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"It seems there is none" is なさそう, which escapes the usual rule for 形容詞 (イ-adjectives), which says "drop the い and add そう".

Is there a historical explanation for this exception? And does it have anything to do with なさいません?

Chocolate
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Earthliŋ
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    Likewise よい -> よさそう. What do you mean by "how come"? That's just the way it is. – Billy Sep 12 '12 at 02:05
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    Well, you can answer any question with "that's just the way it is"... I am wondering if there is an explanation of why it is なさそう, rather than なそう. One possible explanation would be that ない is too short by itself and なそう sounds odd, so that さ was inserted in order to make it better sounding (just like for よさそう). Another explanation might involve the changes of the word ない and its relation with なさいません... I don't know if there exists a reasonable explanation, but that doesn't mean there is none. – Earthliŋ Sep 12 '12 at 02:16
  • Well, regardless of whether that was historically the case, Japanese people now say なさそう rather than なそう because the former is correct and the latter isn't. Historically there's probably a good reason (maybe along the lines of: "な" and "よ" are unstressed and short so will get lost?), but you quoted a grammatical rule of current modern Japanese, so I was confused as to what your question is. In modern Japanese, that *is* just the way it is. – Billy Sep 12 '12 at 02:25
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    @Billy I have several friends in Sendai who say なそう. – Dono Sep 12 '12 at 02:26
  • @Billy Sorry if my question wasn't clear. – Earthliŋ Sep 12 '12 at 02:28
  • Related: http://japanese.stackexchange.com/q/1701/78 – istrasci Sep 12 '12 at 03:38
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    @dono: Ha? I lived several years there and never heard it. I'll poll around! – Axioplase Sep 12 '12 at 03:47
  • Also, "nai" is not an adjective, is it? It comes from the verb なふ, meaning "to not exist". People in Kansai instead still use the negative form of to exist: ある -> あらへん. – Axioplase Sep 12 '12 at 03:48
  • @Axioplase: Touche. I lived in Osaka for 2 years and I never anyone use `あらへん`. – istrasci Sep 12 '12 at 03:59
  • @istrasci: I heard it often, I have some in private communications with Kansai people, and I *think* I still hear it now and then on TV. – Axioplase Sep 12 '12 at 06:46
  • @Axioplase That's one hypothesis – at least for the 〜ない that appears in the negative form of a verb. But the freestanding adjective 無し is attested in classical Japanese too. – Zhen Lin Sep 12 '12 at 09:17
  • @Axioplase, that might be a thread worth following, but it doesn't explain why it's not なひそう or ないそう, also it doesn't explain よさそう and うさそう. – dainichi Sep 12 '12 at 23:19
  • @Axioplase -- citations of なふ and なし appear to be separated by a few centuries. See [this comment](http://japanese.stackexchange.com/questions/16226/is-verb-ending-%E3%81%AA%E3%81%84-shortened-to-%E3%82%93/16227#comment36605_16227) and the next few in that thread. In short, なふ = ぬ in 未然形 + continuative auxiliary ふ, whereas なし has probably been around at least as long. While なし itself might also derive from ぬ, it likely does not derive from なふ. – Eiríkr Útlendi Jun 03 '14 at 06:24

2 Answers2

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Your "usual rule" is incomplete. It should be:

  1. drop -i
  2. if resulting is a single mora in length, add -sa
  3. add -sou.

Hence, nai:

  1. na
  2. na + sa
  3. na + sa + sou --> nasasou.

atui:

  1. atu
  2. (not applicable)
  3. atu + sou --> atusou.
nhahtdh
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Dono
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    There are more. The number of combinations are few, so it should be easy to verify. Going from the top, ui (憂い) --> usasou. Check Google for usage. – Dono Sep 12 '12 at 02:24
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    Might be worth pointing out that this occurs for negative adjectives too, e.g. 暑くなさそう, because 暑く and なさそう are parsed separately. Also compounds: かっこ(う)よさそう. – Billy Sep 12 '12 at 02:28
  • @Dono: isn't `憂い` `ウレイ`? – istrasci Sep 12 '12 at 03:48
  • @istrasci: Both are correct. うい is the 形容詞 and うれい is a 名詞, so Dono is correct. – Jesse Good Sep 12 '12 at 04:02
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    @istrasci Jesse has already responded, but I would like to follow up. This is one case where knowing the historical spelling would help avoid the confusion. Historically, urei was 憂ひ (and 憂へ before that). Hence urepi > ureɸi > urewi > urei. As such, the final -i cannot be adjectival suffix -i. This is a noun. My comment was about the adjective ui. For completeness, note that the adjectival -i derives from -ki with the -k- dropping out. This -ki form is the attributive form of -si. – Dono Sep 12 '12 at 06:55
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    So do you say 濃さそう or 濃そう? I believe the last form is the more common, contradicting your rule. – dainichi Sep 12 '12 at 23:11
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    @dainichi: Thanks for finding another example. I'm also in favour of 濃そう. – Earthliŋ Sep 13 '12 at 01:55
  • @Dono 憂い can be either うい (unhappy; sad; gloomy) or うれい (sorrow; grief; anguish; distress​). In the case of うれい, it is a noun. – codejockie Sep 05 '19 at 04:37
1

Well, in first place there are possible confusions depending you are referring to ない as a [助動詞]{じょどうし} or 無い as a [形容詞]{けいようし}.

In the case of "It seems there is none", なさそう will be 無い adjective [連用形]{れんようけい} + そうだ [助動詞]{じょどうし}。

It seems that when そうだ was first introduced at Muromachi period, なそう was used but as な is only one syllable, さ was added through time.

It has nothing to do with なさいません which is the negative form of [為]{な}さる verb.

For information, in the case of ない as a [助動詞]{じょどうし}, なそうだ is used:

彼はお酒を飲まなそうだ。

But recently, さ is sometimes added:

彼は来な(さ)そうだ。

Chocolate
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Eric
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  • Thanks, I like the idea of thinking of ない as auxiliary rather than 形容詞, but I don't really like calling it a 助動詞. Do you have any reference for ない being called a 助動詞? – Earthliŋ Nov 23 '12 at 12:24
  • [Reference](http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%8A%A9%E5%8B%95%E8%A9%9E_%28%E5%9B%BD%E6%96%87%E6%B3%95%29) 未然形 - 打消. 無い as a 形容詞 and ない as 助動詞 are just homonyms (and have a close meaning to confuse the things even more). – Eric Nov 23 '12 at 12:34