# Noun ありがとうございます



## Ilmen

皆さん、今晩は。
これは本説明書の第一の文書です。
「このたびは、〈製品とブランド〉をお買い求めいただきありがとうございます。」

Well, I have several separate questions about this sentence. Therefore, I decided to split it into three distinct threads:
*1)* このたび;
*2)* お買い求めいただき;
*3)* 〈何か〉ありがとうございます。 (this one).

So. Why is there no particle between the target, ありがとう, and ございます? I guess it is maybe an usual structure not really grammatically correct, but I prefere make sure. 
What is the grammatical class of ありがとう? Noun or verb?

宜しくお願いします。


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## rastapopoulos5

All I can tell you is that there's never any particle between ありがとう and ございます。 
ありがとう　means "thank you".
ありがとうございます　means "thank you" in polite speech.

So your whole sentence means:
1) At this occasion, 
3) thank you
2) for buying ______ from us.


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## Flaminius

> Why is there no particle between the target, ありがとう, and ございます?


I take that you meant why X (as in _X arigatōgozaimasu_) is not modified by a case particle.  In this sentence, there is no need for a particle because the complement of this expression is a gerund (_V-te itadaki_).  Maybe it is cast in the adverbial form (_itadaki_ < _itadaku_) in order to make it the complement of the expression.

When the complement is a noun as in the sentence, it either takes the accusative marker _-o_ or takes no case marker at all.  The sentences below are "Thank you for the letter" and I don't find much much difference between the two:
お手紙をありがとうございます。
お手紙ありがとうございます。

The accusative marker _-o_ is required perhaps because there is really no _arigatō_-construction with a noun as the complement.  I hold that _arigatō _with a noun implies a subordinate verb such as "to give" (Thank you for [giving] the letter).  The accusative is provided by that verb.  And of course the accusative marker is often omitted in speech.

This brings us to your next question:


> What is the grammatical class of ありがとう? Noun or verb?


ありがとうございます follows the obsolete pattern for making an adjective suitable for a polite speech.  The citation form is this adjective is ありがたい ("I am grateful").  As you know, Japanese has a lot of adjectives for describing the internal state of the speaker, while European languages often use verbs for the same functions (eg, ほしい vs. _want_, _vouloir_ [cf. "I am desirous of"]; にくい vs. _hate_, _détester_).

Whether it is ありがとう or the more mouthful ありがとうございます, the expression behaves somewhat differently from other adjectives.  First, it is always used in the direct speech (insofar as the distinction between the direct and indirect speeches can be maintained for Japanese).  When referring to someone else's thanking, for instance, you cannot just add the subject but have to quote the expression:
He thanked you.
彼はありがとうといっていたよ。
Let me tentatively call this use of an adjective as the appellative use because it is always uttered in front of the listener.  [Other adjectives for internal state also have this appellative tendency but it is not as pronounced in them as in ありがとう.]

Second, the appellative ありがとう does not provide the _-ga_ particle to the complement noun.  Other internal state adjectives mark their complements by _-ga_.
牛乳がほしい
犯人がにくい

In the regular use of the adjective, there is nothing wrong in using _-ga_:
手紙がありがたい 
It is only in the appellative use that _-ga_ is out of place:
*手紙がありがとう

As we discussed above, the appellative ありがとう may not have a noun complement at all.  This is the reason I assumed a subordinate verb like "to give" for the existence of the accusative marker _-o_.  If no case marker can be justified out of blue, it should come from somewhere.


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## Ilmen

Sorry for the time elapsed between your answer and my reply, but althougt I have already read your post, I have to study it more attentively before to see if I have further question or not.
Anyway, I want to tell you I'm impressed by your detailed explanation, and to thank you for the time you spent on my question.
I'll study it as soon as possible.


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## Rallino

Wow Flaminius, way to go! Thanks for this awesome explanation!


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## Flaminius

Let me have a go at it once again.

For "Thank you for your letter," we say in Japanese:
1. お手紙ありがとうございます
2. お手紙をありがとうございます

I don't want to modify anything in my account of the facts but lately I have been thinking it was not a good idea to assume that Sentence 1 is derived from Sentence 2.

Another "appellative" construction goes:
ご昇進おめでとうございます ("Congratulations on your promotion")
The _omedetō_-construction does not give any case marker to the complement noun.  To my mind this suggests that Sentences 1 and 2 for the _arigatō_-construction are not necessarily derived from the same construction.


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## Kaiketsu Zorori

Hello

I saw many times on these and other forums, people express their gratitude to others for helping them with a phrase constructed simply like this:
*<noun> ありがとう*, where <noun> could be メール or 返信, etc. This construct looks terribly incomplete to me from the grammatical standpoint, so I can't really figure out how it works. In particular

What part of speech ありがとう is. The dictionary states that this word is a abbreviation on its own. From its position I'd guess it has to be a verb (a verb of state of being grateful ), but I don't understand why the dictionary doesn't mark it as one. Otherwise, if it's a noun or adjective, the sentence "ありがとうです" would have worked, and I never saw anything like this (I saw only "ありがたいです").
Since the particle after <noun> is always(?) omitted, I cannot figure out what is the function of <noun> in the sentence. I would guess it is a topic here 
If anyone could, please, extend this sentence to its grammatically full equivalent and explain the points I have trouble with, I'd be gratefull


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## Flaminius

> What part of speech ありがとう is. The dictionary states that this word is a abbreviation on its own.


This expression is the product of a long process.  It started out as an compound adjective _arigatashi_ (< _ari_ (exist) + _katashi_ (hard, difficult); in the classic finis form; > _arigatai_ ) or "be rare to happen".  If you say "Such kindness is rarely to be seen", it is an expression of deep gratitude.  This later developed as a new adjective with the sense of "for one to be grateful" and "for an object to be gratitude-inspiring."

When uttered as an appellative expression, _arigatashi_  was often cast in the polite form.  In the classical grammar, the polite form was made by attaching _-gozaimasu_ at the end.  It was originally _arigatakugozaimasu_ but /k/ was lost (under haplology?) and the vowel sequence /au/ has merged into /oː/.  It is necessary to point out that _arigatōgozaimasu_ is a fossilised form.  Regular polite forms of adjectives are now made by _-desu_ (e.g., _utsukushii_ > _utsukushiidesu_; _utsukushūgozaimasu_ is obsolete).  Like you have found, _arigatai_ itself derives _arigataidesu_.

The reason _arigatōdesu_ is wrong is that _-desu_ can be suffixed to nouns and adnominal forms.  _Arigatō_ is neither.  It is the casual abbreviation of _arigatōgozaimasu_.


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## kenjoluma

Some old fixed classical expressions should be memorized no matter what. Sad but true.
ありがとう＋ございます
おめでとう＋ございます
etc.

They are very 'ancient' forms... while you know です is quite relatively new. (-desu form is only about 400 years old max) 

Most of verbs and adjectives have gone through many grammatical changes including -desu, but some of them haven't. Arigatou is one of them.


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## Ilmen

What a good surprise, this thread came to resurface! 

To me, the explication of Flaminius is very clear and comprehensive. This is similar to the French equivalent of ありがとうございます, "Merci beaucoup", that would be a bit difficult to explain from a grammatical point of view. 

Nonetheless, there is a point I would like to discuss:


Flaminius said:


> I take that you meant why X (as in _X arigatōgozaimasu_) is not modified by a case particle.  In this sentence, there is no need for a particle because the complement of this expression is a gerund (_V-te itadaki_).  Maybe it is cast in the adverbial form (_itadaki_ < _itadaku_) in order to make it the complement of the expression.
> 
> When the complement is a noun as in the sentence, it either takes the accusative marker _-o_ or takes no case marker at all.  The sentences below are "Thank you for the letter" and I don't find much much difference between the two:
> お手紙をありがとうございます。
> お手紙ありがとうございます。
> 
> The accusative marker _-o_ is required perhaps because there is really no _arigatō_-construction with a noun as the complement.  I hold that _arigatō _with a noun implies a subordinate verb such as "to give" (Thank you for [giving] the letter).  The accusative is provided by that verb.  And of course the accusative marker is often omitted in speech.




Could you provide us an example of such a hidden subordinate verb? I hardly see how the accusative case of a word included in the main clause can pertain to a verb in a subortinate clause as in 「（くださった）お手紙をありがとうございます」.
Did you mean something like 「お手紙を（くださり）ありがとうございます」? Though there is no subortinate clause in this last one. :/


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## Flaminius

Yes, I meant お手紙を(くださり).  It is not a complete sentence and only augments the main clause, thus a subordinate clause, no?


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## Kaiketsu Zorori

Thank you, *Flaminius*. It'll take me some time to digest 
For now I understand that there's no practical reasons to try and understand how the phrase works, because
- It is always used in this same form and
- As you explained, the grammar here is obsolete and I might never encounter it anywhere except these examples.

And sorry for posting a duplicate question.

It's partly due to the fact whenever the query contains kana or kanji, search returns a random set of results irrelevant to my query. Only searches for English characters seem to work properly.


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## Ilmen

*Flaminius*, yes, I think you are right, it is a subordinate, given that there is no actual conjugated verb therein: くださり being an adverbial form (gerund?), it depends on the verb of the main clause (in this case ございます) to define its tense, just like the conjunctive form does. Am I right?

*Kaiketsu Zorori*, I think there is some other similar fossilized expressions, like おめでとう (= congratulatons), that follows the same grammatical pattern (happy birthday = おたんじょうびおめでとう).
Notice that both ありがとう and おめでとう have a とう ending. Maybe have they similar origins?


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