Popularity of sentence patterns books in Japanese


Why are sentence patterns is a such popular topic in Japanese learning?
Comparing with other languages, I found that there are way more books on
sentence patterns in Japanese language than in, say, Chinese or Korean.

Is there anything particular of the language that makes compiling sentence
patterns useful?




I think it’s a translation for 文型, a term often used in the Japanese education
as a second/foreign language (as well as in the English education in Japan).

> ぶんけい【文型】
>
> 語や語群が文中でどのように配置されているかを，文の構造や語句の機能の上から形式化して分類した文の型。

For example, learners are taught the following as two different 文型.

> ＿＿＿に ＿＿＿が あります。

> ＿＿＿は ＿＿＿に あります。

The difference could be very difficult to teach without introducing these
“sentence patterns.” You would have to explain how が and は are different, how
word order changes the focus of the sentence, etc., but that would put off
most beginners.

The learners are advised to memorize these patterns as they are without
worrying too much about individual pieces. That’s despite the fact that the
following “patterns” are also possible.

> ＿＿＿が ＿＿＿に あります。

> ＿＿＿に ＿＿＿は あります。

The apparent popularity of publications on “sentence patterns” may be a
reflection of this tendency, or tradition, in the Japanese education as a
second/foreign language.

文型 in English (as taught in Japan) are much more limited. They mostly
correspond to such basic patterns as SV, SVC, SVO, SVOO, and SVOC.

