Money Gesture

In Japan, there's a hand gesture for money that's very similar to the "OK" hand gesture in America: it's done by making a circle with the thumb and index finger.

Character: Hachikuji Mayoi 八九寺真宵
Anime: Nisemonogatari 偽物語 (Episode 1)

• haa? kono yo ni okane igai nani ka aru-n-desu ka?
  はぁ？この世にお金以外なにかあるんですか？
  Hah? In this world, is there anything besides money?

This gesture is used not only to talk about hard cash, but also when talking about profits or other economic gains, about costs, things that are expensive, and so on. It just signifies money in general.

Warning: different cultures use the same gesture to signify different things. In Japan it's money, in America it's "OK," in some countries it's something obscene, and so on. Some culture also have different gestures for money, like rubbing the index and thumb together.

• Origin
• Examples
• See Also

Performative Verbs

In grammar, "performative verbs," suikou-doushi 遂行動詞, are verbs that perform an action simply by being uttered. They're used in the simple present in English, and in the "nonpast form," hikakokei 非過去形, in Japanese.

English examples include: I say, I declare, I command, I promise, I allow, I permit, I forbid, and so on.

Japanese examples include: onegai shimasu お願いします, tanomu 頼む, meizuru 命ずる, yurusu 許す, kyoka suru 許可する, and so on.

• Grammar
  • Reportative Usage
  • Lexical Aspect
• Examples
• References

Stativizers

In Japanese, the verb forms ~te-iru ～ている and ~te-aru ～てある are stativizers: they're composed of the te-form plus a hojo-doushi 補助動詞 "auxiliary verb" that's an stative verb, specifically the existence verbs iru いる and aru ある, and they're used to make eventive verbs into stative predicates so they can be reported in present tense in nonpast form, while also anchoring generic stative predicates to particular temporal episodes.

Basically, they work kind of like the progressive form "is ~ing" and the perfect form "has ~ed" in English. Observe:

• Tarou wa hashiru
  太郎は走る
  Tarou will run. (future perfective event.)
  Tarou runs. (present habitual state.)
• Tarou ga hashitte-iru
  太郎が走っている
  Tarou is running [right now]. (progressive state, stage-level predicate.)
• Tarou wa kyonen kara mai-nichi hashitte-iru
  太郎は去年から毎日走っている
  Tarou has been running every day since last year. (iterative state, episodic individual-level predicate.)
• setsumei ga hon ni kaite-aru
  説明が本に書いてある
  The explanation is written in the book. (resultative state, stage-level predicate.)

It's probably not very useful in practice to know that ~te-iru and ~te-aru are stativizers. It's more useful to just learn their functions individually. But for the sake of reference I'll be writing this article to show how these two forms relate.

• Grammar
  • States and Events
  • ある and いる
  • ～ている and ～てある
  • Progressives and Resultatives
  • Causatives and Unaccusatives
  • Topic and Focus
  • Individual and Stage-Level Predicates
  • Gnomic and Episodic
  • Habituals and Iteratives
  • Abstract and Existential
  • Conclusion
• References

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