Kaylee wrote:Thanks again, Ciarán12.
Just to be sure I am understanding this right before I run off to my small conlang; it is possible for one verb to act as a verb and an adjective to two different nouns?
This book isn't so great at describing what it means.
Well, I suppose in the example sentence I gave above the verb "yondeiru" - "reading" is acting as a normal verb to the noun "zasshi" - "magazine" and as an "adjective" to the noun "hito" - "person", but I'm not sure this is a good explanation of what is going on here. Japanese verbs aren't adjectives, it's just that entire clauses in Japanese can be "prefixed" to a noun just as an adjective would be, which is how Japanese gets around not having relative clauses. In Japanese the verb always comes at the end of the clause (and, indeed, in some cases the verb is the entire clause), so the verb is just the part of the prefixed relative clause that goes directly before the noun. This might make it seem like they can be adjectives, but that's not really the case. I think your book referring to verbs as "adjectives" is simplifying it for beginners. In the example sentence, the verb is acting as a normal verb to the word "zasshi", and because it comes at the end of a clause which is being used as a relative clause, it is in the same position in relation to the noun "hito" as an adjective modifying it would be. Sorry if I've made it more confusing for you, my explanation kind of got away from me here