Editing Japanese grammar (section)

==Sentences, phrases and words==
{{nihongo|''Text''|文章|bunshō}} is composed of {{nihongo|''[[Sentence (linguistics)|sentences]]''|文|bun}}, which are in turn composed of {{nihongo|''[[phrase]]s''|文節|bunsetsu}}, which are its smallest coherent components. Like [[Chinese language|Chinese]] and classical [[Korean language|Korean]], written Japanese does not typically demarcate words with spaces; its agglutinative nature further makes the concept of a ''[[word]]'' rather different from words in [[English language|English]]. The reader identifies word divisions by semantic cues and a knowledge of phrase structure. Phrases have a ''single'' meaning-bearing word, followed by a string of [[suffix]]es, [[auxiliary verb]]s and [[Grammatical particle|particles]] to modify its meaning and designate its grammatical role.

{{fs interlinear|indent=3|lang=ja|transl=Hepburn
|太陽が 東の 空に 昇る。
|{taiyō ga} {higashi no} {sora ni} noboru
|{sun SBJ} {east POSS} {sky LOC} rise
|The sun rises in the eastern sky.}}

Some scholars [[Romanization|romanize]] Japanese sentences by inserting spaces only at phrase boundaries (''i.e.'', "{{transliteration|ja|taiyō-ga higashi-no sora-ni noboru}}"), treating an entire phrase as a single word. This represents an almost purely phonological conception of where one word ends and the next begins. There is some validity in taking this approach: [[phonology|phonologically]], the [[Preposition and postposition|postpositional]] particles [[Clitic|merge with the structural word that precedes them]], and within a ''phonological'' phrase, the [[Japanese pitch accent|pitch]] can have at most one fall. Usually, however, grammarians adopt a more conventional concept of {{nihongo|''word''|単語|tango}}, one which invokes meaning and sentence structure.

===Phrasal movement===
In Japanese, phrasal constituents can be moved to the beginning or the end of the sentence. Leftward movement of a phrasal constituent is referred to as "scrambling".