Talk:可能動詞

Derivation

@Eirikr Thanks for the expansion. Do you have any idea where it is said that the -e- comes from the 仮定形 stem and not, for example, from a further reduced form of -られ(る) or the auxiliary verb 得る? --Dine2016 (talk) 06:02, 6 April 2018 (UTC)

@Dine2016: It sounds like you're asking about the historical derivation. The Usage Note I added was intended to explain how to create the potential verb form from a modern type-1 verb. I realized from your query that my Usage text was unclear. I'll rework that later.

Regarding the historical derivation, there are three leading theories for this:

• Regular 連用形 stem ending in -i + 得る (eru, auxiliary verb expressing capability, in evidence since the Man'yōshū)
• Shift from passive / potential ending られる
• Shift from regular 四段活用 transitive to 下二段活用 intransitive

There's a paper I ran across recently that discusses this: 可能動詞の成立 (Kanō Dōshi no Seiritsu), by Toshihiro Miyake, dated 2016-04-01. He makes the case for door #3, citing historical usage and semantic patterns that show a clear development from the older predicative 下二段活用 potential forms like 読むる to the modern potential verbs like 読める.

Full disclosure: I haven't fully read the paper yet, and some of the initial claims strike me as perhaps a bit strong: 『「レル」「得ル」は「読ムル」および可能動詞の様相と著しく異なるものであった。』 That said, the basic development jives with ideas I've been batting around for years in looking at Japanese verb patterns through history. For the potential, the so-called ら抜き (ra-nuki) pattern for creating potentials from passives still leaves the preceding あ行 ending of the verb stem and the れ of the auxiliary, with no clear progression that would collapse -are into just -e; and while a contraction from 連用形 + 得る is certainly possible, the classical 終止形 for 得る (eru) is just 得 (u), and the 連体形 is 得る (uru), which would produce Classical terminal 読みう (yomiu) and attributive 読みうる (yomiuru), neither of which show any clear progression that would produce 読める (yomeru).

Anyway, I hope the above addresses your questions. My time will be more limited over the next few weeks between home and work, so apologies ahead of time if I take longer to respond. 予めご了承下さい。 (Arakajime go-ryōshō kudasai.) ‑‑ Eiríkr Útlendi │^{Tala við mig} 00:16, 9 April 2018 (UTC)