Japanese verb suffixes

The suffixes of the Japanese verb and the order in which they appear, from the stem outward: the verbalizer -su (suru) of Sino-Japanese verbal nouns, the causative -(s)ase, the passive and the potential in -(r)are, the polite -mas, the desiderative -ta(i), the negative -(a)na and the inflection that closes the word, non-past -(r)u, past -ta, hortative -(y)oo or gerund -te. A verb form takes at most one suffix of each position, and the positions appear in this order, so the template is the regular expression of the sublists of the slot list and a string of suffixes is licensed when its slots match it. The final position is [Nar10b]'s class of inflections: no inflection follows another, so the tense, mood and nonfinite endings share one slot.

The suffixes and their positions are those [HDF21] extract from the Universal Dependencies segmentation and document from [KIKY13]. The polite suffix precedes the desiderative there on the strength of corpus forms such as mi-mashi-tai 'I want to see'; the two rarely share a word, since the desiderative inflects as an adjective and takes the polite copula instead. [Nar10b] finds the causative on either side of the desiderative and counts the potential as modality rather than voice, so the fixed order is an idealization of the verbal complex, not a description of it.

Main definitions

• Japanese.Verb.Slot, Japanese.Verb.Exponent: the suffix positions and the suffixes of each.
• Japanese.Verb.slots, Japanese.Verb.template: the positions in order and the regular expression over them, and Japanese.Verb.Licensed, the suffix strings it admits.
• Japanese.Verb.Exponent.morphs: the morphs of a suffix, the passive's those of Japanese.directPassive and the negative's those of Japanese.Negation.na.

Main results

• Japanese.Verb.licensed_iff: a string of suffixes is licensed exactly when its slots are a sublist of slots.

Implementation notes

The positions are language-internal. Their comparison with a cross-linguistic inventory of categories is the apparatus of the study that draws it, Studies/HahnDegenFutrell2021.lean, and lives there. The passive and the potential share the slot, and for vowel-stem verbs the form; the imperative and the conditional endings of the inflection slot are not entered.

References

• M. Hahn, J. Degen, R. Futrell, Modeling Word and Morpheme Order in Natural Language as an Efficient Trade-Off of Memory and Surprisal (2021)
• S. Kaiser, Y. Ichikawa, N. Kobayashi, H. Yamamoto, Japanese: A Comprehensive Grammar (2013)
• H. Narrog, The Order of Meaningful Elements in the Japanese Verbal Complex (2010)

inductive Japanese.Verb.Slot : Type

The suffix positions of the verb, stem-outward.

• derivation : Slot

  The verbalizer -su (suru) of Sino-Japanese verbal nouns.

• valence : Slot

  The causative -(s)ase.

• voice : Slot

  The passive and the potential, both -(r)are.

• politeness : Slot

  The polite -mas.

• desiderative : Slot

  The desiderative -ta(i).

• negation : Slot

  The negative -(a)na.

• inflection : Slot

  The inflection that closes the word.

@[instance_reducible]

instance Japanese.Verb.instDecidableEqSlot : DecidableEq Slot

Equations

• Japanese.Verb.instDecidableEqSlot x✝ y✝ = if h : x✝.ctorIdx = y✝.ctorIdx then isTrue ⋯ else isFalse ⋯

@[instance_reducible]

instance Japanese.Verb.instReprSlot : Repr Slot

Equations

• Japanese.Verb.instReprSlot = { reprPrec := Japanese.Verb.instReprSlot.repr }

def Japanese.Verb.instReprSlot.repr : Slot → ℕ → Std.Format

Equations

• One or more equations did not get rendered due to their size.
• Japanese.Verb.instReprSlot.repr Japanese.Verb.Slot.valence prec✝ = Repr.addAppParen (Std.Format.nest (if prec✝ ≥ 1024 then 1 else 2) (Std.Format.text "Japanese.Verb.Slot.valence")).group prec✝
• Japanese.Verb.instReprSlot.repr Japanese.Verb.Slot.voice prec✝ = Repr.addAppParen (Std.Format.nest (if prec✝ ≥ 1024 then 1 else 2) (Std.Format.text "Japanese.Verb.Slot.voice")).group prec✝

inductive Japanese.Verb.Exponent : Slot → Type

The suffixes of each position.

• su : Exponent Slot.derivation

  -su, the stem of suru 'do'.

• sase : Exponent Slot.valence

  The causative -(s)ase.

• rare : Exponent Slot.voice

  The passive -(r)are, the marker of Japanese.directPassive.

• potential : Exponent Slot.voice

  The potential, -(r)are or -e by conjugation class.

• mas : Exponent Slot.politeness

  The polite -mas, -mashi before the past and -mase before the negative.

• tai : Exponent Slot.desiderative

  The desiderative -ta(i), inflecting as an adjective, -taku before the negative.

• na : Exponent Slot.negation

  The negative -(a)na, Japanese.Negation.na, and -n after the polite suffix.

• u : Exponent Slot.inflection

  The non-past -(r)u.

• ta : Exponent Slot.inflection

  The past -ta.

• yoo : Exponent Slot.inflection

  The hortative -(y)oo.

• te : Exponent Slot.inflection

  The gerund -te.

@[instance_reducible]

instance Japanese.Verb.instDecidableEqExponent {a✝ : Slot} : DecidableEq (Exponent a✝)

Equations

• Japanese.Verb.instDecidableEqExponent = Japanese.Verb.instDecidableEqExponent.decEq

def Japanese.Verb.instDecidableEqExponent.decEq {a✝ : Slot} (x✝ x✝¹ : Exponent a✝) : Decidable (x✝ = x✝¹)

Equations

• One or more equations did not get rendered due to their size.

def Japanese.Verb.Exponent.morphs {σ : Slot} : Exponent σ → List Morphology.Morph

The morphs of a suffix in citation form, the segment whose presence depends on the stem in brackets.

Equations

• Japanese.Verb.Exponent.su.morphs = [Morphology.Morph.suff "su"]
• Japanese.Verb.Exponent.sase.morphs = [Morphology.Morph.suff "(s)ase"]
• Japanese.Verb.Exponent.rare.morphs = Japanese.directPassive.marker
• Japanese.Verb.Exponent.potential.morphs = [Morphology.Morph.suff "(r)are"]
• Japanese.Verb.Exponent.mas.morphs = [Morphology.Morph.suff "mas"]
• Japanese.Verb.Exponent.tai.morphs = [Morphology.Morph.suff "ta"]
• Japanese.Verb.Exponent.na.morphs = Japanese.Negation.na.morphs
• Japanese.Verb.Exponent.u.morphs = [Morphology.Morph.suff "(r)u"]
• Japanese.Verb.Exponent.ta.morphs = [Morphology.Morph.suff "ta"]
• Japanese.Verb.Exponent.yoo.morphs = [Morphology.Morph.suff "(y)oo"]
• Japanese.Verb.Exponent.te.morphs = [Morphology.Morph.suff "te"]

def Japanese.Verb.slots : List Slot

The positions in their order from the stem outward.

Equations

• One or more equations did not get rendered due to their size.

def Japanese.Verb.template : RegularExpression Slot

The template: each position at most once, in the order of slots.

Equations

• Japanese.Verb.template = RegularExpression.sublists Japanese.Verb.slots

def Japanese.Verb.Licensed (w : List ((σ : Slot) × Exponent σ)) : Prop

A string of suffixes is licensed when its slots match the template.

Equations

• Japanese.Verb.Licensed w = (List.map Sigma.fst w ∈ Japanese.Verb.template.matches')

@[instance_reducible]

instance Japanese.Verb.instDecidablePredListSigmaSlotExponentLicensed : DecidablePred Licensed

Equations

• Japanese.Verb.instDecidablePredListSigmaSlotExponentLicensed x✝ = { decide := decide (Japanese.Verb.template.rmatch (List.map Sigma.fst x✝) = true), reflects_decide := ⋯ }

theorem Japanese.Verb.licensed_iff {w : List ((σ : Slot) × Exponent σ)} : Licensed w ↔ (List.map Sigma.fst w).Sublist slots

A string of suffixes is licensed exactly when its slots are a sublist of slots.