Dr. House wrote:My textbook reads: watashi wa hatachi desu for I'm 20 yo. Is it correct. Why not watashi wa nijuusai desu.
Iván wrote:I've always read that Japanese is a hierarchy-oriented language, so I would like to know whether someone could tell me more about it or if there's any good lecture/source on this topic.
SomehowGeekyPolyglot wrote:"蛇はどこですか?"
When I read this example somewhere, there also was a Romaji transcription included. It said "dokodesu", not "doko desu". Does that mean that this is really a compound word (without a pause of speech between those two)? Or is it simply "doko", then "desu", with a pause of speech?
"あそこにカフェがあります。"
Why exactly would one use "ga" instead of "wa" in this case?
"ゴリラとシマウマはどこですか?"
In this example, first "to" is used, then "wa".
If a sentence like this contains "wa", does it always refer to both things mentioned (i.e. the two connected with "to")?
pennybright wrote:どこ and です are two separate words. Spaces in romaji are generally an indication of how the person who wrote the romaji wants to emphasize underlying syntactic structures. There is no need to take them too seriously. There is, of course, no pause between the words in this utterance, just as there is no pause between two words in one phrase in any spoken language.
pennybright wrote:"あそこにカフェがあります。"
Why exactly would one use "ga" instead of "wa" in this case?
Because it sounds more natural with the verb あります. If you used は, it would sound like a contrastive は:
あそこにカフェはありますが、レストランはありません。
(Actually, even in the above I prefer が after カフェ, myself.)
In general, you can stick to が with あります and います.
pennybright wrote:"ゴリラとシマウマはどこですか?"
In this example, first "to" is used, then "wa".
If a sentence like this contains "wa", does it always refer to both things mentioned (i.e. the two connected with "to")?
Yes.
SomehowGeekyPolyglot wrote:When I was mentioning a pause of speech, I only meant a, so to say, "spoken whitespace" . Because this is done all the time in English and other languages after each word that has been mentioned in a sentence.
SomehowGeekyPolyglot wrote:"Contrastive", this is a term I need to read more about.
(This isn't an additional question. I just prefer responding to my question's responses whenever possible.)
SomehowGeekyPolyglot wrote:pennybright wrote:SomehowGeekyPolyglot wrote:"ゴリラとシマウマはどこですか?"
In this example, first "to" is used, then "wa".
If a sentence like this contains "wa", does it always refer to both things mentioned (i.e. the two connected with "to")?
Yes.
So would you also know if there is a word that can be used to only refer to the second thing mentioned?
pennybright wrote:SomehowGeekyPolyglot wrote:"Contrastive", this is a term I need to read more about.
(This isn't an additional question. I just prefer responding to my question's responses whenever possible.)
No worries FYI, "contrastive" is a term I use with my students, but I don't know if it's widely used. So, just to clarify: は is often used to indicate contrast.
pennybright wrote:After all, if you only wanted to ask about the zebras, you wouldn't ask, "Where are the gorillas and the zebras?" You'd just ask, "Where are the zebras?"
pennybright wrote:Did you have a specific example sentence in mind?
SomehowGeekyPolyglot wrote:pennybright wrote:Did you have a specific example sentence in mind?
Something like "Here, there are both gorillas and zebras. Now where exactly are they?"
I'd be looking for a Japanese Language Tool Word (or two of them) that can be used to express the difference between:
- "Here, there are both gorillas and zebras. Now where exactly are they (the zebras only)?"
"Here, there are both gorillas and zebras. Now where exactly are they (both groups of animals being mentioned)?"
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