What's new

Seeking Japanese words to express English grammar concepts

ChrisNico

後輩
14 Oct 2015
26
2
13
I am currently structuring a class to explain basic English in Japanese. I want to define five English words in Japanese that have meaning similar to parts of speech (ie noun, verb, adjective) but I want to use different words because an English noun and 日本語の名詞 are similar but by no means do they behave in the same way. I know this is an abstract idea but it can be very useful when bridging the gap between the two languages.

I am seeking words that convey the English meaning I want to express while at the same time sound natural to a Japanese speaker. I will include the words I have selected and my attempt to translate them.

1. Exister - 存在 - An exister is something that exists, similar to how a runner is a person who runs. I attempted to be selective with this because of the animate/inanimate distinction in Japanese and I wanted to avoid any unwanted connotations in the analogy.

2. Action - 作用 - An action is similar to a verb, which is described as an "action word" in English,

3. Doer - やり手 - Again, similar to how a runner is someone who runs, a doer is someone or something that does.

4. Receiver - 受信者 - A receiver is a person or a thing that receives.

5. Describer - 描く? / 描き? - This word is something that describes, similar to an English adjective. This word was the most difficult for me to try to find, and I would really appreciate any insight.

To review, I am looking for five 名詞 that:

- sound natural in Japanese
- I can assign new ideas to and still have them sound natural

As I finish this, I am struck with the thought that there are many many katakana words constantly being created in Japanese and maybe this would be the best approach for me? If that is the case, please let me know.

Thank you very much, I really appreciate it!
 
Last edited:
It sounds like you're reinventing the wheel. The downside is that when people move on after learning your system and talk about Existers and Doers as parts of speech, nobody will know what the heck they're talking about.
 
1)
I can't understand what you mean.

The followings are really-used terms in Japanese grammar.
2)
動作
action verb: 動作動詞

3)
動作主 ("agent" as a grammar term)

4)
被動作主/(動作の)受け手 ("recipient" as a grammar term)

5)
If you mean "modifier", it's 修飾詞/修飾句/修飾節.
 
Thank you for your opinion. I simply happen to be focusing on this particular wheel because I know students who score 900+ on the TOEIC but still make the same mistakes. Over quite a bit of time I have done my best to isolate them and these are problems I can and will address.

My students have the knowledge and efficacy to succeed, and in my opinion, it is only the limitation of their ability to express their thoughts in one language (English) that is so far removed from their own language (Japanese) that results in mistakes.

In my opinion, this wheel still needs some attention.
 
Last edited:
From the descriptions you're using you might want to look at Brown's semantic relationships research from the late 1950s through 60s (as well as Bloom in the late 60s, early 70s, and Golinkoff in the late 90s and into the 2000s, among others), you'll find terms which would probably fit your purpose. A bonus will be that these are widely accepted terms in early language acquisition and there is a solid corpus of research behind them. I have no idea if they're well known in EFL/ESL since it's not my field.
 
Super interesting and exactly what I'm looking for! I really enjoy reading about stuff like this. Thank you very much!
 
Back
Top Bottom