How do you join たる-adjectives?


When joining い-adjectives and な-adjectives, you simply put them in 連用形 + て:

> この料理は美味し **くて** 安いです。

> 田中さんは綺麗 **で** 親切です。

However, I have a bit of trouble with たる-adjectives. I couldn't find any
resources on it.

If I wanted to say something was 堂々たり and 平然たり, would I:

Use って 音便 as would be expected out of a ラ変:

> 堂々 **たって** 平然たり

Or would I ignore 音便 and stick with pure unchanged 連用形 + て because たり is a
Classical Japanese auxiliary:

> 堂々 **たりて** 平然たり

I couldn't find any resources on the web at all on this, so I'm stumped right
now. My IME seems to like たりて, whilst if I write たって it tries to auto 変換 to
something like 立って・経って・建って.

Thanks very much in advance!




## Overview: Modern Japanese

There is some brief discussion of these in the English Wikipedia, in the "
_taru_ adjectives" section of the "Adjectival noun" article
[here](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adjectival_noun_\(Japanese\)#taru_adjectives),
and a bit more detail in the " _taru_ adjectives" section of the "Japanese
equivalents of adjectives" article
[here](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_equivalents_of_adjectives#taru-
adjectives).

Long story short, the _-taru_ adjectives in modern Japanese are basically
[fossils](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fossil_word), leftovers that have
eroded grammatically. These can _only_ be used in two ways:

  1. to modify a noun or noun phrase, using the ～たる ending: **[堂々]{どうどう}** [た]{●}[る]{●}[物]{もの} ("a **grand** thing")
  2. to modify a verb or verb phrase, using the ～と ending: **[堂々]{どうどう}** [と]{●}[行]{い}く ("to go **regally** ")

You can't use them to end a sentence, and there isn't any ～て form. In
Japanese, these are often called タルト[形容]{けいよう}[動詞]{どうし}, because they only
have the conjugational endings ～たる and ～と.

### A workaround

A common modern construction that would allow you to string together ～たる
adjectives with others, and not fall too far afoul of the grammarians in your
audience, would be to use ～として. ～とする is a common way to turn something into an
adjectival or adverbial phrase. It's a bit like the English construction, "it
goes ～", or "it's like ～". [女王]{じょおう}は **[堂々]{どうどう}**
[と]{●}[し]{●}[て]{●}[礼儀]{れいぎ}[正]{ただ}しい[人物]{じんぶつ}です。 ("The queen is a
**majestic** and courteous person.")

### Irregularities: a language in flux

That said, poking around online does reveal that some writers in Japanese are
reinterpreting the grammar: for [堂々]{どうどう} at least, I do see cases of
[[堂々]{どうどう}で](https://www.google.com/search?q=%22%E5%A0%82%E3%80%85%E3%81%A7%22)
and
[[堂々]{どうどう}だ](https://www.google.com/search?q=%22%E5%A0%82%E3%80%85%E3%81%A0%22),
which are technically incorrect according to strict style guides. This word,
and possibly this whole ～たる class of words, appears to be in flux with regard
to how modern writers are handling the grammar. I would recommend avoiding the
～で or ～だ constructions for the time being.

## Overview: Classical Japanese

If you're writing Classical Japanese, things like ～たりて are valid. The MS IME
does include some features to support Classical Japanese, since this is still
used by modern writers -- particularly for high-register, formal writing.

The ～たる ending is a contraction of adverbial と + the copula ("to be" verb) ある.
Technically, the terminal (sentence-ending) and dictionary form in Classical
Japanese was あり, and these adjectives could end a sentence with the ～たり
ending. So the ～たる ending conjugates just like the Classical copula あり.

Here's the conjugation chart from [the relevant Japanese Wikipedia
section](https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%BD%A2%E5%AE%B9%E5%8B%95%E8%A9%9E#%E3%80%8C%E3%81%9F%E3%82%8A%E3%80%8D%E6%B4%BB%E7%94%A8):

未然形 たら ( _mizenkei_ , or "negative stem" used with ～ない)  
連用形 たり、と ( _ren'yōkei_ , or " _-masu_ stem" or "adverbial")  
終止形 たり ( _shūshikei_ , or "dictionary form" used to end clauses)  
連体形 たる ( _rentaikei_ , or "attributive form" used to modify nouns)  
已然形 たれ ( _izenkei_ , or "hypothetical stem" used with ～ば)  
命令形 たれ ( _meireikei_ , or "command form")

The ～て form used to join adjectives is from the [連用形]{れんようけい} or adverbial
form, so たり + て → たりて. Or analyzed a different way, we use the ～と adverbial
form of the adjective and add on the ～て form of あり: と + ありて → たりて.




## Overview: Modern Japanese

There is some brief discussion of these in the English Wikipedia, in the "
_taru_ adjectives" section of the "Adjectival noun" article
[here](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adjectival_noun_\(Japanese\)#taru_adjectives),
and a bit more detail in the " _taru_ adjectives" section of the "Japanese
equivalents of adjectives" article
[here](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_equivalents_of_adjectives#taru-
adjectives).

Long story short, the _-taru_ adjectives in modern Japanese are basically
[fossils](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fossil_word), leftovers that have
eroded grammatically. These can _only_ be used in two ways:

  1. to modify a noun or noun phrase, using the ～たる ending: **[堂々]{どうどう}** [た]{●}[る]{●}[物]{もの} ("a **grand** thing")
  2. to modify a verb or verb phrase, using the ～と ending: **[堂々]{どうどう}** [と]{●}[行]{い}く ("to go **regally** ")

You can't use them to end a sentence, and there isn't any ～て form. In
Japanese, these are often called タルト[形容]{けいよう}[動詞]{どうし}, because they only
have the conjugational endings ～たる and ～と.

### A workaround

A common modern construction that would allow you to string together ～たる
adjectives with others, and not fall too far afoul of the grammarians in your
audience, would be to use ～として. ～とする is a common way to turn something into an
adjectival or adverbial phrase. It's a bit like the English construction, "it
goes ～", or "it's like ～". [女王]{じょおう}は **[堂々]{どうどう}**
[と]{●}[し]{●}[て]{●}[礼儀]{れいぎ}[正]{ただ}しい[人物]{じんぶつ}です。 ("The queen is a
**majestic** and courteous person.")

### Irregularities: a language in flux

That said, poking around online does reveal that some writers in Japanese are
reinterpreting the grammar: for [堂々]{どうどう} at least, I do see cases of
[[堂々]{どうどう}で](https://www.google.com/search?q=%22%E5%A0%82%E3%80%85%E3%81%A7%22)
and
[[堂々]{どうどう}だ](https://www.google.com/search?q=%22%E5%A0%82%E3%80%85%E3%81%A0%22),
which are technically incorrect according to strict style guides. This word,
and possibly this whole ～たる class of words, appears to be in flux with regard
to how modern writers are handling the grammar. I would recommend avoiding the
～で or ～だ constructions for the time being.

## Overview: Classical Japanese

If you're writing Classical Japanese, things like ～たりて are valid. The MS IME
does include some features to support Classical Japanese, since this is still
used by modern writers -- particularly for high-register, formal writing.

The ～たる ending is a contraction of adverbial と + the copula ("to be" verb) ある.
Technically, the terminal (sentence-ending) and dictionary form in Classical
Japanese was あり, and these adjectives could end a sentence with the ～たり
ending. So the ～たる ending conjugates just like the Classical copula あり.

Here's the conjugation chart from [the relevant Japanese Wikipedia
section](https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%BD%A2%E5%AE%B9%E5%8B%95%E8%A9%9E#%E3%80%8C%E3%81%9F%E3%82%8A%E3%80%8D%E6%B4%BB%E7%94%A8):

未然形 たら ( _mizenkei_ , or "negative stem" used with ～ない)  
連用形 たり、と ( _ren'yōkei_ , or " _-masu_ stem" or "adverbial")  
終止形 たり ( _shūshikei_ , or "dictionary form" used to end clauses)  
連体形 たる ( _rentaikei_ , or "attributive form" used to modify nouns)  
已然形 たれ ( _izenkei_ , or "hypothetical stem" used with ～ば)  
命令形 たれ ( _meireikei_ , or "command form")

The ～て form used to join adjectives is from the [連用形]{れんようけい} or adverbial
form, so たり + て → たりて. Or analyzed a different way, we use the ～と adverbial
form of the adjective and add on the ～て form of あり: と + ありて → たりて.

