qiziq
後輩
- 1 Mar 2013
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I am currently fascinated by the Japanese 形容詞 楽しい. I have always understood the term to refer to a thing or event as being enjoyable, as in パアクは楽しかった. But I am now hearing it used with a personal subject as well, which seems to make it modify both the object, as stative, and the subject, as responsive at the same time. An example would be 私も(パアクが)とても楽しかった.
Having been gone from Japan for forty years now, I no longer "think" in Japanese, but this usage seems very strange to me. I know that 形容詞 are much closer to verbs in Japanese than adjectives are in English, and I am told that the expression sounds perfectly natural to the Japanese ear, but I still can't help but wonder if this is not an example of language drift resulting from common Japanese practice of leaving out both the subject and the object in spoken Japanese. Anybody care to give a newbie some feedback?
Having been gone from Japan for forty years now, I no longer "think" in Japanese, but this usage seems very strange to me. I know that 形容詞 are much closer to verbs in Japanese than adjectives are in English, and I am told that the expression sounds perfectly natural to the Japanese ear, but I still can't help but wonder if this is not an example of language drift resulting from common Japanese practice of leaving out both the subject and the object in spoken Japanese. Anybody care to give a newbie some feedback?