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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 ...
A few nari adjectival nouns followed a similar path to tari adjectival nouns, becoming naru adjectives in Modern Japanese (analogous to taru adjectives), rather than na adjectives as most nari adjectival nouns did. These include 単なる tannaru "mere, simple" or 聖なる seinaru "holy" and are generally classed as rentaishi.
Japanese adjectives are unusual in being closed class but quite numerous – about 700 adjectives – while most languages with closed class adjectives have very few. [6] [7] Some believe this is due to a grammatical change of inflection from an aspect system to a tense system, with adjectives predating the change.
Pages in category "Japanese grammar" The following 18 pages are in this category, out of 18 total. ... Taru adjective; Topic marker; V. Japanese conjugation
An example of a deverbal adjective is the word interesting in That was a very interesting speech; although it is derived from the verb to interest, it behaves here entirely like an ordinary adjective such as nice or long. However, some languages, such as Japanese and Chinese, can use finite verbs attributively.
The non-self-predicating class of adjectives is the one place in modern Japanese where a separate relativiser form appears; these require the form na in order to modify nouns. このビールはおいしい。
As attributive adjectives, Japanese adjectives function like their English counterparts—that is, by preceding the nouns they modify. But as predicate adjectives they differ from English in that they function as verbs. For example, akai in the sentence Kono ringo wa akai [...] "This flower is red," means not just "red" but "is red."
Okurigana (送り仮名, Japanese pronunciation: [okɯɾiɡana], "accompanying letters") are kana suffixes following kanji stems in Japanese written words. They serve two purposes: to inflect adjectives and verbs, and to force a particular kanji to have a specific meaning and be read a certain way.