A grammar of classical Japanese

Description

This is an introductory textbook of Classical Japanese for the foreign student who has already acquired a fair command of Modern Japanese. The term Classical Japanese itself is ambiguous: it can mean the Formal Written Style of Japanese that was in common use before the Occupation to write official documents and scholarly works; it can mean any style of Japanese language that is basically different from contemporary spoken Japanese; and it can mean the type of Japanese used in the prose and poetry of the Heian Period. In this text, the term Classical Japanese will be left ambiguous and emphasis will be placed on the grammar of written Japanese in allthe periods following the Heian, except, of course, for that of the post-Occupation period. That is to say, the purpose of this textbook is the mastery of "Classical Japanese" in the broader sense; it presents the grammar of Heian Japanese with the more important deviations that have taken place in later periods. Because the most conspicuous difference between Classical and Modern Japanese exists in the morphological characteristics of inflecting words, utmost emphasis is given to the mastery of verbs, adjectives, and inflecting suffixes called Zyodoosi. Once the student understands this part ofthe grammar well, the problems facing him in reading Classical Japanese texts will be relatively minor.