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13 Japanese particles are postpositions In Unit 11 we saw that the particle -ka turns a preceding sentence into a question. Like this -ka, all Japanese particles mark the functions of elements immediately before them. In other words, they are postpositions as opposed to prepositions (e.g., “at,” “from,” and “to” in English). Make sure that you pronounce a particle tightly with whatever precedes it, not with what follows it. If you are to pause once, pause after the particle, not before: Watashi-wa Nihon-jin-desu. “I am a Japanese.” Nihon-jin-desu-ga, kanji-wa yowai-desu. “I am a Japanese, but I am not good at Chinese characters.” Do not pause like the following: * * Particles as Bridges The majority of particles link elements within a sentence. For instance, the particle -no connects a modifying noun to a head noun—the core of a noun phrase. And the particle -kedo connects a subordinate clause to a main clause. Just as a name tag is attached to a suitcase rather than to its owner, particles are attached to dependent elements like modifying nouns and subordinate clauses. Further, particles appear between connected units, like a bridge. The following examples illustrate these properties of particles. [ ] [ ] [sankasha-no] [namae] [participant-of] [name] “names of the participants” 23 [ ] [ ] [Namae-o yobimashita-kedo], [henji-ga nakatta-desu]. [Name-Object called-but], [answer-Subject did-not-exist]. “Although they called her name, there was no answer” or “They called her name, but there was no answer.” There is nothing peculiar about these properties of particles. Except for the direction, the expressions above are just like their English counterparts. Reverse the order of an English expression, and you usually get its Japanese version. Japanese, in other words, is almost a mirror image of English. Where then does the difference in direction come from? It originates in the fact that Japanese is postpositional and English is prepositional. A postpositional language like Japanese naturally prefers to be right-headed. In Unit 2, we said that right-headedness means that you place a verb at the end of a sentence. Right-headedness more broadly means that the head noun appears at the end of a noun phrase, a verb at the end of a clause or sentence, and a main clause at the end of a sentence. In the above, namae and henji-ga nakatta-desu appear on the right side. This order is optimal for a postpositional language because particles prefer to be in the middle. If Japanese were left-headed like English, unnatural sequences like the following would be produced, in which the connecting elements appear at the end. *[ ][ ] *[namae][sankasha-no] *[ ][ ] *[henji-ga nakatta-desu][namae-o yobimashita-kedo] Such sequences do not form natural units and are usually avoided except when adding an afterthought or calling attention to a special focus. Checking your comprehension: How would you form a sentence corresponding to “You will see a park when you turn right” using the following? kooen-ga miemasu “you will see a park” migi-ni magaru “you turn right” -to “when” 24 For related topics, see also Units 2, 11, and 14. ...

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