Great lesson I found that helped me understand the omission of subjects in conversational Japanese… - Feed Post by takitogr

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  DS25

  Those are very useful advices, expecially on the use of てくれる, which is seen fairly often.
  
  I think there should be a section on end of sentence particles, expecially on the use of よ、ね、んです and so on, and more on gender-specialized patterns which comes very handy.

  February 9, 2015 at 11:57pm
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  mog86uk

  Is good but I'm also surprised at some of the things which were left out. Like how honorifics such as お- and ご- might help identify whether the subject is the speaker or someone else.
  
  Simple example:
  　元気 (げんき) when talking about how you're doing.
  　お元気 when you're talking about how someone else is doing.
  
  And other things to do with politeness and formality which give away whether the subject is yourself or someone else.

  February 10, 2015 at 12:42am
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  takitogr

  so when ご is used as a prefix do you refer to someone else? I would have thought so since it indicates politeness

  February 10, 2015 at 12:56am
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  DS25

  It indicates politeness because you don't use it for your stuff. I would never talk about my 御車 or about my お息子さん... Omusuko-san is always someone else's son ^^

  February 10, 2015 at 12:59am
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  takitogr

  Yeah, I just remembered. ご両親　that means "your parents"

  February 10, 2015 at 1:17am
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  mog86uk

  I'm actually finding it difficult to think about this. That page talks about subject omission, but does it mean what we in English think of by "subject" or what is usually referred to as "subject" in Japanese grammar?
  
  Like there's this example on that page:
  
  お腹がすいた
  
  お腹 (stomach) itself is the が marked grammatical subject of the intransitive verb 空く (すく) in that sentence, it's just that the TOPIC has been omitted.
  
  And then お腹 can easily be referring to your own stomach. I didn't mean the honorific thing isn't a hard rule, just that there are expressions which I think never refer to yourself if you use honorifics (like おげんき).

  February 10, 2015 at 1:22am
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  mog86uk

  * I didn't mean the honorific thing IS a hard rule, ...

  February 10, 2015 at 1:24am
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  DS25

  In that case japanese uses an indirect mode to infer that you are hungry. But let's say, for instance "yesterday i went and saw the new Al Pacino movie" 私は昨日新たなアルパシノの映画を見に行ったよ。
  
  In this case you could (and should) omit the subject in colloquial speech, unless omitting it causes issues in phrase comprehension. 昨日新たなアルパシノの映画を見に行ったよ。
  
  I'll make my case in my mother language, italian, using the same sentence
  Yesterday I went and saw the new Al Pacino movie
  Io ieri sono andata a vedere il nuovo film di Al Pacino.
  
  Italians would never say "Io" (which means "I") at the start of the sentence because it adds nothing to it, only making it longer.

  February 10, 2015 at 1:35am