One aspect of Japanese with which many foreign language speakers seem to struggle is that of verb-argument relations. What is an argument? An argument, in the context of Japanese, is any noun marked by 助詞 (particles) such as: は、が、で、を、に、とした, etc. Every language, within the context of an utterance, assigns its verbs in accordance to what linguists describe as “valence.” Simply put, valence is a fancy word that describes the number of arguments a verb requires to make sense in a sentence; valence is often described in terms of one, two, or three. A verb with a valence of one is any verb that is only able to take a single argument relation, it is known as an intransitive verb in English, and includes examples such as: fall (“I fall-”- “I fall him” does not make any sense), or sleep (“He sleeps”; a transitive verb is any verb that requires two arguments, generally some kind of subject and some kind of object: kick (“I kick a ball”); lastly, a ditransitive verb requires a subject, a direct object, and an indirect object; it has a valence of three, and includes verbs such as: give (“I gave you a book”–”I gave,” I gave you,” and “I gave a book” all require more information to make clear sense).
Transitive and Intransitive Verbs
While English does not lexically differentiate verbs of differing valence values, Japanese does, making a lexical difference between intransitive verbs (自動詞; ji-dou-shi) and transitive verbs (他動詞; ta-dou-shi).Transitives and ditransitives are treated as one in the same in Japanese. What this means is that a second language speaker of Japanese must learn which verb to use in accordance with the context of the sentence, actively using different forms of the same verb for different sentences: 私は強敵を倒した(I felled a strong opponent) vs 私が(強敵に)倒れた。(I was defeated [by a strong opponent])
Examples
Japanese intransitives include verbs that cannot be used to refer to a direct object that takes the particle, を; rather, these verbs can only refer to indirect or auxiliary objects that take the particle, に. These verbs always tend to act upon the subject of as sentence rather than the object.
変わる 天気が変わってきたな。
Change – The weather changed
抜ける ビンが抜けた。
Remove – The cap came off.
起きる 事故がたまに起きるものです。
Occur – Accidents sometimes happen.
壊れる 今朝テレビが壊れちゃってさ。
Break Well - the TV broke this morning…
零れる ビールが零れた。
Spill – The beer got spilled.
By contrast, Japanese transitives always act upon an object marked by the particle, を.
It is important to note that no arguments need be explicitly stated in Japanese, being that Japanese tends to be a language that likes to drop its arguments in everyday speech; however, regardless as to whether or not a particular sentence happens to omit its arguments, semantically the value of a transitive sentence is the same. i.e. 「忘れて残してしまった。」 and 「私はノートを忘れて残してしまった。」have the exact same meaning in the context that one is running toward class and realizes one forgot one’s notebook at home.
Some transitives:
変える 気分を変えて、このパーティを楽しんでみた。
Change – I changed my mood and tried to enjoy the party.
抜く 私はビンを抜いて飲んだ。
Remove – I removed the cap and drank it.
起こす 事故を起こせないようにきを付けてください。
Cause – So as not to cause an accident, please be careful.
壊す 友達の車を壊してしまった。
Break – I broke my friend’s car.
零す ビールの零したや不や皆を秘密にすると約束させた。
Spill – I spilled my beer and immediately forced everybody to promise to keep it a secret.
Keeping track of verbs with differing valence values can sometimes be difficult for learners of Japanese; however, with a little practice, it doesn’t have to be impossible.
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