Lesson 4. Grammar Item #7 (p. 81-82)

PROFESSOR YAMASHITA, too, went to Kyoto yesterday.

l Talking about Professor Yamashita, he went to Kyoto yesterday.

à

やましたせんせいは　きのう、きょうとに　いきました。

Yamashita-sensei-wa kinou kyouto-ni ik-imas-ita

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The /mo/ phrase describes another individual that has the property described with the rest of the clause other than the /mo/ phrase.

In addition, the /mo/ NOUN phrase grammatically functions only as either 1) the subject of the verb if there is no /ga/ phrase, 2) the object of the verb if there is no /o/ phrase, or 3) something else in the verb phrase, e.g., the “possessor” of the subject if there is no /no/ phrase modifying a /ga/ phrase.

1) やましたせんせいも きのう、きょうとに　いきました

yamashita-sensei-mo kinou kyouto-ni ikimashita

a) Mary bought a BAG, too.

b) MARY, too, bought a bag.

c) (I) just saw MARY, too.

d) MARY, too, just saw (it).

e) There is a BANK, too, over there.

I went to OSAKA, too.

· I went to Osaka.

à

わたしは おおさかに いきました。

watashi-wa Osaka-ni ikimashita

· Osaka is another place to which I went to.

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The phrase of any pragmatic particle, e.g., /wa/ ‘TOPIC’, /mo/ ‘too’, modifies a verb, and cannot modify any semantic particle, i.e., cannot occur between the noun and the semantic particle. In addition, the pragmatic particle associates with a noun crossing a semantic particle in within its phrase.

N.B. Any semantic particle, e.g., /ni/ ‘at/on/in’ [event-time], /ni/ ‘at/on/in’ [location], /ni/ ‘to’ [goal], /he/ ‘to’ [direction], /de/ ‘in/on/at’ [event-place], /to/ ‘with’, alone describes an aspect of the state of affairs in the world.

Any grammatical particle, i.e., /ga/ for subject, /o/ for object, alone describes NO aspect of the state of affairs in the world, and only indicates a grammatical function that the phrase bears in relation to the verb, i.e., subject or object.

Any pragmatic particle, e.g., /wa/ for topic, /mo/ ‘too’, alone describes NO aspect of the state of the affairs in the world, either, and only indicates one of the grammatical functions together with specifying context, e.g., the topic of the discourse in context being the /wa/ phrase in case of /wa/.

2) わたしは おおさかにも いきました。

watashi-wa OSAKA-ni-mo ikimashita

cf. *Osaka-mo-ni

f) Mary studied the history of Osaka at THIS LIBRARY, too.

g) Mary saw/met TAKESHI, too.

h) Mary did a shopping on MONDAY, too.

i) (I) understood the JAPANESE, too.

(Lit., The JAPANESE, too, was understandable (to me).)