Does "名詞{めいし}" mean "noun", "形容詞{けいようし}" mean "adjective", etc


I am unhappy with the translation of grammatical 専門用語{せんもんようご}. The technical
terms used to describe English and Japanese grammar should never overlap. I
see words such as 名詞{めいし}=noun、動詞{どうし}=verb、形容詞{けいようし}=adjective、 carelessly
interchanged.

English grammar that does not exist in the Japanese language:  
関係代名詞{かんけいだいめいし}、過去分詞{かこぶんし}、接続法{せつぞくほう}、etc.  
Those grammar structures (relative pronouns / past participles / subjunctive
mood) don't exist in Japanese. Therefore, those words can be strictly
translated.

Japanese grammar not in English: 使役形{しえきけい}、形容動詞{けいようどうし}、助詞{じょし} So, those
words can be strictly translated to English: "causitive form", "na-nominal",
"particle".

Now, both languages have parts of speech that are similar in idea such as
動詞{どうし}/verb、形容詞{けいようし}/adjective、and 受身形{うけみけい}/passive voice. _But, they are
not the same!_

動詞 = "verb"  
yeah. Well sort of. But "verbs" have participles and "動詞" do not。Based on that
alone, 動詞 should not translate to "verb".

形容詞 = "adjective"  
Sure. That is the idea, but 形容詞 are inflectible. Adding "-ly" to many
adjectives is sort of like an inflection that creates adverbs, but not always.
形容詞 is the general idea of an adjective, but it is not an "adjective".

So, aren't these better translations:  
"動詞" translates to, based on surrounding context, "Japanese verb" or "English
verb".  
"verb" translates to, based on surrounding context "日本動詞{にほんどうし} or
"英動詞{えいどうし}"

Basically, "動詞" is translated as "verb", but it is not a "verb". They are
very, very, similar. However, I can put a "verb" into 12 (or so) tenses. A
"動詞", only into 4 tenses. So, they are not the same. Linguistics is a science,
and all science needs strict protocols to follow. Does anyone understand what
I am rambling about?




Linguistics is indeed a science, however every science has its fundamentals
and standardized terms. To pull from chemistry, you don't hear scientists
saying that you can't call iron and uranium both metals due to the fact that
they have different properties (e.g. radioactivity). Where needed, you can
indeed specify "non-radioactive metal" vs. "radioactive metal", but having
slightly different properties does not change their categorization if the
qualities that define the category are still there.

So it is with linguistic terminology. As used in English, we classify words in
the following manner:

  * **Verbs:** action words
  * **Nouns:** people, places, things, or concepts
  * **Adjectives:** words that describe nouns
  * **Adverbs:** words that describe how an action is performed
  * **Pronouns:** words that take the place of nouns

As it turns out, this classification system works to classify a lot of words
in Japanese as well. 動詞, as the characters themselves state, are action words.
名詞 are nouns. 形容詞 describe nouns and 代名詞 take their place.

Granted, there are cases where Japanese words can overlap across these
boundaries (e.g. 形容動詞), but in those cases we coin new terms to explain the
nuances and make them fit into the existing framework (e.g. "adjectival
verbs", in this case)—we don't just throw the whole framework out and say that
the two can't be compared.




Linguistics is indeed a science, however every science has its fundamentals
and standardized terms. To pull from chemistry, you don't hear scientists
saying that you can't call iron and uranium both metals due to the fact that
they have different properties (e.g. radioactivity). Where needed, you can
indeed specify "non-radioactive metal" vs. "radioactive metal", but having
slightly different properties does not change their categorization if the
qualities that define the category are still there.

So it is with linguistic terminology. As used in English, we classify words in
the following manner:

  * **Verbs:** action words
  * **Nouns:** people, places, things, or concepts
  * **Adjectives:** words that describe nouns
  * **Adverbs:** words that describe how an action is performed
  * **Pronouns:** words that take the place of nouns

As it turns out, this classification system works to classify a lot of words
in Japanese as well. 動詞, as the characters themselves state, are action words.
名詞 are nouns. 形容詞 describe nouns and 代名詞 take their place.

Granted, there are cases where Japanese words can overlap across these
boundaries (e.g. 形容動詞), but in those cases we coin new terms to explain the
nuances and make them fit into the existing framework (e.g. "adjectival
verbs", in this case)—we don't just throw the whole framework out and say that
the two can't be compared.

