Non-honorific negative verbs are morphologically adjectives.
The plain (i.e. non-honorific) negative form of verbs patterns morphologically with adjectives rather than with positive verbs. The forms are compared below:
|
verb 'eat'
|
adjective 'red' | ||||||
| positive | negative | ||||||
| nonpast | tabe-ru | tabe-na-i | aka-i | ||||
| gerund | tabe-te | tebe-na-kute, tabe-na-ide |
aka-kute | ||||
| past | tabe-ta | tabe-na-katta | aka-katta | ||||
| conditional I | tabe-tara | tabe-na-kattara | aka-kattara | ||||
| conditional II | tabe-reba | tabe-na-kereba | aka-kereba | ||||
| hortative | tabe-yoo | ||||||
| imperative | tabe-ro | ||||||
Negative verbs and adjectives share the same distinct endings, as well as the same gaps in the paradigm: while positive verbs have a hortative and imperative, negative verbs and adjectives lack these forms. In the case of negative verbs, these values may be constructed periphrastically: (i) a negative imperative may be formed with the present tense form plus the particle na 'don't', e.g. taberu na 'don't eat' (Martin 1975: 966), and (ii) there are several different possible paraphrases of the hortative (Martin 1975: 611).
Note that the morphological correspondence is not absolute. The accentual pattern of negative verbs is distinct from that of adjectives (Backhouse 2004: 52), and negative verbs have a gerund in -naide (called the naide-conjuctive by Backhouse 2004: 53), found neither in positive verbs nor in adjectives.
Syntactically, negative verbs pattern with their positive counterparts in some respects. Thus, valence patterns are maintained under negation, with transitives taking an accusative object:
|
positive
|
negative
|
|||||||||
| A | ga | B | o | yob-u | A | ga | B | o | yobu-na-i | |
| A | NOM | B | ACC | call-NPST | A | NOM | B | ACC | call-NEG-NPST | |
| 'A calls B.' | 'A doesn't call B.'. | |||||||||
With adjectives, accusative objects are found only rarely, alongside nominative objects (Backhouse 2004: 53). Another thing that positive and negative verbs share is their participation in constructions with yooni 'so that, lest', which is not used with adjectives (Backhouse 2004: 56).
On the other hand there are a few constructions peculiar to adjectives and negative verbs, as opposed to positive verbs. For example, either can be a complement of naru 'become', while positive verbs must first be made into adjectives:
|
adjective
|
negative verb
|
|||||
| hi | ga | naga-ku | nar-u | deki-na-ku | nar-u | |
| day | NOM | long-CONJ | become-NPST | can.do-NEG-CONJ | become-NPST | |
| 'The days grow longer [as the summer comes.]' | 'become unable to do (it)'. | |||||
|
positive verb
|
|||
| deki-ru | yoo | ni | nar-u |
| can.do-NPST | ADJLZR | be:CONJ | become-NPST |
| 'become able to do (it)' | |||
| Backhouse 2004: 54-55 | |||
Backhouse, Anthony E. 2004. Inflected and uninflected adjectives in Japanese. In: R. M. W. Dixon and Alexandra Y. Aikhenvald (eds) Adjective classes: a cross-linguistic typology. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 50-73.
Martin, Samuel. 1975. A reference grammar of Japanese. New Haven: Yale University Press.
Spencer, Andrew. Ms. Paradigm-based lexicalism: negation in Japanese. Available at: http://privatewww.essex.ac.uk/~spena/publications.htm.