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Here are some examples:

> 取れる+たて -> 取れたて
>
> ・取れたてのたけのこ; fresh bamboo shoots that have just been harvested.
>
> できる+たて -> できたて
>
> ・できたてのごはん; fresh rice that has just been cooked.
>
> 生まれる+たて -> 生まれたて
>
> ・生まれたての赤ちゃん; a newly born baby

In what way is it a version of the conjunctive form (連用形?) ? How does this
suffix(?) work and what meaning does it express?
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2012-04-27T01:53:16.920
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2012-04-28T06:20:24.940
2012-04-27T03:53:35.053
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grammar
What is the たて in 取れる+たて?
It is the suffix -tate and expresses that something was just completed. It
attaches to the adverbial form (連用形) of verbs. In kanji, it is written as 立て.
It has nothing to do with the past tense marker -ta.
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2012-04-27T02:05:08.930
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2012-04-27T02:14:47.607
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The original question was quite different making my initial answer irrelevant.
(It originally asked what this -tate means and assumed that it was past tense
-ta plus -te.)

> In what way is a version of the conjunctive form (連用形?) ?

All verbs have a 連用形. All of the examples that you gave are 一段 verbs, so the
連用形 looks the same: tore-ru --> tore, deki-ru --> deki, umare-ru --> umare. If
you expand that to include 五段 verbs such as yom-u, you will see that the 連用形
is yomi.

If you are not familiar with the grammatical vocabulary, the easiest way to
remember this is that 連用形 is the form that -masu attaches to. So, tore-ru -->
tore-masu, deki-ru --> deki-masu, yom-u --> yom-i-masu, umare-ru --> umare-
masu.

Just like -masu, -tate attaches to the 連用形 of verbs.
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2012-04-27T02:36:56.347
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Thank you Dono, with you pointing out the kanji I found a definition.

立て 【たて】 (pref) (1) central; main; head; chief; (suf) (2) (uk) just (done);
freshly (baked); indicates activity only just occurred; (ctr) (3) counter for
consecutive losses [Edit][Ex][G][GI][S][A]

彼はその時大学を卒業したてであった。 He was then fresh from college.
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2012-04-28T00:16:28.607
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たて is 立て, which is related to 立つ (to stand up).

立ちながらタバコを吸う （tachinagara tabako o suu: to smoke while standing).

Something just having finished seems to be somehow related to standing,
etymologically or semantically. The kanji used to write it reveals the
connection.

Verbs take on shifted meanings when used to form agglutinative compounds. 見る
(miru) turns into "try something", 置く (oku) turns into "prepare for later
convenience" etc.

In 立て there seems to be a similar effect although the grammatic function isn't
the same.

If some action recently finished its effect is "standing", in some sense. The
rice was cooked, and it is still cooked now: the cooked status "stands" (a
metaphor for persistence in a state that was recently achieved).
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2012-04-28T06:20:24.940
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