Classical Japanese A Grammar -
Exercise Answers and Tables by
Haruo Shirane
An Excellent Textbook
Classical Japanese: A Grammar is a comprehensive, and practical guide
to classical Japanese. Extensive notes and historical explanations make
this volume useful as both a reference for advanced students and a
textbook for beginning students. The volume, which explains how classical
Japanese is related to modern Japanese, includes detailed explanations of
basic grammar, including helpful, easy-to-use tables of grammatical forms;
annotated excerpts from classical premodern texts, with accompanying
grammar and vocabulary notes; and exercises and an answer booklet.
Personal Review: Classical Japanese A Grammar - Exercise
Answers and Tables by Haruo Shirane

A very informative and useful book, unlike any other available text in this
field in terms of its accessibility and attention to detail. After an overview of
basic sentence structure and orthography, the chapters set out the major
inflected parts of speech (verbs, adjectives, adjectival verbs, and verb
suffixes or jodôshi), followed by non-inflected parts of speech (particles
and nouns). The verb suffixes and particles are grouped by function,
allowing the subtle differences between similar expressions to be made
clear. The final chapters cover honorifics and Nara-period expressions. In
all chapters, the grammatical explanations are clear and concise, and the
functions of the expressions under discussion are well illustrated by the
example sentences, drawn from classical texts.
More advanced material is clearly marked in the "Advanced Study and
Reference" sections found throughout the chapters. The inclusion of such
material allows the book to serve as a reference for advanced students,
but its clear separation in the "Advanced Study and Reference" sections
means that it does not overwhelm beginners. The "Historical Note"
sections, also found throughout the chapters, describe the evolution of
various Japanese expressions over time. This information is not only of
interest to advanced learners, but is useful for demonstrating to beginning
bungo students the relationship between some classical and modern
Japanese expressions. The exercises appended to each chapter provide
a valuable opportunity for students to become familiar with classical
expressions within a limited context, before going on to read longer texts,
and the tables of grammatical forms in the accompanying booklet are
extremely useful for quick reference.
All in all, a highly readable work which should be of great interest to
students and scholars of classical Japanese regardless of their level of
ability.
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