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I have read that verbs in Japanese are a closed class. That is to say: not counting inflections, there is some relatively fixed number of "true verbs" in the language. By "true verbs" I am excluding compound verbs formed with [noun]+する, or really [noun]+[verb] of any type. If this is the case, surely there is some estimate of roughly how many such verbs exist? I believe that i-adjectives are also a closed class, and I'd be curious about their number as well.

M. Sperling
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  • I don't think either class is really closed. Consider relatively recent _-i_ adjectives キモい and グロい, or verb ググる. – Eiríkr Útlendi Sep 01 '20 at 17:46
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    I've heard of these, but I've usually seen them mentioned as exceptions rather than standard cases. Which is why I said "relatively" fixed number. – M. Sperling Sep 01 '20 at 17:58
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    I’m voting to close this question because it is too broad. I don't think there's any way to know this. – istrasci Sep 01 '20 at 18:47
  • I mean, for many languages with closed word classes, the overall word count in the classes are definitely known. I recall hearing that the number of i-adjectives in Japanese was on the order of a thousand, which to me makes it very likely that they've all been catalogued somewhere. – M. Sperling Sep 01 '20 at 18:54
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    Something is either 'fixed' or it isn't. Saying 'relatively fixed' doesn't make sense when you are asking if something is either closed or not, to be honest. As pointed out above, there are new verbs and adjectives being added, demonstrating that neither are a closed class. You can't accurately quantify an ever-changing quantity. – kandyman Sep 01 '20 at 19:02
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    I mean, if you really need me to, I can try to link to some of the linguistic literature describing Japanese verbs as a closed class. As with everything in linguistics, it's a spectrum. For example, English prepositions are a very prototypical example of a closed class, but a new preposition still enters the lexicon every so often. Language is messy and there's always some level of "background noise" interfering with any categorization. But time and time again in the literature I've seen Japanese given as an example of a language with a closed class of verbs, so it seems fairly established. – M. Sperling Sep 01 '20 at 19:14
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    I'd disagree with that literature then. New verbs are not that uncommon. Consider クッキングる ("to cooking", intentionally odd), スタバる ("to go to Starbucks"), ヤフる ("to search for something on Yahoo"). Verbs are not a lexically closed class in Japanese. There are not tons of new entrants, simply because most verbal concepts already have a word for them. But as new verbal concepts arise, so too do new verbs to express those concepts. – Eiríkr Útlendi Sep 01 '20 at 21:24
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    "Closed" word classes generally don't include productive morpho-syntactic elements. In this case, Japanese allows the relatively easy and productive formation of new verbs by tacking ～る on the end, and new adjectives by tacking ～い on the end. The ease of such word formation makes it unlikely that either class will be closed. By comparison, the catch-all 助詞 part of speech sees new entrants only rarely, and can more easily be called "closed" -- certainly not absolutely (even the common particle から "because" developed during the historical era), but definitely more so than verbs or adjectives. – Eiríkr Útlendi Sep 01 '20 at 21:27
  • I thought something about this question seemed familiar. :) See also my answer to the earlier question from 2013, [**Origin of 信じる, 感じる, etc?**](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/questions/11451/origin-of-%e4%bf%a1%e3%81%98%e3%82%8b-%e6%84%9f%e3%81%98%e3%82%8b-etc#answer-17467) – Eiríkr Útlendi Sep 01 '20 at 21:40
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    There are many recent, *non-loaned* verbs and i-adjectives including ばえる, じわる, もやる, きょどる, ぼこる, もにょる, 告る, 事故る, げすい, ぱない, かすい, ちゃらい and ちょろい. Sanseido's "新語 of the Year" often includes such new words. I kind of feel i-adjectives and verbs are becoming more and more productive these days. I even have a handful of i-adjectives usable only within my family :D By the way, [compound verbs](https://db4.ninjal.ac.jp/vvlexicon/db/) usually refer to those lexicalized `[verb]+[verb]`'s such as 動き回る, 飛び立つ and 聞き流す. Can we assume you want to exclude them, too? – naruto Sep 01 '20 at 23:06

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Coining new godan verbs (u-verbs) is far from exceptional in modern Japanese, and we have many related questions on this site.

I listed some well-known ones in the comment section, but just to support this, here are some rare u-verbs I happen to know personally:

  • ジャムる: "to be jammed" (gun, military jargon)
  • バベる: "to transpile JavaScript source files using Babel" (programmer's jargon)
  • ばみる: "to use plastic tape to mark the positions of actors on stage" (actor's jargon)
  • メタる: "to defeat an opponent with the aid of metagame" (card gamer's jargon)
  • アポる: "to develop a brain infarction" (medical argot)
  • サチる: "to saturate; to reach the limit" (data scientist's jargon)
  • マミる: "to be decapitated" (anime fan's jargon)
  • タヒる: "to die" (from the bottom part of 死)
  • へごる: "to say something funny unintentionally" (Ayaka Ohashi's fan's jargon)
  • ジュレる: "to be half-frozen" (leaves, gardening jargon)

Okay, these are used only in small communities, and I think less than 10% of native Japanese speakers know them. But I believe words like these are coined almost every day somewhere in Japan, and this is exactly why u-verbs are productive in Japanese.

On the other hand, the number of Japanese 助動詞 is relatively small and you can see the full list in Japanese Wikipedia.

Anyway, if you want a rough estimation, according to this page, the number of Japanese verbs listed in a certain dictionary is 10,265 (but this should include lexicalized compound verbs like 取り戻す). 国研日本語語彙DB recognizes 236 i-adjectives, but according to this page, the number of Japanese i-adjectives recognized by ATOK9 is much larger (1,302). 『品詞別日本文法講座4 形容詞・形容動詞』 by Suzuki et al lists 1,343 i-adjectives (and archaic precursors).

EDIT: I should've mentioned this... Ichidan (ru-) verbs are "relatively closed". According to this page, there are only 40 ichidan verbs that end with -iru (excluding compound verbs and archaic verbs).

naruto
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    I’m really surprised ジャムる is rare, and that you’ve listed it as military jargon. I heard it many times in office settings in Japan in the 1980s, always in reference to printers and copiers. – Nanigashi Sep 02 '20 at 19:08
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    @Nanigashi Personally I have heard only 詰まる for such situations, but there can be workplaces that have used ジャムる since the 80s. So this is another reason why u-verbs are "open" :) – naruto Sep 02 '20 at 21:13
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    Yes, exactly! :) – Nanigashi Sep 03 '20 at 20:54