Relative clauses

7.6. Relative clauses

7.6.1. Relative clauses and verbs

The way to make relative clauses in Japanese is quite easy.

Hiragana:
Phonemes:	ga	ka	ga	(space)	e'	o	(space)	ka'	i	ta
Structure:	noun (artist)		nominative marker		noun (picture)	accusative marker		verb (drew)

This sentence means "An artist drew a picture." Now let's create the phrase "the artist who drew the picture" in Japanese. You don't have to care about articles (a / the) here. As you have already learned, Japanese has a head-last rule, so it is clear that the word

/gaka/ comes last. The relative clause is produced by just removing it and its postposition from the sentence and putting the remainder before it.

The result is:

Hiragana:
Phonemes:	e'	o	(space)	ka'	i	ta	(space)	ga	ka
Structure:	noun (picture)	accusative marker		verb (drew)				noun (artist)

It means "the artist who drew the picture." Since verbs appear at the end of sentences, a verb appearing in the middle of a sentence is always in a relative clause.

There are two important rules for relative clauses. First, you cannot use the topic marker

/wa/ in relative clauses, because topics and focuses are defined in a sentence, not a clause. Do not use the topic marker in a relative clause even when there is a topic word in it. Second, you cannot use the polite mode in relative clauses, because the polite mode affects only verbs at the end of sentences. For example, the politeness suffix

/ma'su/ appears only at the end of sentences.

The following sentence means "the picture which the artist drew":

Hiragana:
Phonemes:	ga	ka	ga	(space)	ka'	i	ta	(space)	e'
Structure:	noun (artist)		nominative marker		verb (drew)				noun (picture)

As you see, all you have to do is just remove

/e'/ and its accompanying accusative marker and put the remainder before it.

The following sentence means "Cherry blossoms bloomed.":

Hiragana:
Phonemes:	sa	ku	ra	ga	(space)	sa	i	ta
Structure:	noun (cherry blossoms)			nominative marker		verb (bloomed)

From this sentence, you can easily make "the cherry blossoms which bloomed" like this:

Hiragana:
Phonemes:	sa	i	ta	(space)	sa	ku	ra
Structure:	verb (bloomed)				noun (cherry blossoms)

You can also create a relative clause without removing a word. Here is the Japanese phrase for "the fact that the cherry blossoms bloomed":

Hiragana:
Phonemes:	sa	ku	ra	ga	(space)	sa	i	ta	(space)	ko	to'
Structure:	noun (cherry blossoms)			nominative marker		verb (bloomed)				noun (fact)

And here is the phrase for "the time when the cherry blossoms bloomed":

Hiragana:
Phonemes:	sa	ku	ra	ga	(space)	sa	i	ta	(space)	to	ki'
Structure:	noun (cherry blossoms)			nominative marker		verb (bloomed)				noun (time)

7.6.2. Relative clauses and adjectives

This sentence means "Kimonos are beautiful.":

Hiragana:
Phonemes:	ki	mo	no	wa	(space)	u	tu	ku	si'	i
Structure:	noun (kimono)			topic marker		adjective (beautiful)

Since Japanese adjective are similar to verbs, the way of making relative clauses for the sentence is the same as that for sentences with verbs.

The following sentence means "a kimono which is beautiful":

Hiragana:
Phonemes:	u	tu	ku	si'	i	(space)	ki	mo	no
Structure:	adjective (beautiful)						noun (kimono)

As you see, the word order of it is the same as that of the English phrase "a beautiful kimono". In fact, there is no difference in Japanese between relative clauses and nouns with adjectives. In English, the grammatical structures of "a beautiful kimono" and "a kimono which is beautiful" are quite different, even though they have the same meaning.

You can easily create the phrase "a kimono which was beautiful" by using the past form of the adjective like this:

Hiragana:
Phonemes:	u	tu	ku	si'	ka	Q	ta	(space)	ki	mo	no
Structure:	adjective (was beautiful)								noun (kimono)

7.6.3. Relative clauses and copulas

Moving a predicate which is the combination of a noun and a copula to create a relative clause is not as easy as verbs and adjectives. First, you have to distinguish two kinds of nouns: ordinary nouns and qualitative nouns. The latter is also called na-adjectives. As their name implies, qualitative nouns work like adjectives rather than nouns.

Here is an example of a qualitative noun:

Hiragana:

Phonemes:

ki'

Meaning:

beautiful (qualitative noun)

This noun is not an ordinary noun but a qualitative noun, which works like an adjective, so its translation is not beauty but beautiful. A qualitative noun cannot be a subject or an object; it must be in a predicate, accompanied by a copula.

This is a sentence which means "Kimonos are beautiful", the same meaning as the example shown in the previous section:

Hiragana:
Phonemes:	ki	mo	no	wa	(space)	ki'	re	i	da
Structure:	noun (kimono)			topic marker		qualitative noun (beautiful)			copula (is)

Its grammatical structure is similar to examples in the copula chapter, but its meaning is similar to the example in the adjectives chapter.

When you create a relative clause from the sentence above, you need to change the copula

/da/ to its special form

/na/ like this:

Hiragana:
Phonemes:	ki'	re	i	na	(space)	ki	mo	no
Structure:	qualitative noun (beautiful)			copula (is)		noun (kimono)

This means "a kimono which is beautiful", or "a beautiful kimono". You need to change a copula only when it is

/da/, i.e. when it is a present form of the contracted copula.
Other forms of the copula will not chage, like this:

Hiragana:
Phonemes:	ki'	re	i	da	Q	ta	(space)	ki	mo	no
Structure:	qualitative noun (beautiful)			copula (was)				noun (kimono)

This means "a kimono which was beautiful".

Like copulas after qualitative nouns, you also need to change a present form copula accompanying an ordinary noun when you create a relative clause from them, but you need to change it not to

/na/ but to

/no/, which is the same as the genitive marker you have already learned.

For example, the following sentence means "Leaves are green":

Hiragana:
Phonemes:	ha	Q	pa	wa	(space)	mi'	do	ri	da
Structure:	noun (leaf)			topic marker		noun (green)			copula (is)

Since the word

/mi'dori/ is an ordinary noun, the relative clause "a leaf which is green" becomes like this:

Hiragana:
Phonemes:	mi'	do	ri	no	(space)	ha	Q	pa
Structure:	noun (green)			copula (is)		noun (leaf)

You may think the

/no/ is the genitive marker instead of a form of the copula

/da/.

Past form copulas remain unchanged for ordinary nouns like qualitative nouns. Only the present form contracted copula matters.

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