連用形

Japanese

Kanji in this term
連	用	形
れん Grade: 4	よう Grade: 2	けい Grade: 2
on’yomi

Etymology

Compound of 連用 (ren'yō, “attaching to an inflecting word”, where 用 (yō) is short for 用言 (yōgen, “inflecting word”)) +‎ 形 (kei, “form”).

Noun

連(れん)用(よう)形(けい) • (ren'yōkei) 

1. (grammar) an inflectional category: the continuative or stem form for verbs, the adverbial form for adjectives

   This is the base form after which various conjugational endings are added, such as て (te) or ます (masu). See Appendix:Japanese verbs for more details.

Usage notes

As a term describing an inherently Japanese grammatical form, 連用形 is sometimes simply transliterated. When rendered into English, the term has been translated different ways by different authors. Alternate glosses include:

• adverbial
• base form
• conjunctional
• continuative
• deverbal noun
• infinitive
• stem form

Related terms

• 已(い)然(ぜん)形(けい) (izenkei, “realis”)
• 仮(か)定(てい)形(けい) (kateikei, “conditional”)
• 終(しゅう)止(し)形(けい) (shūshikei, “conclusive”)
• 未(み)然(ぜん)形(けい) (mizenkei, “irrealis”)
• 命(めい)令(れい)形(けい) (meireikei, “imperative”)
• 連(れん)体(たい)形(けい) (rentaikei, “attributive”)

References

• Sandness, Karen (1999) The Evolution of the Japanese Past and Perfective suffixes, Center for Japanese Studies, University of Michigan, →ISBN, pages 3, 12, 42, others
• Henderson, Harold Gould (1948) Handbook of Japanese Grammar, Houghton Mifflin Co., page 12
• Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, Volume 6, University of London, School of Oriental and African Studies, 1932, page 643