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Isaac Penzev wrote:
> Well, I meant _kuru_ and _suru_. As for _iku_, it shows irregularity only in
> past stem forms: _itta_, _itte_, _ittara_ etc., right?
Right. It's not as irregular as kuru and suru, but it's still
irregular.
> I wonder if _da_ can be counted as a real verb.
I think of it as a verb. It has most of the same inflections as other
verbs.
> Haisoudesu. And those tricky verbs that end in -eru/-iru, but still belong to
> the I Conjugation (that is, -R- is a part of the stem), e.g. _hashiru_ 'to run'
> > _hashiranai_ 'not to run', not *hashinai*...
Yep. But, those I'd consider a regular class, even if it's tricky to
determine just which class they belong to.
> And so long as subject precedes object
Not always. Quoting from my Languages of Japan book:
While the basicness of the SOV order is beyond question (as indicated
by text frequency and native speakers' intuition), Japanese does allow
reordering of preverbal major constituents; i.e., it exhibits the
phenomenon often referred to as "scrambling". The important
consideration, however, is that the verb must not move from
sentence-final position. [snip discussion of gapping]
Scrambling thus allows six sentence variants for a ditransitive
sentence ... However, not all permitted variants show an equal degree
of naturalness. The difference between the natural variants and the
unnatural ones can be easily stated if scrambling is characterized as a
fronting operation. That is, when more than one constituent is fronted,
awkwardness results, as shown below:
a. Tarou ga Hanako ni sono hon o yatta
Taro nom Hanako dat that book acc gave
"Taro gave that book to Hanako"
b. Hanako ni Taroo ga sono hon o yatta (fronting of the indirect
object)
c. Sono hon o Taroo ga Hanako ni yatta (fronting of the direct object)
d. ?Hanako ni sono hon o Taroo ga yatta (fronting of both indirect and
direct object)
e. ?Sono hon o Hanako ni Taroo ga yatta (fronting of both indirect and
direct object)
f. Taroo ga sono hon o Hanako ni yatta (fronting of the direct object
to post-subject position)
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