jonnywonny
後輩
- 5 Jun 2011
- 1
- 0
This is something that I'm having a hard time finding a clear answer on. First of all, I'm familiar with the 6 stem forms listed on Wikipedia's page for Japanese grammar and also with the 5 bases, which I have concluded are just different names for the same thing.
My confusion arises from a distinction that I have found made between basic concept of a "stem form" and any of the 6 stem specific forms that a verb can take. At first, I noticed many people referring to the "stem form" of a verb without specifying which they were talking about, but I could deduce from the context that they were actually talking about the continuative form. The fact that there are several different names for any given stem form confused me at first, but once you make all the connections it's not very hard to grasp.
I thought I had it all figured out, however that changed when I read the entry for すぎる at wiktionary. My confusion arose specifically because it said "You attach the verb directly to the stem or the continuative form". As you can see here, it's referring to both the "stem" and the "continuative form" in the same sentence, which is the first time that I've seen that happen. To me, this means they must be separate concepts.
From the usage examples the page gives for すぎる, it is easy to deduce what a word stem _would_ be: the word without any conjugatable suffix. However, I'm having a hard time accepting this as the definition because I cannot find one instance on the internet of anyone referring to this a formal grammatical concept. If there is actually something called a "verb stem", I would think that somewhere on the internet somebody would describe it, it's usage, and how to form it from a verb. However, every time I see an instance of someone explaining the verb stem, it's clear that they are actually explaining the continuative form.
I've only been studying Japanese grammar for about a week or so (I just finished learning all the Kanji using RTK), so I bet these are pretty basic concepts. But I've been searching for an answer for quite a while now to no avail... so I'm hoping somebody here has it for me.
My confusion arises from a distinction that I have found made between basic concept of a "stem form" and any of the 6 stem specific forms that a verb can take. At first, I noticed many people referring to the "stem form" of a verb without specifying which they were talking about, but I could deduce from the context that they were actually talking about the continuative form. The fact that there are several different names for any given stem form confused me at first, but once you make all the connections it's not very hard to grasp.
I thought I had it all figured out, however that changed when I read the entry for すぎる at wiktionary. My confusion arose specifically because it said "You attach the verb directly to the stem or the continuative form". As you can see here, it's referring to both the "stem" and the "continuative form" in the same sentence, which is the first time that I've seen that happen. To me, this means they must be separate concepts.
From the usage examples the page gives for すぎる, it is easy to deduce what a word stem _would_ be: the word without any conjugatable suffix. However, I'm having a hard time accepting this as the definition because I cannot find one instance on the internet of anyone referring to this a formal grammatical concept. If there is actually something called a "verb stem", I would think that somewhere on the internet somebody would describe it, it's usage, and how to form it from a verb. However, every time I see an instance of someone explaining the verb stem, it's clear that they are actually explaining the continuative form.
I've only been studying Japanese grammar for about a week or so (I just finished learning all the Kanji using RTK), so I bet these are pretty basic concepts. But I've been searching for an answer for quite a while now to no avail... so I'm hoping somebody here has it for me.
