How does Hashimoto Shinkichi himself write the idea of the bunsetsu that we saw in the plain-language article? Here we read the opening of Part 1, Chapter 1 of Shin Bunten Bekki, Jōkyū-yō (1935), the commentary that accompanies the upper-level version of the textbook Shin Bunten.
Splitting words into two kinds
Hashimoto first splits words into two kinds.
助動詞と助詞とは、必ず他の語に附いて用ひられ、實際の言葉では、その語とつゞけて發音し、その間を切る事はありません。
(Auxiliary verbs and particles are always used attached to another word, and in actual speech they are pronounced continuously with that word — you never cut between them.)
What catches the eye here first is the phrase “in actual speech” (實際の言葉では). Hashimoto states the property of particles and auxiliary verbs “attaching to another word” not as a matter of word meaning or of dictionary definition, but as a fact about what happens when we actually speak aloud. Words like “wa,” “ga,” and “ta” are never pronounced alone, cut off from another word. This point is the starting place of Hashimoto’s thinking.
The criterion of “independence”
So how are the remaining words — those that aren’t particles or auxiliary verbs — distinguished?
その他の單語は、それだけ離しても用ひる事が出來るもので、附屬する語にくらべて獨立性があるといへます。
(The other words can be used separated from everything else, and can be said to have independence compared with attached words.)
Words that “have independence” and words that don’t — Hashimoto named these “independent words” (獨立する語) and “attached words” (附屬する語). And as the reason this distinction matters, he says this: the difference in nature is “important when forming a sentence together with other words.” In other words, when assembling a sentence, rather than lining up individual words as equal parts, it is easier to see how a Japanese sentence works by treating it as chunks: independent words at the center, with attached words stuck to them.
Checking it by the “break”
Hashimoto shows this distinction through actual breaks in pronunciation.
「草木 靑し」「花 咲く」などのやうに、他の語との間に切目をつけて發音し得るものです。
(These are words that can be pronounced with a break between them and other words, as in “kusaki | aoshi” and “hana | saku.”)
Between “kusaki” (plants) and “aoshi” (is green), and between “hana” (flower) and “saku” (blooms), a break can be placed in pronunciation. These are independent words. On the other hand, Hashimoto continues, even the same “hana” is never broken from the “mo” or “wa” when used as in “hana mo sakitari” or “hana wa imada sakazu.” The same word “hana” is independent on its own, but once a particle attaches, it can’t be cut from that particle — this observation becomes the substance of what would later be called the “bunsetsu” break.
What is the distinction based on?
Let’s confirm the character of this distinction once more. Before moving on to a classification by meaning and function — “noun,” “verb,” “particle” — Hashimoto first splits words in two by a fact of pronunciation: whether they can be broken when spoken aloud, or not. Classifying parts of speech requires understanding meaning, and so inevitably leaves room for differing interpretations. Whether a word breaks or doesn’t, by contrast, is something any speaker of Japanese can test with their own mouth.
The break that would later be called the “bunsetsu” can be understood as a further refinement of this pronunciation-based idea.
What should be said plainly
One last thing should be said. The passage we read here is not one where Hashimoto defines the term “bunsetsu” itself. What Hashimoto describes in this section of the textbook is strictly the distinction between “independent words” and “attached words” and the idea of the break. The systematic working-out of the bunsetsu division is said to have been done by Hashimoto in the 1930s, in textbooks like Shin Bunten and in works such as Kokugohō Yōsetsu (1934). What we’ve checked here, in the original, is the idea that lay at its base.
Summary
| Point | Detail |
|---|---|
| Two kinds of words | “Independent words” (can be pronounced on their own) and “attached words” (particles, auxiliary verbs, etc., which always attach to another word) |
| The criterion | Not meaning but actual pronunciation — whether a break can be put between them |
| The “hana” example | A break goes in “hana |
| Scope of this article | Not the definition of the term “bunsetsu” itself, but a check of the idea beneath it |
In a nutshell — Hashimoto Shinkichi divided words not by meaning but by the breaks made when they’re spoken aloud. The sentence “you never cut between them” (その間を切る事はありません) stands at the starting point of the bunsetsu idea.