Using さ with 形容動詞


In 上を向いて歩こう Kyu Sakamoto says しあわせは, why doesn't he says しあわせさは? How do you
know which 形容動詞 can be written as nouns without さ？




Although the suffix -さ does turn adjectives into nouns, it also changes the
meaning:

[code]

    　　幸せ　　　　happiness
    　　幸せさ　　　the degree of happiness
    
[/code]

Since the suffix changes the meaning, 幸せさ isn't interchangeable with 幸せ.
Presumably, the songwriter wrote しあわせ rather than しあわせさ because it had the
meaning they wanted to express.

* * *

But meaning aside, how can you tell whether a 形容動詞 can also be a noun?

Generally speaking, if a 形容動詞【けいようどうし】 can also be used as a 名詞【めいし】,
dictionaries will list them as both. Look for the abbreviations 名 (for 名詞) and
形動 (for 形容動詞), which are used by most monolingual dictionaries. If you're
using a dictionary that marks them another way, it should say so somewhere--
for example, EDICT uses the abbreviations "adj-na" and "n".

[The entry for 幸せ in
大辞林【だいじりん】](http://www.weblio.jp/content/%E5%B9%B8%E3%81%9B) says:

> （名・形動）

That means 幸せ can also be a 名詞.

You can also look at actual usage, for example by searching a corpus such as
the [Balanced Corpus of Contemporary Written Japanese
(BCCWJ)](http://www.kotonoha.gr.jp/shonagon/). When I search for 幸せ, I find
5384 results, some of which appear to be using it as a noun. You can use this
tool yourself to try to answer this question, if you're still uncertain after
consulting a dictionary.




Although the suffix -さ does turn adjectives into nouns, it also changes the
meaning:

[code]

    　　幸せ　　　　happiness
    　　幸せさ　　　the degree of happiness
    
[/code]

Since the suffix changes the meaning, 幸せさ isn't interchangeable with 幸せ.
Presumably, the songwriter wrote しあわせ rather than しあわせさ because it had the
meaning they wanted to express.

* * *

But meaning aside, how can you tell whether a 形容動詞 can also be a noun?

Generally speaking, if a 形容動詞【けいようどうし】 can also be used as a 名詞【めいし】,
dictionaries will list them as both. Look for the abbreviations 名 (for 名詞) and
形動 (for 形容動詞), which are used by most monolingual dictionaries. If you're
using a dictionary that marks them another way, it should say so somewhere--
for example, EDICT uses the abbreviations "adj-na" and "n".

[The entry for 幸せ in
大辞林【だいじりん】](http://www.weblio.jp/content/%E5%B9%B8%E3%81%9B) says:

> （名・形動）

That means 幸せ can also be a 名詞.

You can also look at actual usage, for example by searching a corpus such as
the [Balanced Corpus of Contemporary Written Japanese
(BCCWJ)](http://www.kotonoha.gr.jp/shonagon/). When I search for 幸せ, I find
5384 results, some of which appear to be using it as a noun. You can use this
tool yourself to try to answer this question, if you're still uncertain after
consulting a dictionary.

