Michiel Kamermans - An Introduction to Japanese Syntax, Grammar and Language.pdf - Materiały do nauki japońskiego - emilka33312

An Introduction to Japanese Syntax,

Grammar and Language

6 th draft revision- 30 October 2006

A disclaimer of sorts

This book is still a draft version, meaning that while I have invested a lot of time in trying to

make sure the information contained in it is correct, I cannot make any guarantees – I am

after all just as fallible as any other author. While I accept full responsibility for the content

of this book, I disclaim any responsibility for what you do with that content, or the result this

might have on your life (such as a low, or high, grade on your homework, the loss of your job,

or the accidental marriage to someone Japanese). You are free to quote from this book as

long as you observe proper quoting conduct – this differs depending on the medium you are

quoting in, but keep it civil. Do not copy entire sections verbatim or paraphrased (though I

have less issues with paraphrasing than verbatim copies of course) if you have the ability to

refer to this book instead, which if you’re quoting you do.

This book is still pending a final editorial review and will not be released in final form until I

and my peers are convinced this work is of sufficient quality to act as educational material for

people interested in learning Japanese grammar.

previous draft copies including the pre-release plain text copy.

Preface

I started learning Japanese by watching cartoons. Come to think of it, that's

kind of how I started learning English too, but the difference is that I started

learning English when I started watching cartoons - which is when I was very

young - whereas I started learning Japanese when I was in my third year of

University. I am someone who relies on the internet to a large degree for finding

information, so when I realised I was actually interested in learning the

language that was used in these cartoons (or to say it properly, anime) I was

watching, I took to the net to see if I could find some online lessons to help me on

my way. This was in 2001 and to my great surprise there weren't really any sites

at all that taught Japanese in a way that didn't involve learning one sentence

per lesson, taught by anime characters in the setting of the show their example

phrases were lifted from. Don't get me wrong, I love anime. I love a lot of other

cartoons too, as well as regular tv shows and movies, but that doesn't make any

of them a good source when it comes to seriously learning a language. The type

of Japanese used in these shows, I knew, was not exactly the kind you'd typically

use in real life, and so I ended up buying a book on the subject instead.

I bought the book "Nakama" (which, amusingly, doesn't contain the translation

for this word in volumes 1 or 2) on impulse while browsing through the meagre

Japanese section in the local huge book store "Donner" in Rotterdam, and only

after having bought it did I realise I had made the right choice. It systematically

but pleasantly explained Japanese in all its wondrous forms, and did something

else; it made me realise that the languages I was used to were just some of the

many ways in which a language could be formed. I had been so used to

grammars that sort of seemed alike, having had Dutch, English, French and

German, that reading and learning this new one was like a revelation. This

language was so radically different that I had no choice but to accept that there

were probably no fixed patterns that every language shared.

After a year had passed and I had devoured the first book, I bought the second

book and started working through it, but something was bugging me. It seemed

like some fundamentals were missing. There was a logic to how to conjugate

verbs, but I couldn't quite put my finger on it. Again rather on impulse, I decided

to sign up for classes in Japanese at the Leiden University, to see if I could put

my learning into higher gear, as well as benefit from actual other people to

practice with, but what I found in addition was something that my mind had

been longing for in the material I had been using - proper structure.

At the university, we were taught the basics of the Japanese language, in the

way the Japanese described it. I had a decent knowledge of how to say things in

Japanese by then, but suddenly I was learning why the things I knew to use,

should be used. I was taught that verbs had inflectional bases, that they had

specific roles and how to form constructions that did what we wanted them to do,

using rules that started at the smallest blocks and worked from there, rather

than starting at a masu form and working backwards to the verb base first. I

learned how, in order to properly use Japanese, you had to let go of the idea that

there were one on one translations between languages, and start at the

beginning again. I learned something very important there, namely "This is why

certain expressions exist, and this is how they fall apart grammatically".

I was quite thrilled to learn that simple things like "arigatou" and "sumimasen"

were real words, besides being expressions, that had an etymology that entirely

explained when and why you'd use them. I took lots of notes and happily learnt

whatever they could throw at me. In fact, university had completely made me

forget that the internet had failed me in my initial quest for knowledge until I

was riding the train home one day with a Chinese exchange student who

complained that the grammar material was in Dutch, and that she couldn't

follow the grammar classes because there was no English material available.

Being a computer savvy person, or in more concise terms somewhat of a nerd, I

told her I would put my notes online, which were in English anyway, so that

even if she couldn't go to grammar classes she might still benefit from them. This

collection of online notes grew and grew until I realised I had amassed exactly

the information I had been looking for years ago myself...

It was at this point that what was to become nihongoresources.com was born. I

topicised the grammar notes, and after talking to a friend about how cool it

would be to have a dictionary text file, discovered that this already existed in the

form of Edict, and it was free! Without hesitation, I wrote a small script that

would let me browse it and stuffed it online too, and suddenly had a website that

- while infantile - actually catered to the needs of many students I went to class

with. What had started as a small service to a fellow student had turned into

something every student could benefit from, and with this motivation I started to

expand the site, adding small bits here and there, pruning sections, and slowly

building somewhat of a monster called "nihongo resources" with the appropriate

domain name, comprising multiple dictionaries, grammar, lessons, and other

resources. I even started writing a book on the Japanese grammar at the start of

my second year Japanese in university.

But, I have to admit, I was a bit overzealous. While I enjoyed learning and

through the process of explaining things to others, learnt things myself too, I was

still a first year student with not exactly a lot of weight or experience under my

belt. The first version of my book I offered to my teacher to scrutinise, and

scrutinise he did. In retrospect, it's a good thing he did, because it took forever to

get from the draft version to an edited final version. Instead, in 2005 I decided

that the information I was offering the world was somewhat out of date, and

needed a rewrite. I also knew that I had to do something with the book - I had

promissed many people by now I would finish it and I didn't like the idea of

letting those people down. As such, I began to write what you are reading now. A

proper reader on the Japanese language in terms of syntax, grammar and

Michiel Kamermans - An Introduction to Japanese Syntax, Grammar and Language.pdf

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