How does 形容詞+かる work in Classical Japanese?


I remember reading previously that かる could not be used attributively(1), but
that does raise the question: For what else could a 連体形 have been used in the
first place?  
Was it simply an alternate form of ～き in its zero-nominalisation?  
Was it placed where neither an adjectival 連体形 nor the 終止形 would fit, like in
～と and ～可し?  
Was it utilised as an emphasised 終止形, similarly to forms of the 連体形 in other
constructions?

(1) I have finally [found something of its
like](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/questions/14518/difference-
between-%ef%bd%9e%e3%81%96%e3%82%8b-and-%ef%bd%9e%e3%81%ac), was the answerer
simply wrong on this subject?




## Your main question

> How does 形容詞+かる work in Classical Japanese?

In basic terms, the conjugation charts in the Japanese Wikipedia article at
[https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/形容詞#古典日本語の形容詞の活用](https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%BD%A2%E5%AE%B9%E8%A9%9E#%E5%8F%A4%E5%85%B8%E6%97%A5%E6%9C%AC%E8%AA%9E%E3%81%AE%E5%BD%A2%E5%AE%B9%E8%A9%9E%E3%81%AE%E6%B4%BB%E7%94%A8)
are quite useful. Reproduced here:

### Conjugations

The so-called ク活用 or " _-ku_ conjugation" is for adjectives that (in modern
Japanese) end in just ～い, such as よい or さむい. Meanwhile, the シク活用 or " _-shiku_
conjugation" is for adjectives that (in modern Japanese) end in ～しい, such as
あたらしい or さびしい.

Conjugation | ク活用  
Basic | ク活用  
Fused with _aru_ | シク活用  
Basic | シク活用  
Fused with _aru_  
---|---|---|---|---  
**未然形【みぜんけい】  
Irrealis (hasn't happened yet)** | ～く | ～から | ～しく | ～しから  
**連用形【れんようけい】  
Continuative ( _-masu_ stem)** | ～く | ～かり | ～しく | ～しかり  
**終止形【しゅうしけい】  
Terminal (standalone)** | ～し | - | ～し | -  
**連体形【れんたいけい】  
Attributive (adjectival)** | ～き | ～かる | ～しき | ～しかる  
**已然形【いぜんけい】  
Realis (as if it's happened)** | ～けれ | - | ～しけれ | -  
**命令形【めいれいけい】  
Imperative (command)** | - | ～かれ | - | ～しかれ  
  
## Your comment

> I remember reading previously that かる could not be used attributively...

I'm not sure where that might have come from. As you can see in the table
above, the ～かる or ～しかる form is indeed the 連体形【れんたいけい】 or "attributive form",
and this is used attributively in historical texts. Granted, the "basic"
attributive form ending in ～き or ～しき appears to be more common for regular
usage of an adjective to modify a noun, but we can find instances of ～かる
directly modifying a noun, as in [this
text](https://books.google.com/books?id=W-IVPv_pRB0C&pg=PT102&dq=%22%E9%AB%98%E3%81%8B%E3%82%8B%22&hl=en&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjE9prfkN31AhU1GTQIHVD9CVo4FBDoAXoECAgQAg#v=onepage&q=%22%E9%AB%98%E3%81%8B%E3%82%8B%22&f=false)
from 1949:

> 御堂より **高かる** 空に五山浮き松風の鳴る広業寺かな

## Follow-on questions

> For what else could a 連体形 have been used in the first place?

[Jimmy Yang's](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/users/41067/) comment on
your question links through to [a
page](https://people.ucalgary.ca/%7Exyang/kobun/3-3-4.htm) that does a good
job of providing a nutshell explanation of what the 連体形【れんたいけい】 was used for.
There is also more [here at
Kotobank](https://kotobank.jp/word/%E9%80%A3%E4%BD%93%E5%BD%A2-662204) and
[here at the Japanese
Wikipedia](https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E9%80%A3%E4%BD%93%E5%BD%A2). (Sadly,
the English Wikipedia article section
[here](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_verb_conjugation#%E9%80%A3%E4%BD%93%E5%BD%A2)
is a bit of a mess, so please only read that with a grain of salt.)

Briefly, in English, the 連体形【れんたいけい】 or "attributive form" of either a verb or
adjective could be used to:

  * modify a noun or noun phrase, basically just being an adjective.
  * act as a noun itself -- this may have evolved by an elision (omission) of an abstract noun like こと ("fact, thing"), which the attributive may have originally modified.
  * serve as an attributive, but coming after the thing it modifies, in a special kind of Old Japanese grammatical construction called 係【かか】り結【むす】び.

> Was [the _-karu_ form of the _rentaikei_ ] simply an alternate form of ～き in
> its zero-nominalisation?

I'm not familiar with the term "zero-nominalisation", so I cannot answer you
here.

> Was [the _-karu_ form of the _rentaikei_ ] placed where neither an
> adjectival 連体形 nor the 終止形 would fit, like in ～と and ～可し?

I'm not aware of any cases where と requires the ～かる form of an adjective.

Note that the _-karu_ ending is a fusion of regular adverbial ending ～く + the
attributive form of Old and Classical Japanese copula ("to be" verb) あり. I
wonder if the requirement of this form for certain 助動詞【じょどうし】, such as べし or
らむ, might be because the 助動詞 itself requires a verb -- which is provided with
the ある in ～かる, but not in the "basic" attributive ～き ending.

> Was [the _-karu_ form of the _rentaikei_ ] utilised as an emphasised 終止形,
> similarly to forms of the 連体形 in other constructions?

I have no idea what other _" forms of the 連体形 in other constructions"_ you are
referring to, so again I cannot answer you here.

