Phrases that are joined without using the ~te form

[Bucko]

I've been doing a bit of reading in Japanese and have noticed that a lot of sentences have two separate phrases but aren't joined in the ~te form.

For example, I'm reading this book about Napolean and it's describing the place where he was born (where there's aparently a hot wind that makes people aggressive):

ナポレオンは、地中海のコルシカ島に生まれ、この熱風 にふかれてそだったのです。

So regarding this sentence, my questions are:
1) why do they use 生まれ and not the ~te form? Is it something to do with the passive ふかれ? These non-te phrases within sentences confuse me;
2) what is this 'tesodatta' (and I double checked, it's not 'soudatta'). A Google search of てそだった brings up only 10 results!

Thanks in advance!

[Alan]

2) what is this 'tesodatta' (and I double checked, it's not 'soudatta'). A Google search of てそだった brings up only 10 results!

Try splitting the words differently. Then look up "sodatsu"

[Jason]

I believe it's an older/more "literary" way of connecting sentences by using the conjuctive form (the -masu stem). It's all over the place in the Bible. As far as I can tell, it acts pretty much like connecting with the te-form.

[Bueller_007]

I've been doing a bit of reading in Japanese and have noticed that a lot of sentences have two separate phrases but aren't joined in the ~te form.

For example, I'm reading this book about Napolean and it's describing the place where he was born (where there's aparently a hot wind that makes people aggressive):

ナポレオンは、地中海のコルシカ島に生まれ、この熱風 にふかれてそだったのです。

So regarding this sentence, my questions are:
1) why do they use 生まれ and not the ~te form? Is it something to do with the passive ふかれ? These non-te phrases within sentences confuse me;

Thanks in advance!

Jason's right. This is literary style. Not just used in the Bible, but in all professional literary works. Go check out Japanese Wikipedia and you'll see this all over the place. It's the same as -te form.

2) what is this 'tesodatta' (and I double checked, it's not 'soudatta'). A Google search of てそだった brings up only 10 results!

I suggest that you read the sentence again. "Tesodatta" is not a word. Recall that ふく (吹く) means "to blow" and ふかれる is the passive. ふかれて is the -te form of the word.
そだった=育った=to be raised/to grow up (the plain form is そだつ, as Alan said)

The sentence means:
ナポレオンは、地中海のコルシカ島に生まれ、この熱風 にふかれてそだったのです。
"Napoleon was born on the island of Corsica in the Mediteranean Sea, and grew up with its warm wind blowing upon him."

[bob1777]

Jason's right. This is literary style. Not just used in the Bible, but in all professional literary works.

I hear this style also often on Jp TV, in history/culture type of programs.
Comparing to English (or other languages too I guess), not everything is connected by AND.

On a side note (not trying to discourage you at all), I have to say book hsitory book in Japanese could be a tough one to use for learning the language . I used books for kids .. (various grades)

[Bucko]

It's a kids history book. I got it from the kids section of a bookshop. One of the unfortunate things about it is that it doesn't have enough kanji, so I have to read most of it in hiragana which gets confusing.

[Bueller_007]

It's a kids history book. I got it from the kids section of a bookshop. One of the unfortunate things about it is that it doesn't have enough kanji, so I have to read most of it in hiragana which gets confusing.

Reading in hiragana is actually better practice in some ways. It might seem useless, but not having the kanji there to help you actually makes reading tasks a lot more similar to listening tasks.

That said, yeah, it's a bit of a pain in the ass.