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Question 普通体 Combined With 丁寧体?

xminus1

Sempai
Donor
27 Apr 2018
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Hello, friends:

In a Minna listening exercise I came across two sentences that I have a question about; I've highlighted my areas of interest:
面白い歌舞伎をやっているから、見に行きませんか。​
土曜日仕事をするから、わたしは月曜日に休みを取る予定です。​

In the subordinate clauses of both sentences, it would appear to me that we have the ます-form + から construction to express cause. Rather than the ます-form, however, we find the dictionary form of the verb. This would seem to indicate that the speaker is speaking informally. When we look at the main clause of the first sentence, however, we find the formal 行きませんか rather than the informal 行かない, and similarly in the second sentence we find the polite です rather than informal だ, だよ, or nothing (I guess).

I am correct in thinking that we have a mixture of informal and formal style? If so, why?

Thanks!
 
It differs depending on the conjunctive particle whether you need to unify the level of politeness between the subordinate and main clause.

For many particles like し, けれども/けれど/けど, ので, たら, etc., the level of politeness of the whole sentence is decided by the verb in the main clause, so you can use both non-polite (or also called "casual") forms and polite forms in the subordinate clause. から belongs to this group.

As for とき, なら, のに or と, non-polite forms are more commonly used in the subordinate clause even when the main clause is a polite form. Polite forms can be used with these particles in the subordinate clause, but it sounds rathar (too much) polite.

As for が, you need to unify the level of politeness. If the main clause is polite, the subordinate clause should be also polite (or non-polite and non-polite). This is because that the two clauses are considered to be highly independent from each other for が. (In other words, the subordinate clause is more strongly subordinate to the main clause semantically for other particles.)

Needless to say, it sounds odd for all particles if the subordinate clause is polite and the main clause is non-polite.

In conclusion, you need to pay attention especially for が.
 
This answer is so informative, Toritoribe-san; thank you. Minna doesn't address this concept in its beginner books, although (as I mentioned earlier) I have just noticed some examples of it in their sentences. And it's yet another fascinating nuance of the Japanese language!
 
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