Characteristics of the Japanese language in AX Semantics
Fundamentals
Generally, Japanese has neither gender nor number for nouns. However, the AX NLG platform supports two numbers (singular and plural) for the usage of personal pronouns. Additionally, Japanese has around thirteen cases for nouns. They are expressed as particles and placed after the noun.
| grammatical name | values | examples |
|---|---|---|
| number (personal pronoun) | singular | 彼 [kare] (he) |
| plural | 彼等 [karera] (they) | |
| cases (noun) | nominative | 家 [le] (sky) |
| nominative subject | 家が古くなる。 [Iega furukunaru] (The house-家が becomes old-古くなる.) | |
| nominative topic | 家は古いです。 [Iewa furuidesu] (The house-家は is old-古いです.) | |
| genitive | 家の色 [Ieno iro] (color-色 of house-家の) | |
| dative | 家に来て [Ieni kite] (come-来て to the house-家に) | |
| accusative | 家を塗る [leo nuru] (paint-塗る the house-家を) | |
| lative | 家へ帰ろう [lee kaerou] (Let's go-帰ろう home-家へ.) | |
| ablative | 家から [lekara] (from the house) | |
| instrumental | 家でできる [Iede dekiru] (can be done-できる at home- 家で) | |
| comitative | 家と [Ieto] (with the house) | |
| comparative (yori) | 家より美しい [Ieyori utsukushī] (more beautiful-美しい than the house-家より) | |
| until (made) | 家まで歩いて [Iemade aruite] (walk-歩いて to the house-家まで) | |
| incomplete list (ya) | 家や不動産 [Ieya fudosan] house and real estate | |
| adjectives (noun) | before noun | かわいい犬 [kawaii inu] (かわいい-cute/犬-dog) |
| verb tenses | imperfective | テレビを見る [Terebi o miru] (watch TV) |
| imperfective polite | テレビを見ます [Terebi o mimasu] (watch TV) | |
| imperative polite | テレビを見てください [Terebi o mimasu] (please watch TV) | |
| gerundive (conjunctive) | テレビを見て [Terebi o mite] (is watching TV) | |
| perfective | テレビを見た [Terebi o mita] (watched TV) | |
| perfective polite | テレビを見ました [Terebi o mimashita] (watched TV) | |
| imperfective negative | テレビを見ない [Terebi o minai] (do not watch TV) | |
| imperfective negative polite | テレビを見ません [Terebi o mimasen] (do not watch TV) | |
| passive | テレビは見られる [Terebi wa mirareru] (TV can be watched) | |
| passive polite | テレビは見られます [Terebi wa miraremasu] (TV can be watched) |
The standard order of a noun phrase in Japanese is the following:
determiner + numeral + adjective + noun + preposition
See for example:
この 3冊の 人気 書籍 について
[kono sansatsu ninki shoseki nitsuitsatsu]
these three popular book about
DET NUM ADJ NOUN PREP
"about these three popular books"
Lexicon
Nouns
Japanese nouns are marked by case particles, which are placed after the nouns.
Examples
The basic lexicon entry for 犬[inu] (dog) contains:
- inflection table for case and number:
| Singular | Plural | |
|---|---|---|
| Nominative | 犬 | 犬 |
| Nominative Subject | 犬が | 犬が |
| Nominative Topic | 犬は | 犬は |
| Genitive | 犬の | 犬の |
| Dative | 犬に | 犬に |
| Accusative | 犬を | 犬を |
| Lative | 犬へ | 犬へ |
| Ablative | 犬から | 犬から |
| Instrumental | 犬で | 犬で |
| Comitative | 犬と | 犬と |
| Comparative (Yori) | 犬より | 犬より |
| Until (Made) | 犬まで | 犬まで |
| Incomplete List (Ya) | 犬や | 犬や |
Adjectives
Lexicon entries for adjectives are unnecessary because Japanese adjectives are not inflected with gender and number.
When you put a sequence of adjective lemmas into a container, all (except the last adjective and onomatopoeic adjectives) will automatically inflected to the conjunctive form.
Input for adjective and noun field in a container:
adjective lemmas -> 黒い, ふわふわ, 古い
[kuroi, fuwafuwa, furui]
(black, fluffy, old)
noun lemma -> カーペット
[kapetto]
(carpet)
And then you get conjunctive form properly like 黒い -> 黒くて. ふわふわ stays the same because it's a onomatopoeic word.
黒くて、ふわふわ、古いカーペット。
[kurokute, fuwafuwa, furui kapetto]
(black, fluffy, and old carpet)
As for adjective position, the default is "before noun".
Verbs
Japanese verbs inflect for tense. The most common verbs are encoded in our software. If a verb inflects incorrectly, you should add it to the lexicon. If you need more tenses, please contact support.
Container settings
Determiner
AX NLG platform supports demonstrative, distal, medial, and possessive determiners for Japanese.
Numerals
The noun will automatically agree with the numeral number when a numeral variable is used. Four types of numerals are possible on the AX NLG platform: cardinal, cardinal as digit, ordinal, and ordinal as digit.
| cardinal | ordinal | |
|---|---|---|
| text | 九日 [Koko noka] (nine -九 days-日) | 九日目 [koko noka me] (the ninth-九_目 day-日) |
| digit | 9日 [Koko noka] (9 days) | 9日目 [koko noka me] (the 9th day) |
Except for age, hour, date, month, and years, Japanese nouns sometimes need a classifier for cardinal numerals. Take “three cars” for example, you will need the classifier for machinery 台 (dai):
三台車
[san dai kuruma]
(three-三 classifier-台 cars-車)
For Japanese, cardinal and ordinal numerals are written out until 12 on the platform, otherwise (above 12) the output is in digit form. Below you can see an example with a cardinal numeral, which also includes a classifier:
十二匹猫
[juni bbiki neko]
(twelve-十二 classifier-匹 cats-猫)
vs.
13匹猫
[juzo bbiki neko]
(13 classifier-匹 cats-猫)
Writing System
The Japanese writing system uses a combination of 1) kanji, which are adopted Chinese characters 2) hiragana, which is used primarily for native Japanese words and 3) katakana, used primarily for foreign words and names. They are all supported by the AX NLG platform. Furthermore, there is no space in Japanese sentences except after non-Japanese punctuation or for foreign words.