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Grammar Notes 5 |  |
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この, その and あの are prenominal forms of demonstrative pronouns.
That is, these words are used only to modify a noun and cannot
be used as stand-alone nouns by themselves (
Note that adjectives (or Noun+の like 日本人の) may be inserted after a prenominal form before the noun.
その can also be used to refer to something/someone that is mentioned in the previous sentence as shown below.
どの is the prenominal question word which means Which. To ask which one X is, you can use the pattern XはどのNですか. Compare this with another question word どれ which means Which one. どの and どれ are not interchangeable. どの is a prenominal form (i.e., occurs only in front of a noun) and cannot become a noun by itself while どれ is a noun by itself.
The demonstrative pronouns (これ, それ, あれ and どれ) we learned in Lesson 4 are regular pronouns and cannot be used to modify a noun. This fact makes all of the following ungrammatical.
The pronoun の (one) is used to substitute another noun (usually referring to objects, not people) and create a shorter expression. For example, in English, a white car can be shortened to a white one. The same can be done in Japanese. For example: With the /Nの + N/ construction, the particle の and the pronoun の are merged into one の. The /Personの + N/ construction refers to something possessed by the person (person's N), and this can be shortened to Personの (person's). The following combinations (on the left) are ungrammatical. The correct form is written on the right.
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There are two ways to ask Which person is Mike? (1) マイクさんは どの人 ですか and (2) どの人が マイクさんですか. Sentence 1 has the particle は (topic marker) while Sentence 2 has the particle が (subject marker). は marks something as a known topic that is previously introduced into the conversation or assumed to be known while が marks something as unknown or new in the conversation. Because of this difference, が can follow a question word (e.g., どの人が) but は cannot. In the following example, A seeks new information with どの人が, and B provides that information with しろいＴシャツの人が. When A refers to the same person again, A switches to は.
In other words, は functions to keep the same topic while が introduces new information. Compare the following conversations. New information is in red. Known information is underlined.
The adjective たかい means high. To describe a person's height, you have to use a special form of this adjective せが たかい tall or せが ひくい short (in height). This adjective corresponds to different adjectives in English. By adding いちばん before the adjective, we can create superlative expression (the most ～) as in いちばん たかい (the most expensive) or いちばん やすい 車 (the cheapest car).
Note that Sentences 5 and 6 above use が which marks あの車 and アメリカの車 as the newly introduced information in conversation. If あの車 and アメリカの車 are previously introduced in conversation, these should be marked by は instead as in あの車は～ and アメリカの車は～, respectively.
We learned the /だれの + Noun/ pattern (Whose N?) in L.4. In general, the question word だれ (Who?) refers to a person and works like another question word どれ (Which one?).
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The demonstrative pronouns (ここ, そこ, あそこ, どこ) refer to specific locations near or far from the speaker and/or listener. The copula です can be used in the sense of something/someone is located as shown below. Earlier, we learned the structure /XはYです/ (X is Y). If Y refers to a place, this structure can be used to state the location of someone or something: X is located in Y. For example, わたしは マクドナルドです can mean I'm at McDonald's (restaurant) as in Figure 1 or I am McDonald as in Figure 2.
We now introduce a verb sentence with the verb あります. In Japanese, the verb comes at the end of a sentence. あります means that an inanimate object is located somewhere. The previously introduced particle distinction between は and が works with verb sentences as well.
In the /Locに Xが あります/ pattern, the speaker focuses on WHAT is located in a given place. In this pattern, the particle が marks X as something new/unknown. The particle に is a location marker similar to English preposition in or at. The topic marker は can be optionally inserted after に as in りょうには～ if the dormitory is already established as a known location/topic. In the /Xは Locに あります/ pattern, the speaker focuses on WHERE X is located. In this pattern, the particle は marks X as the information previously introduced in conversation. The verb あります can also be used to refer to an abstract existence of something instead of physical objects as in しつもんがあります (I have a question).
In English, the part of speech in a sentence is determined by the word order as in Subject + Verb + Object. In Japanese, the part of speech is determined by the particles. There is a preferred order within a sentence (e.g., Topic is usually stated at the beginning of a sentence), but noun phrases (noun + particle) can be moved around as a unit within the sentence as long as the verb and です come at the end of the sentence [Scrambling Rule]. For example, the following pairs of sentences have the same meaning with only a slight difference in emphasis.
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To say an animate object is located somewhere, we use the verb います instead of あります. Inanimate objects that move around (e.g., trains, buses and taxis) are also referred to by います. The は／が distinction works with this sentence pattern as well. In the /Locに(は) Ｘが います/ pattern below, the speaker focuses on WHO is located at a given location. In the /Xは Locに います/ pattern below, the speaker focuses on WHERE someone is located. To state where someone lives, we use the verb expression すんでいます as shown below.
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When you respond to a Yes-No question with a negative answer such as Is your brother at home?---No, he is not, you are not only negating the current location of your brother but also implying you have a brother and he is located somewhere else. Negative answers like these always have an implied contrast between what is negated and what is not negated. When responding to a Yes-No question negatively, Japanese often makes this notion of contrast explicit by using the particle は as shown below. Note that は replaces the subject particle が, but は is added to the location particle に. When は functions to mark a contrast, it is also referred to as the contrast particle.
In Dialogue 5, we have seen someone asking a negative question. Japanese speakers and English speakers respond differently to negative questions as shown below. ぎんこうは ありませんか is a negative question. It expresses the speaker's assumption that something is not the case (e.g., The bank is not nearby). On the surface, the reply ええ、ありません sounds like a contradiction (Yes (?), there isn't). Japanese はい or ええ expresses an agreement with the speaker's assumption (Correct/That's right) rather than a logical Yes/No. Likewise, if the speaker's assumption is disconfirmed, the answer should be いいえ、あります. Thus, いいえ expresses a disagreement with the speaker's assumption (That's not correct/On the contrary).
Culture note: Negative questions like this are based on politeness consideration --- the speaker is expressing that he/she has only a low expectation of finding a bank around here (There isn't a bank near here, I suppose). Asking this way will alleviate psychological stress the listener might feel if he/she has to give bad news.
A group of demonstrative pronouns (こちら, そちら, あちら, and どちら) refers to directions with regards to the relative positions of the speaker and listener. FYI: These expressions are optionally combined with のほう the side/direction of... as in そちらのほう the general direction toward you. The combined expressions (e.g., そちらのほう) sound less precise than the simple expressions (e.g., そちら).
Positional words are often used in combination with building names. Note that you state the building name before the positional words to say "[position] of [building]" or "building's position."
When you are focusing on WHERE something is located, you use the following pattern. When you are focusing on WHAT is located in a given location, you use the following pattern. To focus on the identity of something associated with a given location?, the following pattern can be used. This is a familiar identity question Xは なんですか. Note that no particle follows なん below .
Compare the following structures and make sure you understand how each meaning is obtained. Note that the Japanese word order below is a complete reversal of how you would say them in English.
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below indicates ungrammatical combinations).
カフェテリアが／りょうに／あります。