70173
> この寒さをしのげそうな防寒服を手渡され、それを着込みながら僕は彼女に質問した。
>
> 「君は……」
>
> [名前なら、ないわ]
>
> こちらから訊くより先に、低く呟くような声が返ってきた。
>
> 「呼びにくければアインと呼んで。 いつもそう呼ばれてたから」
>
> 質問の出鼻をくじかれ、 **次に訊くべき言葉が出てこない** 。

My western brain doesn't know how to understand the bolded segment. It parsed
the segment as 'particle-(次に)' 'verb-(訊く)' 'particle-(べき)' 'noun-(言葉)'
'particle-(が)' 'verb-(出てこない)'. I don't know if my parsing is correct or wrong,
but I know that the following is true for parsing basic sentences.

> Japanese: Subject/topic + object + verb
>
> English: Subject + Verb + Object

Seeing as how there are two verbs in the Japanese segment, how do I understand
what the verbs and particles are doing to form a coherent sentence?
CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-08-17T23:38:18.130
70170
2019-08-18T01:12:33.890
26406
question
particles parsing auxiliaries
Given the context, what is the correct way to parse this sentence segment 次に訊くべき言葉が出てこない。?
Um, you know about Japanese relative clauses, right? If not, I have to say
this novel is too difficult for you yet. When you see a verb before a noun, it
usually means there is a relative clause involved, although there are a few
exceptions.

The _main clause_ of this sentence is:

> 言葉が出てこない。  
>  Words will not come out. (i.e., I'm at a loss for words.)

This cannot be simpler.

So 次に訊くべき is a _relative clause_ that modifies 言葉. 次に is not a particle but an
adverb meaning "next". Note that particles cannot be at the beginning of a
sentence. 訊く is "to ask". べき is an [auxiliary
verb](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/a/63365/5010) that means "should"
(see [this](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/questions/25427/when-to-
use-%E3%81%B9%E3%81%8D-and-when-to-use-%E3%81%B9%E3%81%97)).

> **次に訊くべき** 言葉が出てこない。  
>  (literally) Words **with which I should ask next** will not come out.  
>  I was at a loss for next words to ask a question.

(I used the past tense because this is an example of [historical
present](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/a/61691/5010).)

If べき is what threw you off, this べき can be dropped without largely changing
the meaning in this case: 次に訊く言葉が出てこない。
CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-08-18T00:19:12.220
70173
2019-08-18T01:12:33.890
2019-08-18T01:12:33.890
5010
5010
70170
answer