Conflicting Definitions of Verb “Roots,” “Bases,” and “Stems”


Are there clear definitions for Japanese verb “roots,” “bases,” and “stems”?
In books, online, and in classes, I encounter conflicting definitions, as
described below.

**ROOTS** <https://www.tofugu.com/japanese-grammar/verb-conjugation-groups/>,
accessed 6 Sept. 2022, defines “root” of both godan and ichidan verbs as “the
part of the verb that (almost always) remains the same when the verb is
conjugated. [Re.] 聞く… The part that remains the same in all the conjugations
shown is kik, so it is the root.” The NihonShock website,
<https://nihonshock.com/2013/09/the-bases-of-japanese-verbs/>, accessed 6
Sept. 2022, defines roots similarly: 上一段活用動詞 (見る, 用いる, Etc.) (roots end in i-)
下一段活用動詞 (食べる, 求める, Etc.) (roots end in e-) 五段活用動詞 (買う, 待つ, Etc.) (roots end in
consonants) サ変活用動詞 （する） (root is s-) カ変活用動詞 （来る） (root is k-) However, as
noted below, some people define this form as the verb ”base” or “stem.”
_Intensive Course in Japanese, Elementary_ , v. 3, from the Japanese Language
Promotion Center, 1970, p. 47, says that for godan verbs, “the final syllable
of the verb root takes the following different forms: かく kaku ki ku ka ko ke…”
Yet a few pages earlier it states that the “stem” of かく is かき.

**BASES** Some say bases are synonymous with stems, but seem to define stems
differently. For example, <https://www.wasabi-jpn.com/japanese-
grammar/japanese-verbs-u-verbs-and-ru-verbs-and-conjugation/>, accessed 6
Sept. 2022, says: “Japanese verbs always contain two parts: a verb base and a
suffix. Grammatically, verb bases are called ‘stems.’ … 見る, the stem is “mi”
and the suffix is ‘ru.’ ” Since what precedes godan suffixes changes, this
author must conceive five godan bases/stems. Similarly, the NihonShock website
refers to a “simplified 7 base system”: ~A 動か 食べ し(する） こ(来る） ~I 動き 食べ し き ~U
動く 食べる する 来る ~E 動け 食べれ すれ くれ ~OU 動こう 食べよう しよう 来よう ~TE 動いて 食べて して きて ~TA 動いた
食べた した きた Under the heading Verb Bases, _Wikipedia_ states, “Conjugable words
… are traditionally considered to have six possible conjugational stems or
bases (活用形, katsuyōkei, literally "conjugation forms") . …Verb bases function
as the necessary stem forms to which inflectional suffixes attach. …With godan
verbs, the base is derived by shifting the final kana along the respective
vowel row of the gojūon kana table. With ichidan verbs, the base is derived by
removing or replacing the final る (ru) kana.” A former teacher told me that
the verb base and stem are different. She said that the base is created by
removing う from the dictionary form. “For example, with 行く, remove う. Just
"ik" remains; it is the verb base.” Others would call that form a "root."

**STEMS** Many sources seem to agree that godan “stems” are formed by changing
the final kana of a verb’s dictionary form to the associated kana ending in い
(だす→ だし). Others create the same “stem” by removing –ます from the polite non-
past affirmative form ( _Genki_ , 2nd ed., v. 1, pp. 151, 254). These sources
do not mention godan forms such as ださ– or だせ– in their “stem” definitions,
leaving it unclear whether these sources consider only –ます stems to be
“stems.” (These sources say that ichidan stems are formed by removing –る from
the dictionary form [たべる → たべ] ). Naganuma’s _Basic Japanese Course: Grammar
and Glossary_ , rev. ed., 1970, p. 23 specifies that the stem of godan verbs
“ends in five different vowels or a combination of a consonant and vowels in
the order of a, i,u, e, and o.” But the book almost immediately continues by
referring to these five forms as Base I, Base II, etc., apparently considering
“stem” and “base” to be synonyms. Meanwhile
<https://www.kanshudo.com/grammar/stem>, accessed 6 Sept. 2022, says, “The
term 'verb stem', also known as 'masu stem', … refers to the base part of the
verb…. The easiest way to identify the stem … is to remove the ‘ます’…. The part
of the verb that remains is the verb stem.” So this source also equates “base”
and “stem,” but restricts its definition of stem to the –ます stem. _The
Complete Japanese Verb Guide_ by The Hiroo Japanese Center, 1989 and ‘91, pp.
10, 11, says that dropping the final う from the dictionary form of godan verbs
(and the final るof ichidan verbs) creates their stems. As noted above, this is
how some sources define “root.” _Intensive Course in Japanese, Elementary_ ,
v. 3, 1970, pp. 40-48, agrees that a verb stem is “that part of a verb which
always remains the same,” but then shows many “stems” that change (かき from かく,
はなし from はなす). _Wikipedia_ begins, “[T]he verb stem remains invariant among
all conjugations” but continues, “The conjugational stem can span all five
rows of the gojūon kana table.” In that case, the stem cannot remain
invariant; and, as noted above, _Wikipedia_ equates “stems” with “bases.”  
Probably numerous additional citations could be added, but you can see the
confusion. Are these apparently conflicting definitions because: • There are
no precise definitions, causing people to deconstruct verbs by different
systems? • Terms vary with the background of the author and/or perceived
students/readers? • Some definitions simply are not worded well? I would be
_very_ appreciative of clarity!




In short, in the context of verb conjugation in Japanese, it seems _base_ (語基)
is the right word.

* * *

_Note that this is just the result of googling and may contain errors._

According to [this](https://www.sfu.ca/person/dearmond/323/323%20/323-Roots-
Bases-Stems.fm6.htm), the following is the general definitions (some
controversies aside).

  * Roots are monomorphemic and have no lexical meaning. ("lexical meaning" should be the same as "meaning" in the ordinary sense, see comment.)
  * A stem must have lexical meaning and may contain derivational affixes.
  * A base is a form to which an affix may be adjoined. As such, it has no lexical meaning.
  * All roots are bases, but not all bases are roots.

Just taking an example from
[Wikipedia](https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E8%AA%9E%E6%A0%B9), 横切る's non-
conjugating part contains 横切, which is not monomorphemic and can't be regarded
as a root. Also, at the same time 横切 does not have a lexical meaning, it is
not a stem either.

Now at this point already it is easy to see that there are some ambiguities
around what is regarded as 'having a lexical meaning' - it should be possible
to argue 横切 has a lexical meaning.

But anyway as long as one follows the definitions above, stem/root are
misnomers in referring to non-conjugating parts in Japanese verbs because they
are generally non-monomorphemic and don't have lexical meanings.

* * *

I think there are a few source of confusion. (The root cause may be applying
linguistic notions from Western languages to Japanese.

**(1) what is regarded as "non-conjugating" in Japanese verbs.**

According to [this pdf](https://researchmap.jp/miyaokah/misc/31849988), there
are two theories on what constitutes a 語幹 in Japanese verbs. One says it has
multiple forms (1) and the other say there is only one (2). Taking an example
from the pdf, the following is difference. Consider 貸す:

  1. Kas-u, Kasi-masu, Kasa-naide ...
  2. Kas-u, Kas-i-masu, Kas-a-nai

Following theory 1, _kas/kasi/.._ are all 語幹/語基. Theory 2 says it is _kas_.
(What is more confusing, I believe school grammar teaches 語幹 of 貸す is _ka_.)

**(2) the term 語幹.**

It should correspond to stem, but literally speaking it means _word trunk_. I
don't know the history, but it may have been in use before all those
linguistic terms became common.

Either way, it looks plausible to me that 語幹 was and is used just because it
is common. 語基 is a technical term and not understood outside linguistic
circles. And because of these authors of Japanese text book tend to use stem,
possibly unaware of difference among those terms (I have no evidence for this,
of course).

