なく

charusu · 27 Jun 2011

Good Morning!

I am reading a discussion in "Fundamentals of Japanese Grammar" by Yuki Johnson that deals with the use of は as a contrast particle. As an example the sentence 私はすしは食べます..., meaning "I eat sushi (but not something else)..."

I ran across a sample sentence that contains a word about which I am confused: なく.

The sentence is: 私は家ではなく会社で、お茶ではなくコーヒーを飲みます、meaning "I drink coffee, not tea, at work, not at home".

I notice that なく follows something that is negated. Kotoba, the super awesome dictionary for iOS, says that ない is an adjective that means unpossessed or nonexistent among other things. Could なくbe the adverbial form of ない ?

Any discussion of this word (if it is indeed the one being used) would be greatly useful!

Thank you very much!

チャルス

Toritoribe · 27 Jun 2011

Right. ない is an i-adjective.

高い → 高くなる
ない → なくなる

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanes...s#Adverb_forms

charusu · 27 Jun 2011

Wow thanks! You've helped me out before, thanks again!

But why would the adverb be used, it seems like in this sentence ない should be modifying the noun and not a verb. Why wouldn't one just precede the noun with ない ?

Toritoribe · 28 Jun 2011

Similar to the -masu stem of verbs, the -ku form of i-adjectives is used for conjunctions.

すしを食べ、コーヒーを一杯飲みました。
I ate sushi and drank a cup of coffee.

高く厚い壁
a high and thick wall

charusu · 28 Jun 2011

Thank you very much, please forgive me, I don't mean to be a pest, but I think I need some more clarification. I know that the -masu form stem functions continuitively like the -te form, I thought the -kute ending was the equivalent for adjectives. It seems that なく is modifying the nouns here and not the verb, is this not correct? Would you happen to be able to post a sample sentence to illustrate the use of なく?

Toritoribe · 28 Jun 2011

Right. As same as the -te form of verbs v.s. the -masu stem of verbs, the -ku form of i-adjectives is used to continue sentences like the -kute form of i-adjectives. (The -te form/-kute form sounds more colloquial than the -masu stem/-ku form.)
なく is actually the adverbial form, but is used conjunctionally in the examples. お茶ではないコーヒー, for instance, means "coffee that is not tea".(As you can see, it doesn't make sense. )

charusu · 28 Jun 2011

At the end of this I'll owe you a beer! So the A naku B construction equates to "not A rather B", in that it negates A and refers the thought or the subject matter to B? This would make sense in the example, "...not at home (rather at work)...not tea (rather coffee)" - so this doesn't imply that the speaker doesn't drink tea at home, just not tea at work?

Is this the correct usage of naku here? Is there a discussion of adverbial forms used as conjunctions anywhere? I have vigorously searched the internet and my grammar books all day and can't find any discussions anywhere.

Thank you so much again for taking the time! You're awesome!

Toritoribe · 28 Jun 2011

charusu said:
So the A naku B construction equates to "not A rather B", in that it negates A and refers the thought or the subject matter to B? This would make sense in the example, "...not at home (rather at work)...not tea (rather coffee)" - so this doesn't imply that the speaker doesn't drink tea at home, just not tea at work?

A ではなく B simply means "not A but B". FYI, when A is a verb or an i-adjective, the form is A のではなく B.
e.g.
お茶ではなくコーヒー
静かではなくにぎやか
走るのではなく歩く
暑いのではなく寒い

If the sentence is 私は、会社ではお茶ではなくコーヒーを飲みます, it implies that the speaker drinks tea at other places than at work(e.g. at home, at cafe,,,). The most natural context I can think of for the example sentence is that it's an answer to a question あなたは普段何か飲み物を飲みますか？例えば、家でお茶を飲みますか？ "Do you usually drink something in daily life? For instance, tea at home?"

charusu said:
Is this the correct usage of naku here? Is there a discussion of adverbial forms used as conjunctions anywhere? I have vigorously searched the internet and my grammar books all day and can't find any discussions anywhere.

Or rather, one of the functions of the -ku form of i-adjectives is adverbial, and another one is conjunctional. The -ku form has many functions similar to the -te form of verbs, and it's sometimes called as "adverbial form" from the most typical usage. (Of course this conjunctional usage in the example is correct and quite natural.)

charusu · 28 Jun 2011

Thank you immensely!

なく

charusu

先輩

Toritoribe

松葉解禁

charusu

先輩

Toritoribe

松葉解禁

charusu

先輩

Toritoribe

松葉解禁

charusu

先輩

Toritoribe

松葉解禁

charusu

先輩

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