Adjectival noun (Japanese)

In descriptions of the Japanese language, an adjectival noun,[1][2][3] nominal adjective,[3][4] copular noun,[2] adjectival verb (形容動詞, keiyō dōshi),[5] quasi-adjective,[6] pseudo-adjective,[7][8] adjectival,[citation needed] or na-adjective,[3][4] is a noun that can function as an adjective by taking the particle 〜な -na. (In comparison, regular nouns can function adjectivally by taking the particle 〜の -no, which is analyzed as the genitive case.) Adjectival nouns constitute one of several Japanese word classes that can be considered equivalent to adjectives.

In their attributive function, Japanese adjectival nouns function similarly to English noun adjuncts, as in "chicken soup" or "winter coat" – in these cases, the nouns "chicken" and "winter" modify the nouns "soup" and "coat", respectively. Japanese adjectival nouns can also be used predicatively – in that use, they do not take the -na suffix, but normally combine with forms of the copular verb.

  1. ^ Tanimori, Masahiro; Sato, Eriko (2012). "Adjectival Nouns". Essential Japanese Grammar. Tuttle Publishing. Adjectival nouns describe the properties of people and things just as adjectives do. They do not conjugate like adjectives (→ See Adjectives.) but pattern very similarly to nouns in a variety of contexts. Most adjectival nouns are na-type. They are followed by na when occurring before a noun that they modify (e.g. shizuka na resutoran 'a quiet restaurant'). However, some are no-type, requiring no instead of na in the same context, just like ordinary nouns (e.g. byōki no hito 'a sick person').
  2. ^ a b Matsuoka McClain, Yoko (1981). "Nouns". Handbook of Modern Japanese Grammar. The Hokuseido Press. p. 152. a. Copular nouns (adjectival nouns)
    (kirei [na] きれい(綺麗)な "pretty," or "clean," shizuka [na] 静かな "quiet"
  3. ^ a b c McGloin, Naomi H.; Endo Hudson, Mutsuko; Nazikian, Fumiko; Kakegawa, Tomomi (2014). "13: Adjectives". Modern Japanese Grammar: A Practical Guide. Routledge. p. 62. Na-adjectives are also called 'adjectival nouns' or 'nominal adjectives' because their pattern of conjugation is the same as that for nouns.
  4. ^ a b Kaiser, Stefan; Ichikawa, Yasuko; Kobayashi, Noriko; Yamamoto, Hilofumi (2013). "Chapter 6: Adjectives". Japanese: A Comprehensive Grammar (2nd ed.). Routledge. p. 156. na-adjectives comprise a group of words which have adjectival meaning, but grammatically are similar to nouns, which is why they are also sometimes called nominal adjectives.
  5. ^ Shirane, Haruo (2005). "Part I: Inflected Forms". Classical Japanese: A Grammar. Columbia University Press. p. 13. Verbs (動詞（どうし）), adjectives (形容詞（けいようし）), adjectival verbs (形容動詞（けいようどうし）), and auxiliary verbs (助動詞（じょどうし）) are inflected words.
  6. ^ Henderson, Harold G. (1948). "Adjectives". Handbook of Japanese Grammar (revised ed.). Houghton Mifflin Company. p. 35. All verbs, as has been noted, may be used to modify nouns, and a large class of quasi-adjectives is formed by using the bungo verb naru 'be' (ni aru) or its contraction na as a connective.
  7. ^ Komai, Akira (1979). "形容動詞 Keiyoo-doosi "pseudo-adjectives"". A Grammar of Classical Japanese. p. 52. There are expressions in Classical Japanese which describe qualities, states of things, or situations and which have endings that conjugate in a way similar to those of Ra-hen Doosi. These expressions are treated by Japanese grammarians as separate and unique words and are called 形容動詞 Keiyoo-doosi "pseudo-adjectives."
  8. ^ Wixted, John Timothy (2006). "Pseudo-Adjectives". A Handbook to Classical Japanese. Cornell University. p. 60. Pseudo-Adjectives (keiyō dōshi) are another kind of "verb" in the sense that they are conjugated with many of the six forms that verbs are. Pseudo-adjectives function much as verbal adjectives do (namely, as descriptive predicates); and like verbal adjectives, they can (in one of their REN'YŌKEI forms) act as adverbs. They are called "pseudo" because they only seem to fit the category of adjectives. Grammatically they are closer to nouns turned into verbal adjectives (or kanji compounds from Chinese that have been donesticated, clarified granmatically by the verbs, with their final forms, that are attached to them).