9. The Subject of the Japanese Sentence & Expressing Desire

Index

The Subject and ego in Japanese vs English

• core subject within a sentence in Japanese.
• e.g わたしはコーヒーがすきだ (As for me, coffee is pleasing).
• が in this sentence is attached to コーヒ, making it the core subject of the sentence.
• The coffee is being or doing something, then. In this case, being pleasing.
• わたしは is merely relating the core of the sentence (coffee is pleasing) to the speaker of the sentence.

Expressing desire with ほしい

• こねこがほしい
• ほしい is an adjective, as denoted by the い ending, describing something as desired/wanted. It is not a verb (e.g I am desiring this).
• が is marking the kitten (こねこ) as the core subject in the sentence.
• The cat is therefore being wanted, being desired.

Expressing wanting to do something with たい

• たい is a helper adjective which describes a verbs action as being desired.
• わたしはクレープが食べたい
• クレープ is the が marked subject.
• わたし (I) is marked by the は particle, making it the topic (in relation to me).
• Ichidan verb 食べる (to eat) is transformed and the helper adjective たい is appended, making it into 食べたい (desirable to eat/eating-desired).
• “In relation to me, crepes are eating-desired/desired for eating”.
• Once again, it is not the speaker who is the core of the sentence, but the object being described in relation to the speaker.
• たい marks some object as being desired for eating, it is using the object as a vessel for describing the feelings of the speaker; however, in cases where the speaker is indeed the core of the sentence, it can also simply describe ones feelings of desire directly.
• 食べたい
• This sentence does not contain が, and so it defaults to I (わたし).
• As the sentence core is the speaker, it is describing in this instance the speakers desire for eating.
• “I have eating-desire/desire to eat”.
• This is often the case with adjectives of desire, their meaning depends on what is marked by が.
• If some particular external subject is marked with が, the adjective often is being described the adjective as inducing this desire.
• If no external subject is marked with が (e.g わたしが) then it can be extrapolated that the adjective is most likely describing the feelings of the speaker directly.
• おばけがこわい = Ghosts are scary/fear inducing.
• こわい = I’m scared (can also be describing something external as fear inducing with extra context, but without context the invisible が defaults to わたし.
• Adjectives of desire entities. They may only describe desires in relation to the speaker.
• たい cannot be used when “exhibiting actual knowledge of someone else’s subjectivity” as we cannot know the inner feelings of somebody else.

Expressing statements of desire about other people with たがる

• がる (indicative) is a helper verb meaning “to show signs of”.
• さくらがケーキをほしがる (Sakura is showing signs of wanting cake).
• さくら　is the core of the sentence, marked with が.
• ケーキ is marked with を, making it the object.
• Adjective of desire ほしい has the い removed and replaced with がる, making it into a verb meaning “to show signs of desire”.
• It is a verb because one cannot describe anothers feelings, only speak of their actions.