Inchoactive in Jpn? (was: "Anticipatory" Tense)

--- Raymond Brown <ray.brown@...> replied:

< It was my understanding that "inchoative" was
"becoming", and that's how I've been using it in my
language. >

> This is correct - the inchoative aspect (also called
> by some 'inceptive' or 'ingessive') notes "becoming"
> or "starting", e.g. Japanese: hanasu "to talk" -
> hanashidasu "to start to talk" furu "rain" -
> furidasu "to start to rain"
Really!?  I never knew that this phenomenon of
Japanese verbs would be considered a tense!  I just
lumped it, mentally, as a Japanese-language
characteristic as some of the other following
examples:

   kaku      - "write"
   kakinaosu - "rewrite"
   ukeru     - "receive"
   ireru     - "put (in)"
   ukeireru  - "intake"
   wakarimasu     - "understand, know"
   wakarikanemasu - "not know, not understand"

Are you sure about the above as being classified a
verb tense?  Also, doesn't _hanashidasu_ really refer
to something more like _to speak up (suddenly)_,
whereas _hanashihajimeru_ would be better suited to
_to start to speak_ ??

M.E.S.









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