Eventivizers

In Japanese, the verbs naru なる and suru する form an ergative verb pair of eventivizers: they're eventive verbs used with the adverbial form of statives, such as adjectives, stative verbs, and habitual predicates, in order to make said stative to behave like an eventive.

Notably, Japanese statives in nonpast form lack a future tense, so either a futurate or an eventivizer will be necessary to express a state is true in the future.

• musuko ga isha da
  息子が医者だ
  [My] son is a doctor. (present tense.)
  *[My] son will be a doctor. (can't mean the future tense.)
• musuko ga isha ni naru
  息子が医者になる
  [My] son will be a doctor.
• watashi ga musuko wo isha ni suru
  私が息子を医者にする
  I will make [my] son be a doctor.

Note: naru and suru have other functions, but this article won't focus on them.

Source: japanesewithanime.com (CC BY-SA 4.0)

• Grammar
  • Will Be vs. Will Become
• Syntax
  • するようになる vs. できるようになる
  • Conjugation
  • Causative Eventivizers
    • Concrete Causatives
  • ～なくなる vs. ～ないようになる
  • Stativized Eventivizers
    • ～なっている
    • ～している
    • ～してある
  • The Other ～ように
  • Sentence-Ending ～ように
  • ～ことに Eventivized Events
    • ～ために Purposes
  • Non-State Adverbs
  • Pronouns
  • Other Notes
• References

Futurates

In grammar, a futurate is a present-tense sentence that expresses a future temporal reference. For example:

• The Red Sox play the Yankees tomorrow. (futurate.)
• The Red Sox will play the Yankees tomorrow. (synonymous futurate-tense sentence.)

This is rarely relevant in Japanese, but it occurs in sentences like this:

• gakkou wa yasumi da
  学校は休みだ
  The school is at rest. (literally.)
  There's no school. (present.)
  *There will be no school. (no future interpretation.)
• ashita gakkou wa yasumi da
  明日学校は休みだ
  Tomorrow, the school is at rest. (a futurate.)
  There will be no school tomorrow.

Source: japanesewithanime.com (CC BY-SA 4.0)

• Definition
• Grammar
  • Contextual Futurates
  • Progressive Futurates
• References

Stative Verbs

In semantic grammar, "stative verbs," in Japanese: joutai-doushi 状態動詞, are verbs that express states, making them similar to adjectives. They contrast with eventive verbs, which express events.

There are multiple definitions for stative verb in Japanese. See lexical aspects for details.

In Japanese, stative verbs used in nonpast form express a state in the present tense only, which is exactly how adjectives is nonpast form work. Observe the difference:

• Tarou wa manga wo yomu
  太郎は漫画を読む
  Tarou reads manga. (present habitual.)
  Tarou will read manga. (future perfective.)
• sora wa aoi
  空は青い
  The sky is blue. (present state.)
  *The sky will be blue. (can't express futurity.)
• minna wa sou omou
  みんなはそう思う
  Everybody thinks so. (present state.)
  *Everybody will think so. (can't express futurity.

Above, the eventive yomu has both present and future tense, the i-adjective aoi only has present tense, and the stative verb omou only has present tense as well.

• Grammar
  • Semantics
  • Syntax
  • Future Tense
  • Evidential Coercion
• Types
  • Existential
    • Copulative Constructions
    • Stativizers
  • Potential
  • Perceptual
  • Cognitive
  • Relational
• References

Eventive Verbs

Among verb types, eventive verbs are verbs that express events, which occur at some point in time. They contrast with stative verbs, which express states that are true during spans of time.

In Japanese, an eventive verb in nonpast form expresses that a futurity or a habitual. Tense-wise, future and present, respectively. A futurity is a future event. A habitual is a recurring event, often habit-like, though it can also mean whether an event is possible to occur at all.

• Tarou wa manga wo yomu
  太郎は漫画を読む
  Tarou will read manga. (futurity.)
  Tarou reads manga. (habitual.)
  
  • Habitual potential entailment: if Tarou reads manga, then Tarou can read manga, because if he couldn't read manga, he wouldn't read manga.

• Grammar
  • Semantics
    • Perfective
    • Present
    • Performatives
    • Pluractionality
    • Telos
    • Preparatory Processes
  • In Japanese
    • Nonpast
    • Telic Implicature
• References

Tenses

In grammar, tense can mean two things^{(Sarkar, 1998:92–93)}:

1. A temporal reference found in a predicate—past, present, future.
2. The morphology of a word required to express a temporal reference—the conjugation of a verb to past, present, and future tenses.

If we go by the second definition, neither English nor Japanese have a future tense, since there's no verb form that exclusively expresses a future temporal reference.

• In English
• In Japanese
  • Nonpast
  • Future Statives
    • Futurate Statives
    • Eventivizers
  • Aspectual Markers
• Discrepancies
  • Discourse-Level Futurates
  • Progressive Futurates
  • Pluractionality Ambiguity
  • Present Perfect vs. Past Perfective
    • Perfect and Temporal Adverbs
  • Sequence of Tenses
    • Absolute Tenses
    • Reported Speech
    • Tensed Adjectives
    • Past of Future
    • Qualified Temporal Adverbials
    • Relative Tense of Tenseless
  • Momentaneous Observations
    • Qualified Futures
    • Momentaneous Habituals
    • Habitual vs. Stage Topicalization
  • Narrative Present
  • Imperatives
  • Performative Verb Reportative Futurity
  • Event Cancellation
  • Counterfactuals
• References

Lexical Aspect

In grammar, actionality, or aktionsart, refers to a temporal property of a predicate. The term lexical aspect is used for the actionality of words (lexemes). Words that have different lexical aspects yield different meanings when used with the same syntax. For example:

• "Tarou is running" means that "Tarou already ran" for a while, even if just for one second.
• "Tarou is dying" doesn't mean that "Tarou already died" for a while, not even for one second.
• Tarou wa hashitte-iru
  太郎は走っている
  Tarou is running. (translates to progressive, "is ~ing.")
• Tarou wa shinde-iru
  太郎は死んでいる
  Tarou has died. (translates to perfect, "has ~ed.")

Above, we see that the verbs "to run," hashiru 走る, and "to die," shinu 死ぬ, have different temporal meanings when conjugated to the same forms, the progressive form in English, and the ~te-iru ～ている form in Japanese.

This happens because these words have different lexical aspects.

Note: "lexical aspect," goi-teki asupekuto 語彙的アスペクト, shouldn't be confused with "grammatical aspect," bunpou-teki asupekuto 文法的アスペクト. The progressive, perfect, perfective, imperfective, and so on are grammatical aspects, not lexical aspects.

• Theories
  • 金田一 (1950)
  • Vendler (1957)
  • Issues
• References

kuro-mesen 黒目線

In Japanese, kuro-mesen 黒目線, "black eye-line," or just mesen 目線, "eye line," also known as me-kakushi-sen 目隠し線, "eye-hiding line," are black censor bars covering someone's eyes used to make them anonymous in order to protect their identity and privacy.

Note: mesen 目線 also has other meanings.

Anime: Shinryaku! Ika Musume 侵略！イカ娘 (Episode 3)

• Usage

mesen 目線

In Japanese, mesen 目線, literally "eye line," can mean various things: one's "line of sight," their "gaze," the direction toward which they're looking, their viewpoint, how they view things, and black lines covering someone's eyes.

Manga: Seitokai Yakuindomo 生徒会役員共 (Chapter 8)

• Meaning
  • Line of Sight
  • Viewpoint
    • 上からの目線
  • Censor Bars

Cobra Twist

In Japanese, a "cobra twist," katakanized kobura tsuisuto コブラツイスト, better known in English as "abdominal stretch," is a wrestling hold in which a wrestler, from behind, locks the opponent's arm, and bends them to a side. There are variations, but essentially:

• Left arm weaves in front of the opponent's right arm and behind their neck.
• Right hand grabs left hand, pressing the forearms against the opponent's neck.
• Left leg wraps the opponent's left leg, or is placed in front of it.
• The attacker squats, or pushes the receiver down by their neck, shoulders, bending their trunk, abdomen, to a side.

Attacker: Mizuki Natsumi 水木なつみ
Receiver: Yamaguchi Daisuke 山口大介
Anime: Mama wa Shougaku Yon'nensei ママは小学４年生 (1992, Episode 1)

• Examples
  
  • Peculiar Examples
• Octopus Hold

manji-gatame 卍固め

In Japanese, manji-gatame 卍固め, meaning "swastika hold," known in English as "octopus hold," is a wrestling hold resembling a "swastika," manji 卍, due to the placement of the limbs of the wrestler, with all four knees and elbows bent. There are variants, but essentially:

1. Left arm locks the opponent's right arm.
2. Left leg wraps around the opponent's neck.
3. Right leg wraps around the opponent's right leg.
4. Right elbow held against the opponent's ribs.

Attacker: Kinoshita Yuuko 木下優子, dressed as Kinoshita Hideyoshi 木下秀吉
Receiver: Yoshii Akihisa 吉井明久 as
Anime: Baka to Test to Shoukanjuu Ni'!, !バカとテストと召喚獣 にっ！ (Season 2) (Episode 3, Stitch)

• Meaning
  
  • Translation
    
    • Octopus Hold
    • Manji Hold
• Origin
• Examples
  
  • Ground Variant
  • Peculiar Examples
• Cobra Twist

maji-manji マジ卍

In Japanese, maji-manji マジ卍 means the same thing as maji-yabai マジやばい. It's a JK slang used when something is intense, either intensely good, cool, awesome, epic, or intensely bad, horrible, awful, terrifying, dangerous.

The manji 卍 is also used as an internet slang when you're hyped up, excited for something.

See the article about the usage of the swastika in Japanese for details. This article is just for examples of usage.

Manga: Kaguya-sama wa Kokurasetai ~Tensai-Tachi no Ren'ai Zunousen~ かぐや様は告らせたい～天才たちの恋愛頭脳戦～ (Chapter 82, かぐや様は断らない)

• Examples

manji 卍, "Swastika" in Japanese

In Japanese, a "swastika," manji 卍, is sometimes seen in text as a word, in which case it has various meanings depending on context.

Most of the time, it's a slang used by teenagers which means basically nothing, synonymous with yabai やばい, which also means basically nothing.

Manga: Kaguya-sama wa Kokurasetai ~Tensai-Tachi no Ren'ai Zunousen~ かぐや様は告らせたい～天才たちの恋愛頭脳戦～ (Chapter 82, かぐや様は断らない)

• Meaning
  
  • マジ卍
  • Gangs
  • 卍系
  • 卍卍卍
  • Pose
    
    • Wrestling Hold
  • 卍解
  • 東卍
• Kanji

Anime Faces

For the sake of reference, a list of terms for anime faces, facial features, and symbolic expressions.

Source: Various

• Expressions
• Eyes
• Mouths
• Ears
• Other
• Parody

Four Ears

In manga and anime, sometimes characters have "four ears," yotsu-mimi 四つ耳, in the sense of having "two pairs" of ears, ni-tsui 二対, that are part of their body.

Generally, this happens when the artist adds a pair of cat ears, bunny ears, etc. on top of a human character's head that already has human ears or human-like ears.

Character: Opera オペラ
Anime: Mairimashita! Iruma-kun 魔入りました！入間くん (Episode 10)

• Various characters in Iruma-kun have "elf ears," erufu-mimi エルフ耳 and "animal ears," kemomimi ケモミミ, although the latter is probably hair... in the same way that Kujo Jotaro's hat is probably hair.

Characters with four visible ears are few, as the lower ears are typically hidden behind hair.

• Explanation
• Examples
• References

usamimi うさみみ

In Japanese, usamimi うさみみ means "bunny ears" or "rabbit ears." It's a portmanteau combining the words usagi 兎, "bunny," "rabbit," and mimi 耳, "ears." In other words: it's an abbreviation of usagi-mimi 兎耳.

Like "cat ears," nekomimi 猫耳, usamimi is a specific type of kemomimi ケモミミ, and normally refers to headbands featuring bunny ears, or characters featuring bunny ears, rather than the actual ears of a bunny.

Character: Nakano Azusa 中野梓
Anime: K-On!, Keion! けいおん！ (Episode 9)

• Examples
• References