Talk:どこか

POS

@Poketalker, Suzukaze-c, TAKASUGI Shinji, anyone else I've missed --

Seeking consensus about the correct POS to use here.

• The current "Phrase" label is problematic, as this term clearly behaves as a noun -- this requires particles, the same as any other noun, and phrases generally don't behave as nouns.
• The earlier label "Adverb" is also problematic. While the English translation somewhere is classed as an adverb, this is apparently based on the grammar and allowed syntax for the English term, where the term is used without locational prepositions like at or to. However, as noted above, the Japanese term requires particles, and generally cannot be used without them.

• There is a clearly adverbial sense, which we're currently missing, where the term is used without particles to modify adjectives and verbs. Examples:

あの人(ひと)はどこかおかしい、どこか変(か)わっている

ano hito wa doko ka okashii, doko ka kawatte iru

that person is somehow strange, somehow odd

• Japanese sources tend to class this as either 〔副〕 "adverb" or 〔連語〕 "collocation; compound; phrase". Lexically, it behaves as a noun in the somewhere sense, and as an adverb in the somehow sense. For the noun-ish sense, it's also clearly an indirect reference term, essentially a pronoun, functionally similar to 誰か, which I note is missing from the KDJ, and which Daijirin classes also as a 〔連語〕.

Looking forward to your input. ‑‑ Eiríkr Útlendi │^{Tala við mig} 16:38, 25 June 2020 (UTC)

@Eirikr: In my opinion it’s definitely a pronoun just like どこ. Also, in your examples, you can insert the subject marker が like あの人はどこかがおかしい、どこかが変わっている. — TAKASUGI Shinji (talk) 23:58, 25 June 2020 (UTC)

Agree with both of Shinji's statements. —Suzukaze-c (talk) 06:20, 27 June 2020 (UTC)