Writing System

and Parts of
Speech
Lesson 2
Writing System
Japanese sentences are written by combining three types of script: kanji (Chinese
characters), hiragana, and katakana.

You can more or less tell the difference between the three scripts from their visual
impressions. Most kanji look as if they could fill squares, hiragana resemble cursive
letters, and katakana appear to consist of a small number of straight lines. In addition
to these traditional script types, you will also encounter numerous uses of roomaji
(Roman alphabet) in daily life. Thus, the same word may be represented in four
different ways. Here are four separate representations of the name “Tanaka.”
ABOUT THE
SUBJECT
 Kanji
In order to read Japanese proficiently, one must be able to
recognize a group of about 2,000 Chinese characters,
known as kanji in Japanese. Kanji are logographic, and
each kanji has its own meaning. They are commonly used
to write content words such as nouns and initial parts of
verbs and adjectives.
Hiragana and
Katakana
Unlike kanji, hiragana and katakana are
syllabaries: they represent sound units rather
than meanings.Therefore, you can use them
to write out almost anything, whether you
want to do so for aesthetic reasons or
otherwise. However, in actual practice,
hiragana are largely limited to endings of
verbs and adjectives, and grammatical
elements such as PARTICLES.
—SOMEONE FAMOUS
—SOMEONE FAMOUS
—SOMEONE FAMOUS
—SOMEONE FAMOUS
—SOMEONE FAMOUS
 Special Orthographic Conventions
Hiragana and katakana were created when Japanese had simpler
syllable structures than today. A number of orthographic
conventions have since developed to cope with newer and more
complex sound combinations. First, short but complex syllables
like kya and nyo are transcribed with two letters, one i-row letter
and ya, yu, or yo, as shown in the following chart. To distinguish
these from sequences of syllables such as kiya and niyo, write
the second letter smaller.
Big numbers catch your audience’s attention
A Picture Is
Worth a
Thousand
Words
Part of
Speech
Parts of Speech
Japanese, like English, has grammatical categories of words such as nouns, verbs,
adjectives, and ADVERBS. They are often called PARTS OF SPEECH. This unit will
provide an overview of Japanese parts of speech. Along the way, we will highlight
some notable differences between Japanese and English grammatical categories.

Major categories

The following table is a summary of the major grammatical categories. Their short
names, Japanese names, and some examples are also given.
Parts of Speech
MULTIMEDIA
The name of planet Mercury has
nothing to do with the liquid
metal since it was named after the
Roman god
Word Formation
Word Formation
Word Formation
Other categories
PRENOMINALS, like adjectives, act as modifiers of nouns. However, unlike
adjectives, they can never serve as a predicate. The Japanese words ookii and
ookina both correspond to the English adjective “big,” but only ookii is used both
predicatively and prenominally. In contrast, ookina is a prenominal and cannot
appear as a predicate. To the relief of learners, there are only a handful of cases
like this: ookina/ookii “big,” chiisana/chiisai “small,” and okashina/okashii “funny.”
The prenominal members of these pairs have more emotional nuances than their
adjective counterparts. PARTICLES appear typically after a noun or another
particle to mark the function of the preceding part. CONNECTIVES connect
independent sentences. Their functions are sometimes similar to connective
particles. Unlike connective particles, which are attached to the preceding
elements, connectives form separate words. DEMONSTRATIVES locate things or
people in terms of their distance from the speaker and the listener. The distance
may be physical or psychological. Unlike the English system, which makes a two-
way distinction, the Japanese demonstrative system makes a three-way
distinction. PRONOUNS substitute for nouns. Japanese PERSONAL PRONOUNS
such as watashi “I” and anata “you” are differentiated according to the person (first,
second, or third), the NUMBER (singular or plural), and social factors. They
behave like regular nouns and may be dropped quite freely. The pronoun no “one”
is more grammatically constrained. For instance, it cannot occur on its own, always
requiring a modifier as in takai no “expensive one.” EXCLAMATIVES express the
speaker’s attitude or emotion in one word. Interjections, greetings, and formulaic
expressions such as apologies form exclamatives.
ありがとう
ございます