I have done some research on where the so-called past tense, the -た form, came from (after hearing that there is no such thing as conjugation in Japanese).
Through my research I read that it came from the archaic verb たる. I have read that the so-called “particle” たり (as in “テレビを見たり、パソコンをしたりしている”) has the same origin.
Could you explain the actual grammar of -た and -たり as well as their etymology, the meaning of たる, and provide some example phrases for me to understand their literal meaning?
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I’d be fascinated to know more about this. -たる is sometimes encountered in formal/high-register Japanese today, so it’s not completely dead. It’s a bit like ‘thou shalt’ in English (in the sense that it’s archaic but still understandable, not in terms of its meaning). When you see it today, it seems to be used in modifying expressions, coming right before the noun.
Just Googled it and got this:
紳士たるもの口より先に行動で示す
This is the explanation: 「たる」の前には職業や立場を表す名詞が接続されます。
後件には「～するべき」「～しなければならない」「～してはいけない」などが呼応し、その職業や立場の人はこうするべきだと釘を刺す言い方です。
I would have understand that in context, but would have struggled to think of a way of using it myself without looking it up. The link with the past tense, -た, -たら, -たり, etc., is far from obvious here. We’ll have to wait for someone more knowledgeable.
If I’m not wrong, たり came from [たり](https://classicaljapanese.wordpress.com/2014/02/26/auxiliary-verb-tari/) Classical Japanese referred to completed actions or progressive states.
たる (the parent auxiliary verb) , as the prefect aspect, shows an action as complete, not necessarily as in the past. It’s important to note this may be a contraction of たるending in て-form in a contraction with あり (which is in ren’youkei). て is a particle, but also some て-form verbs form complex particles.
I do things like watch TV (and when that’s finished), use the computer (and when that’s finished…).
Quick tl;dr on etymology: they’re probably unrelated.
[断定の助動詞「たり」](https://dictionary.goo.ne.jp/word/%E3%81%9F%E3%82%8A/#jn-139245) is an 音変化 from 格助詞「と」+動詞「あり」, whereas [完了の助動詞「たり」](https://dictionary.goo.ne.jp/word/%E3%81%9F%E3%82%8A/#jn-139246) is… well, just that. Doesn’t seem like they share any meaningful level of etymological root(s).
FYI, you typically don’t get much out of digging into Japanese etymology, unlike a lot of European ones that tends to end up in Latin or Greek or whatever (and benefit from synergy by the shared root). In Japanese it’s either ridiculously old and no one knows for sure, or the explanation dives into Classical Japanese and it doesn’t help much.
> after hearing that there is no such thing as conjugation in Japanese
Uhh… not sure who told you this but there is a reason why verbs are called 五段 (five-steps) and 一段 (one-step)