On The Tense Of Japanese Verbs In Attributive Clause

In recent years, on the study of Japanese verbs, tense is one of the most important subject that Japanese academia focus attention upon. For Japanese tense has its particularity, there exists a grammatical category of tense, but it isn't as clear as western language. The study on Japanese verbs is still considered as the emphases and difficulty of the Japanese study. The conceptulizing and systemizing of the conception of tense have become the urgent problem to be solved by Japanese academia.Tense is a grammatical category that shows something happens in a particular time. Modern Japanese always put end-form of the verbs at the central part of the study. Although the study of attributive clause has made great progress, it is not enough. Therefore, this paper emphasizes on the tense of Japanese verbs in attributive clause and makes an analysis ofルform andタform of Japanese verbs in attributive clause. In addition, this paper attempts to sum up the principle in choosing standard time and probes the restricting elements in choosing the standard time. The purpose of the paper is to deepen the conception on the tense of Japanese verbs in attributive clause and understand more systematically the tense system of the Japanese verbs.According to Kindaichi's verbal classification, through the synthesized analysis towards the verbal form in attributive clause and central clause, we know that different kinds of verbs have different meanings of tense in attributive clauses, and the adjective verbs don't have the meaning of tense. In the verb combination of attributive clause with central clause, when the verbs of attributive clause areルform orタform, its tense's standard time is opposite. Through the analysis of concrete tense and the study of linguistic theory, this paper shows that it is the combination of structure principles and meaning principles that decides the principles of choosing attributive clause verb'standard time. That is to say, when we study about the tense of verbs in attributive clause, we should not only analyse the relation of verbal form between the attributive clause and central clause, but also analyse the relation of meanings in both clauses.In addition, the principle of choosing standard time may not be applicable to all the cases of attributive clause, and it may also be restricted by some elements, mainly including the time adverbs, property of verb aspect, restrictive modification and nonrestrictive modification, timeless occasion, internal and external relation, and so on. These elements can offer positive foundation for judging and choosing the standard time.Based on the above comparison and analysis, this paper holds that the tense meaning of Japanese verbs in attributive clause is decided by both sentence structure's principles and meaning principles, and that the principles of choosing standard time is restricted by some elements. Therefore, the difficulty of studying the verb tense in attributive clause has relevance to tense system.