Lesson 3:
Lesson 3:
)
Places
There’s a post office near campus
DIALOG
(Lit.) Son-san, is there a special library for Japanese books at this university?
Son-san, does this university have a special library for Japanese books?
Yes, there is / Yes, it does.
Where is it?
It’s next to the building where the Japanese Program office is.
Ummm, which one is the Japanese Program office?
That building.
Oh, I see. Is there a post office on campus, too?
(
No, there isn’t. But there’s one near campus.
(
I see. Thank you.
Oh, there’s Koyama-san over there. She’s my roommate.
)
Which person is she?
37
38
Lesson 3:
Lesson 3:
(3a)
EXISTENTIAL VERBS
That woman over there.
LOCATION
SUBJECT
Oh, that person.
is used when the subject is a thing;
when it is a human, animal, etc. The
location is marked with
. The use of
is necessary when you are
supposed to show respect to the person referred to by the subject.
USAGE
(1)
literally means a ‘library of the Japanese language’.
is less formal and gentler than
means ‘but ⁄ however’. It’s a casual expression ― a more formal one is
.
Although both sentences above can be used to depict the same physical situation, they are not
interchangeable. (2) cannot be used unless you believe that the addressee already knows which
book you’re talking about.
Note that Japanese does not have different nouns or verbs for singular and plural entities. So, (1)
and (2) can also mean ‘There are books on the desk’ and ‘The books are on the desk’,
respectively.
The negative form of
is
in this sentence expresses surprise.
conveys the same meaning as
(Lit.) On the desk there is a book.
There is a book on the desk.
The book is on the desk.
(2)
‘yes’.
is equivalent to ‘Ummm ...’ or ‘Well, ~’. It indicates that the speaker has
something to say, but is hesitant to say it for some reason.
can also be used to cut
in on a conversation. In general, it allows the speaker to sound less direct, and therefore
more polite.
(
in
SUBJECT
LOCATION
is
. Note that the negative counterpart of
. This use of
will be explained in Lesson 6h.
.
(3)
(4)
GRAMMAR
(3a)
(3b)
(3c)
(3d)
Existential Verbs
Topic Marker
Location Marker
(3e)
(3f)
(3g)
NOUN1
NOUN2
Final Particle
Numbers
(5)
+ Affirmative Predicate
+ Negative Predicate
‘NOUN1 and NOUN2
39
(3b)
TOPIC MARKER
In grammar classes we were told that the subject is the person or thing that we are
talking about. However, the topic is also an entity that we are talking about. Are they
the same? Well, frequently, but not always. The subject is a notion that directly relates to the
predicate (remember, the predicate usually consists of a VERB, ADJECTIVE, or NOUN +
). Generally, when there is a predicate, there is a subject. Topic, on the other hand, is a
broader notion. We can talk about the topic of a sentence or paragraph, or even of a book.
Frequently, the topic appears as the subject, but not always: in sentences like Fish, I hate, the
topic fish is the direct object of the predicate hate.
40
Lesson 3:
is the topic marker, which can mark the subject only when the referred entity is known by
both the speaker and the addressee.
‘There is a book on the
desk’ can be uttered if there is a book on the desk, but
‘The
book is on the desk’ is meaningful only when the addressee knows which book you are talking
about. Because the topic needs to be identifiable by both the speaker and addressee,
WH-interrogative words cannot appear as a topic. That is,
‘Who’s there?’ is
unnatural in Japanese; you must say
.
(3c)
Lesson 3:
X
X
next to X,
beside X
{
}
The dog is {next to ⁄ beside} the cat.
LOCATION MARKER
is used with a word of location to indicate that a certain thing or person exists in
that place. The location word can be a proper name or a relational word such as top of,
under, in front of, behind, next to, etc.
X
below X, under X
‘next to X’ and X
‘beside X’ are similar in meaning and thus
sometimes interchangeable. However, while
X
can be used for a broad range
of objects, the use of X
is very
limited. In X
Y
,
both X and Y are similar entities of cultural or
personal significance: e.g. people, animals,
houses, countries, facilities, furniture, visual
symbols (pictures, letters ⁄ characters, articles,
books).
(3d)
+ AFFIRMATIVE PREDICATE
+ NEGATIVE PREDICATE
Yosemite is (located) in California.
The restroom is next to the office.
Ishikawa-sensei is next to Son-san.
X
on (the top of) X,
above X
X
something
someone
someone (respectful)
With
anything
anyone
anyone (respectful)
, the use of
,
is optional; with
must not be used.
(1)
Is there something on the bed?
The dog is on the desk.
The dog is under the desk.
X
in front of X
Yes, there’s a letter on the bed.
X
behind X
(Lit.) No, there isn’t anything on the bed.
No, there’s nothing on the bed.
(2)
The dog is in front of the cat.
(Lit.) Is there someone outside the classroom?
Is anyone outside the classroom?
The dog is behind the cat.
X
in X, inside X
X
near X
Yes, Son-san is outside the classroom.
(Lit.) No, there isn’t anyone outside the classroom.
No, there’s no one outside the classroom.
The dog is {in ⁄ inside} the doghouse.
The dog is near the doghouse.
41
42
Lesson 3:
Lesson 3:
Note that
(3)
are WH-interrogative words, whereas
are not.
(Lit.) Is there someone in the classroom? (respectful)
Is anyone in the classroom? (respectful)
(7)
(Lit.) Yes, there is Ishikawa-sensei in the classroom. (respectful)
Yes, Ishikawa-sensei is in the classroom. (respectful)
(Lit.) No, there isn’t anyone in the classroom. (respectful)
No, there’s no one in the classroom. (respectful)
What’s on the desk?
There’s a briefcase on the desk.
(8)
Is there something on the desk?
somewhere
Note that with
,
occurs after
anywhere
, but it occurs before
Yes, there’s a briefcase on the desk.
.
No, there isn’t anything on the desk.
No, there’s nothing on the desk.
(4)
Are there Japanese books somewhere?
Yes, there are Japanese books in the library.
(Lit.) No, there are none anywhere.
No, there aren’t any Japanese books here.
This construction is very different from English, so literal translations result in ungrammatical or
unnatural sentences. In order to make natural English translations, you need to supply some
specific location, e.g. Are there any Japanese books somewhere on campus?, There aren’t any on
campus.
(5)
Where are Japanese books?
Where can I find Japanese books?
(3e)
NOUN1
NOUN2
‘NOUN1 and NOUN2’
When you talk about two entities, X and Y,
is used. When more than two nouns
are mentioned,
may be repeated as in
.
cannot be used when X and Y are not nouns; you will learn other
expressions corresponding to the English and shortly.
(3f)
FINAL PARTICLE
is one of the sentence-final particles that frequently appear in conversation.
can be added when you supply new information.
(The) Japanese books are on the desk.
(Lit.) Japanese books aren’t anywhere (not on campus, in the library, etc).
(6)
Where is Ishikawa-sensei?
Ishikawa-sensei’s in the classroom.
In this exchange,
could have said
without changing the meaning,
but the use of
adds more attentiveness to
. On some occasions,
may sound
extremely assertive or imposing, i.e. I tell you!. Because such a subtle difference is context
dependent, you are advised to use
with great care. Pronounce
with slightly rising
intonation and never put stress on it.
Ishikawa-sensei isn’t anywhere (on campus, in the building, etc.)
43
44
Lesson 3:
(3g)
NUMBERS
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
Lesson 3:
II.
Tell your partner where the things are.
Example:
16
17
Example
18
19
20
21
100
101
111
1000
1001
1011
1111
2222
2.
1.
3.
4.
EXERCISES
I.
Look at the picture of Young-san’s room. Following the example, ask whether certain
things are in the room. Use the vocabulary you have learned.
Example
III.
Q:
This is Kimura-san’s room. Tell your partner where the given entities are.
Example
A:
A:
B:
Q:
A:
B:
A:
45
46
Lesson 3:
Lesson 3:
V.
B. Ask about
A. Ask about
Look at the pictures below and practice the dialog as shown in the example.
Example
A:
B:
A:
B:
A:
1.
2.
symbolizes
postal service.
IV.
This is Son-san’s apartment building. Find out where each tenant lives.
3.
4.
Example 1
Q:
A:
Q:
A:
Example 2
VI.
Q:
Reading practice
A:
1.
2.
3.
4.
47
48
Lesson 3:
Lesson 3:
documents, newspapers, magazines, etc. Naturally, some
are used more
frequently than others. If you learn 500 basic
, you can recognize about 75% of all
occurrences of
; if you know 1,000, your recognition rate rises to approximately
90%. In this textbook, you will learn a little more than 300.
Introduction to the Ideographic Writing System
literally means ‘characters of the Han dynasty of ancient China (206 BC - 220 AD)’.
Recording a language with
is fundamentally different from writing with the Roman
alphabet,
, or
. These three scripts record the sounds of the language and are
called phonographic (phono = sound). In
writing,
ideas, rather than sounds, are recorded, so we refer to it as
an ideographic writing system (ideo = idea). Each
is associated with some string of sounds in a particular
language, but this sound association is secondary.
Some
are pictographs (picto = picture), pictorial
representations of what they refer to.
Both phonographic and ideographic writing systems have
their own advantages and disadvantages.
Phonographic Writing System
(1)
Records sounds
e.g.
,
The greatest advantage of ideographic writing is its fast
processing time. Compare, for example, fifty three thousand
six hundred ninety one and 53,691. Similarly,
is faster to comprehend than
. While English uses ideographs in only a
limited domain, Japanese uses them extensively.
Ideographic Writing System
, alphabet
Small set of symbols
Large number of symbols
(3)
Language dependent
Language independent
(4)
More processing time
Less processing time
(2)
(4)
Ideographic writing has an advantage over phonographic
writing. As exemplified by numerals, ideographs are
language independent. In phonographic writing, a string of
symbols like two is meaningless unless you know the
language, whereas the symbol 2 conveys its meaning
without knowledge of the language. With some ingenuity,
you can record English using
.
New Kanji
Records meanings
e.g.
, numerals
(2)
(1)
(3)
Most languages make limited use of ideographic writing, namely numerals. Symbols like
1, 2, 3, etc. are pronounced differently from language to language, but we know what
they mean, regardless of their pronunciation. Even within English, the character 2 is
pronounced differently in 2 and 2nd, but the idea remains constant.
Each language uses a fairly small number of sounds out of all possible sounds that
humans can produce. So if you record such selected speech sounds, you need a small set
of symbols. By contrast, the ideas that humans can create are limitless. So if you record
ideas directly, you need an infinite number of symbols — which is, of course, impossible.
In
writing, a compromise is made: each character represents a group of ideas,
rather than a specific idea. Even so, the number of
necessary for recording
Japanese is much larger than
or
. The Japanese Government has
established a set of commonly used 1,945
, which can appear in official
49
one
two
three
four
50
2
Ainu
Arabic
Dyirbal
Finnish
Hebrew
Hindi
Korean
Mandarin
Mongolian
Navajo
Portuguese
Swahili
Tagalog
Tibetan
Turkish
tu
ithna:n
bulay
kaksi
shtayim
do
tul
er
xoyor
naaki
dois
mbili
dalawá
nyee
iki
Lesson 3:
five
Lesson 3:
something
anything
ten
thousand
outside
sofa
someone
anyone
vicinity
desk
table
letter
watch, clock
somewhere
anywhere
someone (respectful)
anyone (respectful)
next to
inside
what
six
seven
eight
nine
ten
hundred
two
cat
notebook
eight
hundred
program
bed
room
bookstore
front
post office
side
radio
roommate
six
thousand
NEW VOCABULARY
to exist (things)
chair
briefcase
camera
one
nine
dog
doghouse
to exist (people,
animals)
to exist (respectful)
on, above
back, behind
house
toilet, lavatory
office
classroom
bank
California
Kimura
Chicago
Doyle
Pak
Holmes
Yamada
Young
Yosemite
Lin
Watson
five
three
four
beneath, under, below
seven
51
52