Voice (grammar)

In grammar, the voice (also called diathesis) of a verb describes the relationship between the action (or state) that the verb expresses and the participants identified by its arguments (subject, object, etc.). When the subject is the agent or doer of the action, the verb is in the active voice. When the subject is the patient, target or undergoer of the action, the verb is said to be in the passive voice.

For example, in the sentence:

The cat ate the mouse.

The verb "ate" is in the active voice, but in the sentence:

The mouse was eaten by the cat.

The verbal phrase "was eaten" is passive.

In

The hunter killed the bear.

The verb "killed" is in the active voice, and the doer of the action is the "hunter". To make this passive:

The bear was killed by the hunter.

The verbal phrase "was killed" is followed by the word "by" and then by the doer "hunter".

In a transformation from an active-voice clause to an equivalent passive-voice construction, the subject and the direct object switch grammatical roles. The direct object gets promoted to subject, and the subject demoted to an (optional) complement. In the examples above, the mouse serves as the direct object in the active-voice version, but becomes the subject in the passive version. The subject of the active-voice version, the cat, becomes part of a prepositional phrase in the passive version of the sentence, and could be left out entirely.

The passive voice is employed in a clause whose subject expresses the theme or patient of the verb. That is, it undergoes an action or has its state changed.^[1]

In the passive voice the grammatical subject of the verb is the recipient (not the doer) of the action denoted by the verb.

The Spanish language and the English language use a periphrastic passive voice; that is, it is not a single word form, but rather a construction making use of other word forms. Specifically, it is made up of a form of the auxiliary verb to be and a past participle of the main verb. In other languages, such as Latin, the passive voice is simply marked on the verb by inflection: librum legit "He reads the book"; liber legitur "The book is read".

Some languages (such as Albanian, Bengali, Fula, Tamil, Sanskrit, Icelandic, Swedish and Ancient Greek) have a middle voice. This is a set of inflections or constructions which is to some extent different from both the active and passive voices. The middle voice is said to be in the middle between the active and the passive voices because the subject often cannot be categorized as either agent or patient but may have elements of both. For example it may express what would be an intransitive verb in English. For example, inThe casserole cooked in the oven, cooked is syntactically active but semantically passive. In Classical Greek, the middle voice often has a reflexive sense: the subject acts on or for itself, such as "The boy washes himself", or "The boy washes". It can be transitive or intransitive. It can occasionally be used in a causative sense, such as "The father causes his son to be set free", or "The father ransoms his son".

In English there is no longer a verb form for the middle voice, though some uses may be classified as middle voice, often resolved via a reflexive pronoun, as in "Fred shaved", which may be expanded to "Fred shaved himself" – contrast with active "Fred shaved John" or passive "John was shaved by Fred". This need not be reflexive, as in "my clothes soaked in detergent overnight". English used to have a distinct form, called the passival, which was displaced over the early 19th century by the passive progressive (progressive passive), and is no longer used in English.^[2][3] In the passival, one would say "the house is building", which is today instead "the house is being built"; likewise "the meal is eating", which is now "the meal is being eaten". Note that the similar "Fred is shaving" and "the clothes are soaking" remain grammatical. It is suggested that the progressive passive was popularized by the Romantic poets, and is connected with Bristol usage.^[2][4]

Many deponent verbs in Latin are survivals of the Proto-Indo-European middle voice.

Topic-prominent languages like Mandarin tend not to employ the passive voice as frequently. Mandarin-speakers construct the passive voice by using the coverb 被 (bèi) and rearranging the usual word order.^[5] For example, this sentence using active voice:

Note: the first line is in Traditional Chinese while the second is Simplified Chinese.

狗	咬了	這個	男人。
狗	咬了	这个	男人。
Gǒu	yǎo-le	zhège	nánrén.
dog	bite-PERFECT	this	man
"A dog has bitten this man."

corresponds to the following sentence using passive voice. Note that the agent phrase is optional.

這個	男人	被	(狗)	咬了。
这个	男人	被	(狗)	咬了。
Zhège	nánrén	bèi	(gǒu)	yǎo-le.
This	man	BEI	dog	bite-PERFECT.
"This man was bitten (by a dog)."

In addition, through the addition of the auxiliary verb "to be" (shì) the passive voice is frequently used to emphasise the identity of the actor. This example places emphasis on thedog, presumably as opposed to some other animal:

這個	男人	是	被	狗	咬了。
这个	男人	是	被	狗	咬了。
Zhège	nánrén	shì	bèi	gǒu	yǎo-le.
This	man	to be	BEI	dog	bite-PERFECT.
"This man was bitten by a dog."

Although a topic-prominent language, Japanese employs the passive voice quite frequently, and has two types of passive voice, one that corresponds to that in English and an indirect passive not found in English. This indirect passive is used when something undesirable happens to the speaker.

彼	は	泥棒	に	財布	を	盗まれた。
Kare	wa	dorobō	ni	saifu	o	nusumareta.
He	TOPIC	thief	AGENT	wallet	OBJECT	steal-PASSIVE-PAST
"His wallet was stolen by a thief."

僕	は	彼女	に	嘘	を	つかれた。
Boku	wa	kanojo	ni	uso	o	tsukareta.
I	TOPIC	her	AGENT	lie	OBJECT	tell-PASSIVE-PAST.
"I was lied to by her." (or "She lied to me.")

日本人のムスリム

Japanese are converting to Islam - April 2016
الياباني يدخلون في الإسلام

Refugees

初心

Shoshin (初心) is a concept in Zen Buddhism meaning "beginner's mind". It refers to having an attitude of openness, eagerness, and lack of preconceptions when studying a subject, even when studying at an advanced level, just as a beginner in that subject would. The term is especially used in the study of Zen Buddhism and Japanese martial arts.^{[citation needed]}

The phrase is also used in the title of the book Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind by the Zen teacher Shunryu Suzuki, who says the following about the correct approach to Zen practice: "In the beginner's mind there are many possibilities, in the expert's mind there are few."^[1]

A related term, shōshin (正真), means correct truth and is used to denote a genuine signature on art works or to refer to any thing or person that is genuine.^{[citation needed]}

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Knives for culinary purposes

Published on Feb 17, 2015
Knives for culinary purposes have been made in Japan for centuries, using a technique perfected by Japanese swordsmiths. The blades are sharpened on only one side, ideal for cleanly separating fish flesh from the bone.

One of the 50 different types of Japanese kitchen knives is the sword-like "tuna knife." It's 1.5 meters long, and two people are needed to wield it.
90 percent of the knives used by Japanese kitchen professionals are made in Sakai, a city in Osaka. Local artisans in Sakai still make each knife by hand, to order.

It took a small Japanese manufacturer five years to perfect the world's first all-stainless-steel knife. Now it exports more than 600,000 knives each year.
On this edition of BEGIN Japanology, we explore the long history of Japanese kitchen knives.

木工

Published on Feb 17, 2015
In Japan, traditional wooden furniture is assembled without using a single nail. Advanced sashimono joinery techniques have been passed down for centuries.
There are around 30 different basic types of joint. Tenons and mortises are carved to precisely matching shapes.

Sashimono techniques are used not just to connect pieces of wood, but also to enhance visual impact. Master craftsmen use subtle optical illusions to make finished items look more elegant.
On this edition of BEGIN Japanology, we look at sashimono woodwork, which embodies the essence of Japanese aesthetics and traditional craftsmanship.

日本のどこが好きですか？

How to Learn Japanese

Zatoichi

Lunch On!

Abalone

日本語喋ってるんだけど

Mormon missionary to TOP JAPANESE HOST

White Crane

Masanobu Fukuoka

El jardín cercano a la naturaleza,

村上 春樹

Crónica del pájaro que da cuerda al mundo (ねじまき鳥クロニクル Nejimaki-dori Kuronikuru) es una novela del escritor japonés Haruki Murakami publicada el 1994 en Japón en su versión original en japonés.

Trama argumental

La novela cuenta la historia de Tooru Okada quien después de dejar voluntariamente el bufete de abogados donde trabajaba, y después de que el gato que cuida junto con su esposa de nombre Kumiko (llamado Noboru Wataya, igual que su cuñado) se haya escapado de casa. A partir de entonces recibe una llamada que marcaría el comienzo de situaciones cada vez más extrañas, relacionándose con personajes extravagantes, lo que provoca una sensación de realidad y fantasía difícilmente dilucidada , rasgo que caracteriza la obra del autor. Como por ejemplo al introducirse el protagonista (Tooru Okada) en la profundidad de un pozo de una casa abandonada, donde existe una estatua de un pájaro de piedra mirando hacia el cielo con las alas extendidas o aquellas situaciones soñadas que se fugarían a la realidad. Kumiko desaparece una mañana, sin rastro alguno, sin embargo, Tooru Okada no se muestra convencido de las razones que más tarde Kumiko le haría llegar a través de su hermano Noboru Wataya y posteriormente por una carta contundente de la existencia de otro hombre. Tooru Okada percibe un mensaje oculto de Kumiko, donde ella le pide ser salvada, no de una forma física, sino mental.
La novela se divide en dos partes imaginarias, la primera donde todos aquellos sucesos que vendrían a futuro son manifestados, pero no son asimilados por Tooru Okada, ya que siempre ha sido una persona escéptica. La segunda parte comienza con la salida de una mancha azul en el rostro de Tooru Okada, representando como la comunicación entre la otra dimensión y esta, siendo su punto de partida para creer en «otra dimensión».
Tooru Okada conoce personajes sumamente extraños y que tienen gran influencia en su vida, como May Kasahara, Creta Kanoo y Malta Kanoo. Éstas últimas con personalidades extrañas e incluso paranormales, teniendo la posibilidad de llegar a su mente e interpretar cosas a futuro.
La novela acuña su nombre ya que el matrimonio Okada bautiza a un pájaro (nunca visto a sus ojos) que se posa a los alrededores por las mañanas haciendo un ric-ric, tal como si esto accionara el sistema que mantiene al mundo funcionando.
La novela tiene una longitud un tanto extensa (unas 900 páginas), que permite al lector ir adentrándose en un mundo donde la realidad se encuentra con la fantasía, siendo ésta parte de la misma. Es considerada por el autor su obra más acabada.

---

Haruki Murakami (村上 春樹 Murakami Haruki^?, born January 12, 1949) is a contemporary Japanese writer. Murakami has been translated into 50 languages^[1] and his best-selling books have sold millions^[2] of copies.

His works of fiction and non-fiction have garnered critical acclaim and numerous awards, both in Japan and internationally, including theWorld Fantasy Award (2006) and the Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award (2006), while his oeuvre received among others the Franz Kafka Prize (2006) and the Jerusalem Prize (2009). Murakami's most notable works include A Wild Sheep Chase (1982),Norwegian Wood (1987), The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle (1994-1995), Kafka on the Shore (2002), and 1Q84 (2009–2010). He has also translated a number of English works into Japanese, from Raymond Carver to J. D. Salinger.

Murakami's fiction, often criticized by Japan's literary establishment as un-Japanese, was influenced by Western writers from Chandlerto Vonnegut by way of Brautigan. It is frequently surrealistic and melancholic or fatalistic, marked by a Kafkaesque rendition of the "recurrent themes of alienation and loneliness"^[3] he weaves into his narratives. He is also considered an important figure in postmodern literature. Steven Poole of The Guardian praised Murakami as "among the world's greatest living novelists" for his works and achievements.^[4]

Murakami began writing fiction when he was 29.^[18] "Before that", he said, "I didn't write anything. I was just one of those ordinary people. I was running a jazz club, and I didn't create anything at all."^[19] He was inspired to write his first novel, Hear the Wind Sing (1979), while watching a baseball game.^[20] In 1978, Murakami was in Jingu Stadium watching a game between the Yakult Swallows and the Hiroshima Carp when Dave Hilton, an American, came to bat. According to an oft-repeated story, in the instant that Hilton hit a double, Murakami suddenly realized that he could write a novel.^[21] He went home and began writing that night. Murakami worked on Hear the Wind Sing for several months in very brief stretches after working days at the bar. He completed the novel and sent it to the only literary contest that would accept a work of that length, winning first prize.

Murakami's initial success with Hear the Wind Sing encouraged him to continue writing. A year later, he published a sequel, Pinball, 1973. In 1982, he published A Wild Sheep Chase, a critical success. Hear the Wind Sing, Pinball, 1973, and A Wild Sheep Chase form the Trilogy of the Rat (a sequel, Dance, Dance, Dance, was written later but is not considered part of the series), centered on the same unnamed narrator and his friend, "the Rat." The first two novels are unpublished in English translation outside of Japan, where an English edition, translated by Alfred Birnbaum with extensive notes, was published by Kodansha as part of a series intended for Japanese students of English. Murakami considers his first two novels to be "weak",^{[citation needed]} and has not been eager to have them translated into English.^[22] A Wild Sheep Chase, he says, was "the first book where I could feel a kind of sensation, the joy of telling a story. When you read a good story, you just keep reading. When I write a good story, I just keep writing."

After receiving the Gunzo Award for his 1979 literary work Hear the Wind Sing, Murakami did not aspire to meet other writers. Aside from Princeton’s Mary Morris who he briefly mentions in his memoir What I Talk About When I Talk About Running, alongside Joyce Carol Oates and Toni Morrison, Murakami was never a part of a community of writers, his reason being that he was a loner and was never fond of groups, schools, and literary circles. When working on a book, Murakami states that he relies on his wife, who is always his first reader. While he never acquainted himself with many writers, Murakami enjoyed the works of Ryu Murakami and Banana Yoshimoto.

Haruki Murakami is a fan of crime novels. During his high school days while living in Kobe, he would buy paperbacks from second hand book stores and learned to read English. The first book that he read in English was The Name is Archer, written by Ross Macdonald in 1955. Other writers he was interested in included Leo Tolstoy and Fyodor Dostoyevsky.

Murakami also has a passion for listening to music, especially classical and jazz. When he was around the age of 14 he began to develop an interest in jazz. He would later open the Peter Cat, a coffeehouse and jazz bar. Murakami has said that music, like writing, is a mental journey. At one time he aspired to be a musician, but because he could not play instruments well he decided to become a writer instead.

堀越 二郎

Dr. Jiro Horikoshi (堀越 二郎 Horikoshi Jirō^?, 22 June 1903 – 11 January 1982) was the chief engineer of many Japanese fighterdesigns of World War II, including the Mitsubishi A6M Zero fighter.

Despite Mitsubishi's close ties to the Japanese military establishment and his direct participation in the nation's buildup towards the Second World War, Horikoshi was strongly opposed to what he regarded as a futile war. Excerpts from his personal diary during the final year of the war were published in 1956 and made his position clear:

When we awoke on the morning of December 8, 1941, we found ourselves — without any foreknowledge — to be embroiled in war...Since then, the majority of us who had truly understood the awesome industrial strength of the United States never really believed that Japan would win this war. We were convinced that surely our government had in mind some diplomatic measures which would bring the conflict to a halt before the situation became catastrophic for Japan. But now, bereft of any strong government move to seek a diplomatic way out, we are being driven to doom. Japan is being destroyed. I cannot do [anything] other but to blame the military hierarchy and the blind politicians in power for dragging Japan into this hellish cauldron of defeat.^[2]

On 7 December 1944, a powerful earthquake in the Tokai region forced Mitsubishi to halt aircraft production at its plant in Ohimachi, Nagoya. An air raid made by B-29s on the Mitsubishi Engine Works in Daiko-cho, Nagoya a week later caused extensive damage to the works and a severe setback in production. Horikoshi, who had been at a conference in Tokyo with Imperial Navy officers to discuss the newReppu fighter, returned to Nagoya on the 17th, in time to experience another air raid on the Mitsubishi factories the next day. As a result of the air raid, the company evacuated its machinery and engineers to the suburbs of eastern Nagoya. Horikoshi and the Engineering Department were rehoused in a school building which had been requisitioned. Exhausted and overworked, Horikoshi fell ill with pleurisy on 25 December and remained bedridden through early April. During this time, he recorded in detail the horrors of the increasing air raids on Tokyo and Nagoya, including the devastating Operation Meetinghouse Tokyo incendiary raid of 9-10 March. A massive air raid on Nagoya the following night, with B-29s hurling "tens of thousands of incendiary bombs," destroyed most of the largely wooden city. On 12 March, Horikoshi sent most of his family, including his elderly mother, children and brother-in-law, to his home village near Takasaki to be safe from the bombings, though his wife remained with him in Nagoya.

The Wind Rises (風立ちぬ Kaze Tachinu^?) is a 2013 Japanese animated historical drama film written and directed by Hayao Miyazaki, and is animated by Studio Ghibli. It was the final film directed by Miyazaki before his retirement in September 2013.^[5] The film is a fictionalized biography of Jiro Horikoshi (1903–1982), designer of the Mitsubishi A5M and its successor, the Mitsubishi A6M Zero; both aircraft were used by the Empire of Japan during World War II. The film is adapted from Miyazaki's manga of the same name, which was in turn loosely based on the 1937 short story The Wind Has Risen by Tatsuo Hori.^[6]

The Wind Has Risen (風立ちぬ - Kaze Tachinu）is a Japanese novel by Hori Tatsuo, written between 1936-37. It is set in a tuberculosis sanitarium in Nagano, Japan. The plot follows the condition of the female character's illness. It was originally serialised in Kaizō.

The title is a quote from Paul Valéry's poem "Le Cimetière marin".^[1]

Three films have been produced based on the story. Most recently, Hayao Miyazaki's 2013 film, Kaze Tachinu, is loosely based on the novel.