earticle

영어

The Japanese conditional expressions 「to」-form and「ba」-form have been considered one of the important research questions and many researchers' focus goes on to their logical induction. The main purpose of the present study is to look into the basic semantics of「to」and「ba」. As Toyota (1985) shows, these two forms are very difficult for foreign learners to master in Japanese learning. Even native Japanese sometimes get confused in making a clear distinction between the two forms. The present paper examines the basic meanings of these two forms and their use in context.