Since writing A Guide to は and が, I’ve come to realize that some usages of が are difficult to explain with the typology given by Noda (野田 1996). Technically, his sentence typology covers most of the sentences I will explain in this article, but they function distinctly from typical sentences you will see in Noda’s categories, so I believe they deserve their own descriptions. Also, I am writing this because I’ve never seen any of these sentence forms described in English-language Japanese-learning resources (except for a mention of breakdown sentences in Kuno’s The Structure of the Japanese Language). All information and examples that follow come from 今田 (2010).
“Noun sentences” are sentences with a noun as its predicate. We will look at four sentence forms, all of which are topicless noun sentences, and all of which contain が.
I call these “atypical” noun sentences, but that doesn’t mean that they are exceedingly rare. I notice these sentences used in both speech and writing quite often, but the “typical” sentences described in the main guide still make up the vast majority of sentences.
Neutral-Description Noun Sentences (中立叙述型名詞述語文)
The “neutral-description sentences” make up the vast majority of typical topicless sentences as described by Noda. The term “neutral-description” is just the formal name for sentences that use descriptive が, which I introduced in the main guide. Thus, all sentences given as examples of topicless sentences in the main guide are neutral-description sentences. In this section, I will specifically be focusing on neutral-description noun sentences, as these are much rarer than their adjective or verb counterparts.
When we use が in a noun sentence with no further context, the interpretation of the sentence which uses exclusive が is usually the one the speaker means.
1. 私が田中です。(Exclusive が)
I am Tanaka.
2. (？) 私が田中です。(Descriptive が)
(？) Look, I’m Tanaka!
Consider example (1), a noun sentence using exclusive が. We can imagine that this is a sentence spoken by Tanaka in response to someone asking “Who in this group is Tanaka?” Tanaka is specifying that he is Tanaka, so this is the natural interpretation.
But if we were to interpret the same sentence using descriptive が, as in example (2), it comes across as awkward. In The Principle of Topic Presence, I explained the conditions under which a sentence is likely to be expressed as a topicless sentence (i.e. use descriptive が). One of those conditions was that “a temporary state directly observable to the speaker, expressed at that moment,” was being conveyed. Descriptive が imparts a nuance that the sentence is describing an event or something the speaker is percieving. Thus, this interpretation is unnatural unless we imagine a fantastical situation where the speaker has magically assumed Tanaka’s body and is pointing it out (or something similar).
Nevertheless, neutral-description noun sentences are grammatical and will sound natural if the context allows for it. The following examples (3) to (10) all use descriptive が.
3. あっ、家がドーム型だ！
Woah, the house is dome-shaped!
4. あっ、イチローが四番打者だ！
Hey look, Ichiro’s batting fourth!
5. 信号が赤だ。
The traffic light’s red.
Examples (3) through (5) are neutral-description noun sentences in which something directly perceptible to the speaker is described. But as outlined in the introductory section on Topicless Sentences in the main guide, there are other categories of topicless sentences which don’t describe perceptible events/states. (6) through (10) are examples of such sentences.
6. 日本チームの負けは濃厚だ。主力選手がベンチウォーマーだ。
The Japanese team is on the verge of defeat. Their best guy’s on the bench.
7. 上司があいつですよ。やる気が出ませんよ、まったく。
My boss is that guy. I can’t stand it.
8. 彼女を信頼して全てをまかせたのだが、これがとんだペテン師だった。
I put my trust in her and left it all in her hands, but she turned out to be a crook.
9. 友人を家に泊めた。ところがその男が大酒のみだ。飲み始めたら止まらない。
I let my friend stay at my house. But it turns out, he was a drunkard. Once he started drinking, he wouldn’t stop.
10. と、その時、ぼくの右手の下の布地が動く、ハッとした。ひょっとすると、席の布地だとばかり思っていたところが、彼女の。まさか。やっぱりそうだった。彼女のスカートだった。
At that moment, the fabric under my right hand shifted, and I gasped. I thought I had my hand on the fabric of the seat… it couldn’t be. But it was… my hand was on her skirt.
Examples (6) and (7) are neutral-description noun sentences which don’t describe directly perceptible states, but temporary states occurring in the present.
Examples (8) through (10) are neutral-description noun sentences which function like a description of a temporary state or event as experienced by the speaker. These examples are of recounted stories (events that happened in the past), so they demonstrate that descriptive が isn’t only used in statements narrated in the moment.
Enumeration and Breakdown (項目の列挙・内訳)
が may be used to list items or to present a breakdown of data in a noun sentence. These sentences are a subcategory of the neutral-description noun sentences, so there is no nuance of exclusion in these sentences.
Examples of Sentences With Enumeration
11. 利益面でも「減益は避けられない」が二十四社、「増収、生産性向上などで増益が可能」が二十二社できっこう。
As opposed to the 24 companies that say that “a decrease in profits is unavoidable,” 22 companies say that “increasing profits is possible through improving yield and productivity.”
12. チンパンジーが先でヒトがあとである。
Chimpanzees came first, and humans came afterward.
13. 上の子が二歳三ヵ月、下の子が六ヶ月。
My older kid is 2 years and 3 months old, and my younger kid is 6 months old.
14. 正面のドアを入るとすぐ右手がリビングルーム、隣が寝室、次がダイニングルーム。
When you enter from the front door, the living room is to your right, the one after that is the bedroom, and then you have the dining room.
15. 山田君が受付、田中さんが司会、佐藤君が会計だ。
Yamada is doing reception, Tanaka will be the presenter, and Satou will do the accounting.
Examples of Sentences With a Breakdown
16. 二十件のうち十六件が六十五歳以上のお年寄りだった。
Of the 20 instances, 16 of them involved people over 65 years of age.
17. 米国の貿易赤字は約千五百億ドルに達し、そのうち、約半分が対日貿易によるものだ。
The US trade deficit is over $150 billion, of which about half is with Japan.
18. 私のクラスでは、五人が男で、六人が女です。
In my class, there are five boys and six girls.
19. 大部分の学生が独身です。
Most students are single.
20. ほとんどの学生が金持ちの息子です。
Almost all of the students are sons of affluent families.
21. 老人の多くが病身です。
Many old people have fragile health.
22. 日本人の三人に一人が近眼だ。
One out of three Japanese are near-sighted.
Identificational Sentences (同定文)
Identificational sentences are noun sentences that use が to assign characteristics or meanings to their predicate. They are distinct from both neutral-description sentences and specificational sentences. They may resemble specificational sentences, but there is no nuance of exclusion within them. Here are some examples:
23. 苦労してやっと手に入れたのがこれだ。
This is what I have finally gotten my hands on after much hard work.
24. 何でも反対するのが山田さんだ。
Yamada is a guy who’s quick to object to everything.
25. 結婚し多少お金もたまると欲しくなるのが、家だ。
A house is what everyone wants after they’ve gotten married and saved money.
26. この問題を分かりやすく解説したのが、本書である。
This book is what provides a clear explanation of this problem.
If you have read through How to Tell When Inversion is Possible, these sentences may be confusing to you. In that section, I introduced the rule that sentences with a referential topic can’t be inverted and should not be expressed as specificational sentences. But the examples above look like sentences with a referential topic which have been inverted.
Indeed, the “uninverted” forms of (23) through (26) are indistinguishable from basic topic sentences that can’t be inverted if you only look at the meaning of their subject and predicate. But because they serve a different overall function from typical sentences with a referential topic, it is perfectly acceptable to express them in this way, with が. The functions of identificational sentences are described with (27) through (29). The prototypical identificational sentence in each example is (i), and its uninverted form is (ii).
27. Pointing out uniqueness:
- 県下唯一の高校野球優勝校がこの高校だ。
- この高校は県下唯一の高校野球優勝校だ。
This high school is the only one in the prefecture to have won a baseball championship.
- 世界一の金持ちが彼だ。
- 彼は世界一の金持ちだ。
He is the richest man in the world.
28. Characterization:
- 転んでもただでは起きないのが太郎だ。
- 太郎は転んでもただでは起きない。
Taro's the kind of guy to get right back up when he stumbles.
- いざというとき力を発揮するのが女だ。
- 女はいざというとき力を発揮する。
Women show their strengths when the time comes.
29. Assigning a definition:
- 三辺の長さが等しい三角形が正三角形だ。
- 正三角形は三辺の長さが等しい三角形だ。
An equilateral triangle is a triangle whose three sides are of equal length.
- 茶釜を作る職業の人が釜師だ。
- 釜師は茶釜を作る職業の人だ。
A kettle caster is a person whose job is to make tea kettles.
In all the above examples, you will realize that we are assigning a special kind of meaning to the predicate. Instead of mentioning some aspect of the topic or placing the topic into a category like basic topic sentences, identificational sentences connect the predicate to an idea within a broader context, thus identifying it with other ideas related to that broader context.
For example, consider the identificational sentences (30) and (31).
30. ニュートンは[物体から微粒子が飛んでくるのが光だ]と考えたが、ハイゲンスが出て来て波動説を称えこれが承認されるに幾多の年月がかかった。
Newton believed that light was particles emitted from a source, but Huygens voiced his support for wave theory, and it took many years for Newton’s idea to garner recognition.
In (30), “光” (light) is being tied to “物体から微粒子が飛んでくるの” (particles emitted from a source). The listener/reader of this sentence probably already has an idea of what light is in their own mind. The sentence adds onto that idea of light and characterizes it by connecting light to another idea in a scientific context.
31. 次に卓上に現われたのが、献立表に単に ｢熊肉｣ と書いてある料理だ1。 これについても、張伊三が解説を加えるのである。これは、 熊の腿の肉であった。[まず、肉を高熱で充分煮込み、さらに五香の粉に漬け込んで一昼夜を経、それを本胡麻の油でいためて、塩と醤油で味をつけ、野菜を添えて供したのが、これであります、]と言うのだ。
The next dish to appear at our table was something simply labeled “bear meat” on the menu. Chou Izou also explained this dish to us. It was meat from the thigh of a bear. He told us that the dish in front of us was meat, first thoroughly stewed at high heat, then soaked in five-spice powder for a full day, fried in sesame oil, seasoned with salt and soy sauce, and served with vegetables.
In (31), the narrator, who was listening to “Chou Izou”, did not know what the dish “bear meat” entailed. An identificational sentence is used to recount Chou Izou’s explanation of the dish, where “これ” (referring to the dish) is the predicate. “これ” is defined with a long explanation that serves as the subject of the sentence (“まず、肉を高熱で充分煮込み、さらに…”). This subject exists among other ideas within the context of cooking, like other dishes, techniques for preparing food, common objects found in a kitchen, etc. The sentence makes a connection between the dish “bear meat” and its method of preparation, as well as the contexts that method of preparation resides in and its related ideas.
Subjects in Identificational Sentences
You may have noticed that the types of subjects that identificational sentences take are quite limited. In general, there are only three types of subjects in identificational sentences:
- 〜の Clauses (何でも反対するのが山田さんだ。)
- Noun-modifying Clauses (何でも反対する人が山田さんだ。)
- Clauses Expressing Roles (反対派のリーダーが山田さんだ。)
Presentational Sentences (提示文)
Eminent researchers in Japanese linguistics disagree on how to characterize presentational sentences in sentence typology. We will take the view that presentational sentences are a subcategory of identificational sentences.
32. 丈夫な品種がたくさんある。特におすすめなのがこれだ。
There are many hardy varieties available. This is one I particularly recommend.
Example (32) shows a presentational sentence, where “得におすすめなの” (one I particularly recommend) is the subject and “これ” (this) is the predicate. The reason why presentational sentences are often brought up in their own category is because of their information structure. Namely, the predicate is new information, and the subject is old information.2 That is, the predicate of presentational sentences are newly introduced to the listener or brought to the listener’s attention. This goes against a rule-of-thumb for Japanese commonly repeated to learners, that “は marks old information, and が marks new information.” It also differs from regular identificational sentences, where the subject is new information and the predicate is old information.
Apart from this difference, presentational sentences mostly function in the same way as identificational sentences. They are used for the same reasons brought up in (28) through (30).
33. フェラーリは第二次世界大戦が終わってレースが再開された時から、クルマを製作し、チームを作ってレースに参加している。その後、現在に至るまで1年として休んだことはない。そのフェラーリがクルマを作るようになる以前、すなわち1920年代や30年代に、ちょうどこの現代のフェラーリの役割を果たしていたのが、アルファ・ロメオだった。
Ferrari has been building cars, forming teams, and participating in races since racing resumed after the end of World War II. This practice of theirs has continued every year, all the way up to current day. But in the 1920s and 1930s, before Ferrari was a carmaker, it was Alfa Romeo that played the role of the modern Ferrari.
34. トイレの装置として急速に普及しているのが「音姫」だ。男の人にはあまり知られていないようなので紹介すると、衛生陶器最大手のTOTOが発売している擬音装置で、ボタンを押したり、手をかざすとスピーカーから流水音が流れるもの。
The toilet appliance “Otohime” is now seeing more widespread use. It’s not well known among men, so to explain: The “Otohime” is a device produced by the toilet manufacturer Toto that plays a flushing sound when you place your hand near it or push a button.
35. 人々は賃金の目減りを副業、内職で補ってきたが、副収入を加えた実質所得も昨年秋のルーブル暴落を境に減少に転じた。これに追い打ちをかけたのが、今年初め以来の公共料金の大幅アップだ。公営住宅の家賃や鉄道運賃は二・四倍、ガス料金は五倍に跳ね上がった。
Many have been making up for the reduced wages by taking on second jobs, but their real income has also been declining since the ruble crashed last fall. Compounding this is the sharp increase in public utility fees since the beginning of this year. Rents for public housing and train fares are up 140%, and gas prices have risen five-fold.
Citations
今田, 水穂. (2010). 日本語名詞述語文の意味論的・機能論的分析. (Doctoral dissertation, 筑波大学).