Consider these three sentences, which appear in rapid succession in Shirin Nezamafi’s “Shiroi kami”:<\/p>\n
\u6d77\u3088\u3001\u958b\u3051<\/strong>\uff01<\/p>\n
\u53e3\u3092\u5927\u304d\u304f\u958b\u3051<\/strong>\u3001\u80ba\u3044\u3063\u3071\u3044\u5206\u306e\u9178\u7d20\u3092\u5438\u3044\u8fbc\u3093\u3060\u3002<\/p>\n
\u958b\u3044\u3066\u3044\u308b<\/strong>\u672c\u3092\u68d2\u8aad\u307f\u3057\u3066\u3044\u308b\u3002<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
The verbs \u958b\u304f and \u958b\u3051\u308b can be read as either aku<\/em> or hiraku<\/em> and akeru<\/em> or hirakeru<\/em>, respectively.\u00a0 How do you know which reading is correct?<\/p>\n
The first thing to consider is whether the verb is transitive or intransitive.\u00a0 In the first and third sentences above, the verbs are intransitive; in the second, it is transitive. If the verb is transitive, it will almost certainly be akeru<\/em> or hiraku<\/em>. If the verb is transitive, then, the portion of the verb represented by the okurigana<\/em> (-keru<\/em> or –ku<\/em>) will differentiate them.\u00a0 Therefore the verb in the second sentence is read ake<\/em>.<\/p>\n
If the verb is intransitive, things become more complicated.\u00a0 Aku<\/em>,\u00a0hiraku<\/em>, and hirakeru<\/em> can all be intransitive. If the verb is intransitive and the okurigana<\/em> is –keru<\/em>, then the verb is most likely read hirakeru<\/em>.<\/p>\n
Many things hiraku<\/em>: those that open in three dimensions (blossoms, umbrellas, packages), those that open up and down (eyes, mouths, shells), those that open in any of a number of ways (books, windows, curtains), those that open in space (a divide), those that begin (meetings, lectures), those that are opened figuratively (new paths or lands).<\/p>\n
The choice between aku<\/em> and hiraku<\/em> can be particularly tricky with doors.\u00a0 If there is a single door, then it will aku<\/em>.\u00a0 If there are two doors that open away from one another, as a pair, then they hiraku<\/em>. The first and third sentences are both hiraku<\/em> because of the figurative sense of this sort of motion: the ocean parts to the two sides, and the book opens on the hinge of its spine.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Consider these three sentences, which appear in rapid succession in Shirin Nezamafi’s “Shiroi kami”: \u6d77\u3088\u3001\u958b\u3051\uff01 \u53e3\u3092\u5927\u304d\u304f\u958b\u3051\u3001\u80ba\u3044\u3063\u3071\u3044\u5206\u306e\u9178\u7d20\u3092\u5438\u3044\u8fbc\u3093\u3060\u3002 \u958b\u3044\u3066\u3044\u308b\u672c\u3092\u68d2\u8aad\u307f\u3057\u3066\u3044\u308b\u3002 The verbs \u958b\u304f and \u958b\u3051\u308b can be read as either aku or hiraku and akeru or hirakeru, respectively.\u00a0 How do you know which reading is correct? The first thing to consider is whether the verb is transitive or […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ambiguous-readings","post-preview"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/faculty.washington.edu\/tmack\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/faculty.washington.edu\/tmack\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/faculty.washington.edu\/tmack\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/faculty.washington.edu\/tmack\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/faculty.washington.edu\/tmack\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=14"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/faculty.washington.edu\/tmack\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/faculty.washington.edu\/tmack\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/faculty.washington.edu\/tmack\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/faculty.washington.edu\/tmack\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}