Re: Gerund

Dan Rempel wrote:
[...]
I've got to think more about -te and -ba as joshi...

I wonder if it's worth thought. "-ba" is a joshi because that
categorization appealed to certain grammarians. Its appeal probably lay
in the fact that it shows up as something with only the one form, "ba,"
on the end of two already otherwise established "inflectional/inflected
(choose one) forms," the mizenkei and the izenkei (now kateikei), and
also after another particle, "wo."

In colloquial Japanese, it doesn't really exist. Nobody says things
like "matedo [izenkei + "do"], basuwa nakanaka konai," so
"izenkei/kateikei + ba" is in effect over-analyzing. "Mateba" could
just as well be considered a single "inflection," synonymous with
"machaa," which never gets analyzed into "macha + a."

Much the same could be said about "te," although it is far more versatile.

Bart
.

Relevant Pages

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