Making Sense of Japanese Grammar

40. Na-nouns behave like nouns, but they have “fuzzy” meanings

40 Na-nouns behave like nouns, but they have “fuzzy” meanings At the end of a sentence, you cannot distinguish between ordinary nouns and so-called na-nouns (also known as na-adjectives because they resemble adjectives in terms of what they mean). However, when expanding a noun phrase, you must be able to tell the two classes apart. This is because na-nouns take -na instead of -no before another noun. Let us compare na-nouns with other nouns. Japanese nouns include, among others: (1) proper nouns, demonstratives, and pronouns; (2) common nouns; (3) abstract no-nouns; and (4) na-nouns, in a descending order of abstractness or “fuzziness.” Examples are given below. concrete proper nouns; demonstratives Harada “Harada”; Tookyoo-daigaku “Tokyo University”; kore “this” common nouns Nihon-jin “Japanese”; gakusei “student”; heya “room” abstract no-nouns byooki “sickness”; hontoo “true”; tada “free” abstract na-nouns kenkoo “health”; taihen “awful”; benri “convenient” The most concrete of these, proper nouns, refer to unique, real objects or events. Common nouns refer to classes of objects, rather than unique individuals. Na-nouns are at the other end of the scale and behave slightly differently from other nouns with respect to the selection of the particle: while all other nouns take -no when modifying another noun, na-nouns take -na, as shown below: Harada-san-no gakusei “Ms. Harada’s student” 96 Nihon-jin-no gakusei “a Japanese student” byooki-no gakusei “sick student” kenkoo-na gakusei “healthy student” Most Japanese language textbooks instruct students to memorize na-nouns as a special category as if they consist of an arbitrary set of words. This view is not entirely accurate, nor is it very helpful. Since na-nouns occupy one extreme end of the concrete-abstract continuum, the better approach is first to assume that abstract concepts are expressed as na-nouns. The next thing to do is to separate abstract no-nouns such as ( ) byooki-(no) “sick(ness)” from na-nouns. This certainly requires fine-tuning, but it can be done. Abstract no-nouns occupy the range bordering na-nouns, but they relate to nongradient or “non-fuzzy” properties such as absoluteness, uniqueness, individuation, authenticity, sameness, membership in a set, points on a scale, standard, inevitability, quantity, and concrete physical property. (No need to memorize each of these!) Representative examples are given below: yuitsu-no shoonin “the sole witness” saikoo-no resutoran “the best restaurant” zettai-no shinrai “absolute trust” hitsuzen-no kekka “inevitable consequence” 97 gyaku-no hookoo “the opposite direction” betsubetsu-no guruupu “separate groups” haiiro-no kabe “gray wall” sansatsu-no hon “three books” The peculiar contrast between byooki-no gakusei “sick student” and kenkoo-na gakusei “healthy student” can also be systematically explained. In our normal view of events, byooki “sickness” is a restricted condition, as opposed to the general condition kenkoo “health.” We also tend to identify byooki with specific symptoms; kenkoo, on the other hand, is a condition lacking such specific symptoms. In other words, byooki is “non-fuzzy” compared to “fuzzy” kenkoo. Hence the ranking of byooki above kenkoo on the scale and the assignment of -no and -na, respectively. Checking your comprehension: Can you explain why we must say sensoo-no toki “wartime,” but heiwa-na toki “peacetime”? 98 For related topics, see also Unit 8. ...