2.5. SPECIAL VERBS 81
meaning
this person (I/me/you/him/he/her/she).
that person (him/he, her/she).
that person over there (you).
which person (who).Since this set is a tad classical, there are a few things to notice. First
of all, refers to a third person (he/she), while refers to second
person (you). Also, while somewhat classical, this set is still used in formal
seĴings. However, because it is used exclusively in formal seĴings it is
considered distal and very impersonal, and should thus only be used in
formal seĴings where it would be improper to address someone the normal
way. As an added bonus, is also commonly understood to be two
seemingly completely opposite things. On the one hand, it is thedeferred,
distal, formal word for ”you”, and on the other hand it also means ”you” in
a highlyintimaterelationship, akin to the English terms ”dear”, ”darling”
or ”honey” being used by couples to call each other.
Lastly, while means ”who”, it is considered a distal and re-served interrogative. The plain version of ”who” is the pronoun
, which
is not associated with any series.
Finally, some are used in more complicated paĴerns, such
as the /... series +
, or the /... series +
, which we shall look
at in the chapter on language paĴerns.
2.5 Special verbs
There are a number of special verbs that deserve a bit of extra aĴention as
they are used so frequently in the language that it would be a miss to not
highlight their roles.
2.5.1 Becoming:
Before you can say something ”is” something else, it first has to ”become”
this something else. In Japanese, the process of becoming is expressed
with the verb , which can be used to describe becoming a particular
state (such as ”becoming cold”) through the use of state nouns or adjective-
derived adverbs, as well as being usable to describe becoming a particular
thing (such as ”becoming an adult”) by using it with nouns. Finally it can