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I know that the て form can be used to connect verbs together, like the English "and":

毎日私は食べて寝る。

I eat and sleep every day.

And I know the 連用形 can be used to connect verbs as well, but it kind of combines the meanings of the two verbs, like 飲み込む.

But I am confused by this sentence which appears a lot in TV shows and anime:

この番組はフィクションであり、登場する人物、団体、場所、法律および名称等は実在のものとは一切関係ありません

Why is ある conjugated to 連用形 here? I can understand everything else but this. I have never seen a 連用形 not followed by any other word at the end of a sentence. It is clearly saying that 'This show is a fiction and characters, organization and other stuff is not related to things IRL whatsoever".

Why isn't the て form used here?

この番組はフィクションであって、登場する人物、団体、場所、法律および名称等は実在のものとは一切関係ありません

Can 連用形s be used as て forms, like this?

毎日私は食べ寝る。

Surely not, right?

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Sweeper
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    Related: http://japanese.stackexchange.com/q/23789/5010 – naruto Feb 17 '17 at 13:34
  • What does not followed by any other word at the end of a sentence. mean? Because I don't get it. – virmaior Feb 17 '17 at 13:35
  • Usually 連用形s are used to form other verbs, like 飲み込む, or it is used as a noun. If it is latter case and the word is at the end of a sentence, usually there is a だ or です after it, like 今は夏休みだ @virmaior – Sweeper Feb 17 '17 at 13:42
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    Maybe this is true in your usage, I regularly use the 連用形 to end non-final clauses (i.e. not to create things like 飲み込む but rather 宿題を出し、指示をする) – virmaior Feb 17 '17 at 13:48

2 Answers2

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Your logic is actually upside down. It's 連用形 that connects clauses, so it's just natural that …食べ、寝る means "eat and sleep". And the point is, te forms are another 連用形 (of 食べつ or 寝つ etc). That's why te forms can connect clauses.

Incidentally, there's no semantic difference between normal 連用形 and te forms in modern grammar.

user4092
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この番組はフィクションであり、登場する人物、団体、場所、法律および名称等は実在のものとは一切関係ありません

Since this story is a fiction, the people who in the story, ..... are not related with others in real existence.

この番組はフィクションであって、登場する人物、団体、場所、法律および名称等は実在のものとは一切関係ありません

This story is a fiction, and the people who in the story, .... are not related with others in real existence.

Update:

Which one prefer:

Since I studied Japanese a lot, I can speak Japanese very well.

I studied Japanese a lot, and I can speak Japanese very well.

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  • So であり is like なので or だから? – Sweeper Feb 17 '17 at 18:42
  • "The story is a fiction(話)" is not the same as "the people(人) who in the story". So in this case, "and" is not proper. – wf9a5m75 Feb 17 '17 at 18:42
  • I always thought that the whole point of te-form is to connect two different things, like "eat and sleep". Here, as you said, the story is not the same as the people and other stuff, so why is wrong to use the te-form? – Sweeper Feb 17 '17 at 18:46
  • You could be "であって" in this situation, but "であり" separates at the comma at once obviously (as the same as "Since(Because)"). – wf9a5m75 Feb 17 '17 at 18:56