「~ない」 vs 「無/不/非/未~」, 「的(な)<漢字>」, and general 熟語/漢語 affixes versus grammatical forms)


When trying to write in Japanese, I often come across words that have multiple
possible translations into Japanese, and am unsure which one to use. Though it
is difficult to make any general rule over what word to pick (as there isn't
an obvious basis of selection), one particular kind of choice that I often see
is whether to use lexical or grammatical forms of expression (namely, to form
漢語 expressions by concatenating words or adding affixes, or to split off words
and modify them with 文法). This boils down into three main questions, though
any advice on this general topic is appreciated as well:

  1. When negating 漢語, is there a way to tell whether 「【無・不・非・未】〜」 or 「〜ない」is more commonplace/acceptable/appropriate.

  2. When using 漢語 to modify other 漢語 (e.g. with 「〜的（な）〜」), is there a rule for when to break off and start using particles/okurigana, and when to create a compound (possibly with rendaku) as might be seen with gerund (not sure if gerund really makes sense here, but nominalized verb in case that is clearer) suffixes such as「〜狩り」and 「〜作り」

  3. Is there a rule for determining whether certain jukugo or their naturally alternatives (「血色›血の色」、「天地›天と地」、「星学›天文学」）are more appropriate, or even when the 熟語 version is rare or obsolete

Examples (of the (1) and (2)):

  * 【 **無** 関係】vs.【関係 **ない・なし** 】
  * 【宗教的 **な** 意識】vs. 【宗教的意識】
  * 【ケーキ **作り** 】vs. 【ケーキ **を** 作る（こと）】




Your question is too general and broad. There are rules of thumb but usually
no written rules.

For 「【無・不・非・未】〜」 or 「〜ない」, 無 usually means ない(not exists), 不 usually means
"not", 非 usually means "other than", and 未 usually means "not yet/completed"

For 【関係ない・なし】【宗教的な意識】vs. 【宗教的意識】, without 送り仮名, usually it tends to sound like
a term, and with 仮名 you can add an extra feel or nuance to it.

For 3, some words are dialectal/archaic/rare and some words are specific terms
which can't be replaced by other "equivalent" compound/word(e.g. 血色 vs.血の色).

