Long & complicated verb forms? ( Vstem-causitive-passive-aspect-desiderative-NEG-tense ) 行かせられ続け得たくなかった　(?)


Many of the Jp-related posts in the [Lingustics] SE are very advanced.

For example ----

> <https://linguistics.stackexchange.com/questions/2319/what-is-the-maximum-
> number-of-forms-a-modern-japanese-verb-can-take>
>
> (1) Vstem-causitive-passive-aspect-desiderative-NEG-tense
>
> All the possibilities are not, of course, exploited in each expression, but
> the following illustrates some of the lengthy but commonly observed forms:
>
> • 行かせられない 'go'-CAUS-POTEN-NEG-PRES
>
> • 行かせられたくない 'go'-CAUS-PASS-DESI-NEG-PRES
>
> • 歩かせ続けたい 'walk'-CAUS-CONT-DESI-PRES

What are some very long & complicated verb forms?

行かせられない

行かせられ得ない

行かせられ続けたくない

行かせられ続け得たくない (?)

行かせられ続け得たくなかった (?)

( 得難かった )

Are there well-known examples?




Japanese is an agglutinative, head-final language.

English is more analytical language.

This means that some meanings that are expressed in English using modal verbs
and subordinate clauses can be expressed with agglutinative conjugation in
Japanese.

Since it's head-final, the conjugational morphemes are appended after one
another (while in head-initial language they would be prepended) - this could
explain why the order in which the markers are applied looks reversed in
Japanese and in English:

"Did (PAST) not (NEG) want (DESI) to be (PASS) made to (CAUS) eat (root)"

食べさせられたく なかった tabe (root) -sase (CAUS) -rare (PASS) -taku (DESI) nakatta (NEG-
PAST)

This form can be seen as analytical, made of two separate words:

  * 食べさせられたく - being an adverbial phrase
  * なかった - meaning "it was not that ~" and taking the adverbial phrase before it as an argument.

Which brings us to analytical forms in Japanese: The forms with 続く, 続ける, 得る,
いる, ある, おく etc. can all be seen as analytical modal forms, which take
nominal/adjectival form as an argument.

It depends on the specific verb what form it will be:

  * nominal/adverbial form 1 (連用形): ~続く, ~続ける, ~得る
  * nominal/adverbial form 2 (so-called て-form): ~いる, ~ある, ~おく

These are distinct from the agglutinative conjugation forms since they are
based of full-fledged verbs, whose grammaticalised meanings stem from their
regular lexical meanings:

  * 続く - "<something> continues", 続ける - "to continue <something>"
  * 得る - "<something> is obtainable"
  * ある - "to be" - as in "車が門の前に止めてある" - "the car _has been_ parked at the front of the gate" (focus on the past _action_ ) (this form is less commonly used)
  * いる - "to be" - as in "車が門の前に止まっている" - "the car _is_ parked at the front of the gate" (focus on the current _state_ - a _result_ of a past action)
  * おく - "to put" -> "to do <something> in advance"

They form sentences with subordinate clauses, and the main verb in each of
those clauses may undergoes the agglutinative conjugation process.

Also, the meanings of the conjugational morphemes tends to be broader than the
meaning of modal verbs. Causative can mean:

  * "to make (order, force) <someone> do <something>"
  * "to allow (agree for) <someone> do <something>"
  * "to allow (make it possible to) for <someone> do <something>"

Last, but not least - in conjugation like this, we are limited with respect to
combinations we can form - the following examples are wrong:

  * X 食べられさせた ("made it that <something> has been eaten")
  * X 食べさせさせた ("made <someone> make <someone else> to eat")

To express those meanings, we would need analytical forms, probably with some
nominalisations and させる used as full-fledged verb (causative form of する), not
as a morpheme.

