掲示板 Forums - Verb stem ("formal te form") question

I am working through Quartet and one of the grammar points seemed pretty simple: it's "formal" te form where the verb stem is used instead of te. I don't understand the example sentences that are given that seem to mix formal and casual, though. Why in god's name would you use a formal "te" (verb stem) but then end the sentence in casual form? Does the "formal te" mean that formal "desu", "~masu", etc are not used? Is it therefore wrong to use desu? Can someone explain these?

例文：

金曜日に東京に行き、仕事の面接を受ける予定だ <-- why not "です"?

昨日は雪が降り、風も強くて寒かった。<-- why mixing verb stem 'te' and adjective 'te'? why not 強くand why not 寒かったです

事故があり、道が込んでいた。

この町は物価が安く、住みやすい。

I’m not familiar with the material, but I expect some of the confusion here comes from conflating formal writing with polite conversation (respectful language). It’s common to use plain verbs in things like scientific papers and other serious or “formal” writing. I think it’s also true that this type of writing tends to avoid the て-form. Why? It’s probably one of those arbitrary things, like avoiding the first-person when writing in English, that signals to the reader that you are a serious person making a serious argument.

Ok, I think I know why I got confused (and probably you too).

First, like ギョルギ九十三 was saying, there is this form in japanese called 連用形 (れんようけい). Basically, it's the " verb connective form" (If I try to literaly translate the kanji). In japanese, it's just one things but in english, well... it's mess. I forgot that but some people called it also the "masu verb stem" (Which is one of the cause why it became so messy).

Like I said, in japanese, it's just one unique thing.

As you can see in the image and in the colum for the 連用形, you can find ーき and ーっ in the last line. Applied to 行く, you get 行き and 行っ. And that 行き is the "masu verb stem" they are probably talking about in your book. Because 行き + ます => 行きます. But it has nothing to do with politness. It's still a "verb connective form", a form that connect/"allow" a connection to another verb (except for one case which is the て form). And that verb here is "ます". Because ます is a verb in japanese (an helper verb to be precise).

Now that I got rid of that damn "masu verb stem", we can move to the second part. 行き and 行っ are the 連用形 of 行く (and more or less the same thing). And the so called "て form" is just the 行っ + て here. て (or で) being a particule whose function here is 補助の関係 ("support relation" kinda, basically what you already of the て form).

That for the deconstruction. Now, if we sum up, the verb stem they are talking about is probably just the "行き", "降り", "あり" that are being used instead of the て form. Because, it's same thing. Except it gives a more "formal/narrative" tone. That goes well with the "neutral" form (だ, った, etc) like ポールおじちゃん said. They are not casual by themselves (they are "casual" in english only). It's more like those become casual in conversation because you don't make the effort of using polite speech. But by themselves, it's the neutral/basic form. Also, it would be weird I think to use です, ます in a newspaper, a research article or a text like the one you showed us. Because politeness is mostly about adapting yourself to someone else. ます, です is just the basic minimum. After that there is also 尊敬語, 謙譲語, words that you should in certain case with certain people, etc. Now that I think about it, it's maybe more because you don't do any that when you use the だ、った, etc that it feel casual in japanese (and it was translated by the "casual" form in english). Politeness is package that only start with ます, です.
And in a newspaper, a research article, etc, you can't do that by comparison. Because you don't know the person you're talking with. Using the wrong polite speech is as wrong as not using ます with stranger (or at least, it would be really weird). So, it's better to stick with the neutral form. It's more "adapted". Plus the 連用形 gives a formal/narrative tone.


PS: Also, Old japanese て form: 行く -> 行き + て -> 行きて. The modern て form is just a transformation from the older 連用形 + て form, 行きて, to the current one, 行って.
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