Making Sense of Japanese Grammar

19. -ga is the subject marker; -o is the direct object marker

19 -ga is the subject marker; -o is the direct object marker In this unit, we study the basic contrast between transitive verbs and intransitive verbs and the question of how to use the subject and direct object particles. The best place to start this discussion, however, is not with Japanese. We need to understand how (in)transitivity works in English before we try to understand it in Japanese. First, compare the following two sentences. The boy hit the ball. The boy slept for three days. The first of these sentences contains a transitive verb; the second sentence, an intransitive verb. The prototypical contrast between the transitive verb and the intransitive verb is this: a transitive verb describes an event in which one party, or agent, necessarily affects another party, or target. An intransitive verb by contrast describes a stable condition in which no change takes place or an event in which one party acts or undergoes change on its own. The most typical examples of transitive verbs are verbs of violence such as “kill,” “kick,” and “hit.” By contrast, verbs of biological functions such as “sleep,” “blossom,” and “die” are intransitive. What other verbs can you think of as good examples of transitive verbs in English? How about intransitive verbs? The semantic contrast between transitivity and intransitivity is reflected in the number of noun phrases you must use with a verb: a transitive verb requires a subject noun phrase (agent) and a direct object noun phrase (target); an intransitive verb requires only a subject noun phrase. In the following pair of sentences, for instance, the first sentence is ungrammatical because it lacks the direct object noun phrase required by the transitive verb: *The boy hit. The boy hit it. In the following pair, on the other hand, the second sentence is ungrammatical, because it has an extra noun phrase which the intransitive verb cannot take: The boy slept. *The boy slept it. Let us summarize the points so far. A transitive verb requires a subject and a 40 direct object; an intransitive verb requires only a subject. The subject of a transitive sentence typically affects the direct object in such a way as to change its status. The subject of an intransitive sentence, on the other hand, does not undergo a change, or undergoes a change on its own, or acts without affecting another party. To make sure you understand these concepts, identify the subject and the direct object in each of the following sentences. Watch out for intransitive sentences which do not have a direct object! The baby had milk. Who is using the telephone? Which did you make? The newspaper is there. I went by taxi yesterday. Did you identify “the baby,” “who,” “you,” “the newspaper,” and “I” as the subject, and “milk,” “the telephone,” and “which” as the direct object? Subject and Direct Object Particles in Japanese We can now move on to the explanation of the subject particle -ga and the direct object particle -o. The particle -ga signals that the preceding noun phrase is the subject of the sentence; the particle -o signals that the preceding noun phrase is the direct object. (For the moment, we set aside the question of what the topic marker -wa is. In order to understand this question, see Unit 20, the unit on the contrast between the topic marker and other particles.) Whereas English depends on word order to distinguish between the subject and the direct object, as shown below, The toddler chased the puppy. The puppy chased the toddler. Japanese is quite unconstrained with respect to word order within a single sentence. Recall that the basic rule of Japanese is that the verb appears at the end of the sentence. Other elements can be switched around without changing the meaning of the sentence. This applies to the subject as well as to the direct object noun phrase. The subject may appear before the direct object, or it may follow the direct object, as in the following examples: Gakusei-ga sensei-o shootai-shimashita. “The students invited the teachers.” Sensei-o gakusei-ga shootai-shimashita. 41 “The students invited the teachers.” In such examples, semantic confusion does not arise because the sentences distinguish the subject and the direct object by marking them with the particles -ga and -o, respectively. Once a particle is attached to a noun phrase and marks its function, the unit moves together...