi as an alternative term like Matsushita. The "attributive adjective" sense was applied in a different way by yet other grammarians, such as Hamada Kenjirō and Ōwada Takeki, who used keiyō dōshi for "verb" forms that occur attributively. In sum:
  • Most grammarians used keiyōshi for such words as as in and as in. In this case, keiyōshi means "qualifying i-adjectives."
  • A few used keiyō dōshi for such words as as in, while reserving keiyōshi for such words as as in. In this case, keiyō dōshi means "qualifying i-adjectives," and keiyōshi means "non-conjugative words that precede nouns."
  • Another few used keiyōshi for such words as as in, and keiyō dōshi for such words as as in. In this case, keiyōshi means "words that precede nouns," and keiyō dōshi means "conjugative words that precede nouns and have ichidan, nidan, yodan, godan or irregular conjugation."
The first use of keiyō dōshi for "na-adjectives" is attributed to Haga Yaichi. In this case, keiyō has the same "qualifying" meaning as in keiyōshi, while dōshi is specifically for the irregular conjugation of the auxiliary copula, which, when fused with the particles and, results in and, both of which correspond to the modern ; in other words, keiyō dōshi means "qualifying conjugative words with irregular conjugation." Haga also included the ending resulting from a fusion of the form of keiyōshi. In sum, according to Haga:
  • Keiyō dōshi is used for such words as as in, as in, as in, as in, and as in.
While Haga used keiyō dōshi to describe classical Japanese, Yoshioka Kyōsuke similarly used it to describe modern Japanese. According to him:
  • Keiyō dōshi is used for such words as as in, as in, and as in.
Yoshioka did not consider shizuka-da/-desu and shizuka-na as different forms of the same word, but different words, despite the fact that in his analysis, shizuka-da/-desu lacks an attributive form, while shizuka-na lacks a terminal form.
On the other hand, Hashimoto Shinkichi considered the -kari as merely a keiyōshi ending, separate from -nari and -tari as keiyō dōshi endings. Hashimoto's classification was firmly solidified by Iwabuchi Etsutarō's grammar entitled , the basis for modern school grammar, as well as for the distinction between "i-adjectives" and "na-adjectives" taught to foreign learners. It also popularized for "non-conjugative attributive words." In sum, currently:
  • Keiyōshi is used for such words as as in and as in.
  • Keiyō dōshi is used for such words as as in and as in.
  • Rentaishi is used for such words as as in.
Note that some so-called "naru-adjectives" and all "taru-adjectives" were keiyō dōshi in classical Japanese where they were conjugative, but they are rentaishi in modern Japanese where only their attributive forms survived. Furthermore, a few apparent "na-adjectives" can only occur attributively and therefore are classified as rentaishi instead.
For other historical terms for these classes of words, see the table at.