also: だり
doing A and B; A-ing and B-ing; alternating or listing actions
Used in the pattern 〜たり〜たり, often followed by する, to list representative or alternating actions and states rather than an exhaustive sequence.
週末は映画を見たり、本を読んだりして過ごす。
On weekends I spend time doing things like watching movies and reading books.
子どもが廊下を行ったり来たりしている。
A child is going back and forth in the hallway.
doing things like ...; such as doing ...
A single 〜たり, especially in 〜たりする or 〜たりしない, presents the action as one example among possible things.
夜中に大きな音を立てたりしないでください。
Please don't do things like making loud noises in the middle of the night.
commanding form with repeated verb
A special sentence-final 〜たり〜たり pattern with a repeated verb stem, described as expressing a command. This is not the ordinary modern way to give commands.
「行きたり行きたり」は、「行け」と命じる特殊な形として説明される。
“Iki-tari iki-tari” is explained as a special form commanding someone to go.
copula, auxiliary verb, irregular -ru verb (-ri ending)
Only with reading たり
Archaic copular たり used after a noun, from とあり. The related attributive form たる is more familiar in set literary-style expressions.
See also: たる
auxiliary verb, irregular -ru verb (-ri ending)
have done; be in a resulting state; continue to be doing
Only with reading たり
Archaic auxiliary たり used after a verb stem, from 〜てあり, indicating completion or a continuing/resulting state.
On my days off, I do things like read books and listen to music.
In classical Japanese, “kare wa ō tari” means “he is a king.”
In classical Japanese, “hana saki tari” means “the flowers are in bloom” or “the flowers have bloomed.”
He sometimes does things like skip work.
とか is a casual way to list examples of nouns or clauses, while たり is the standard grammatical pattern for listing representative actions, usually with 〜たりする.
や lists nouns non-exhaustively (like 'and' among other things), whereas たり lists actions or states and attaches to verb or adjective forms.
たる is the classical attributive form of the copular たり (as in 教師たる者), while たり itself is mainly used today in the 〜たり〜たりする listing pattern.
Kana particle and auxiliary form. In modern use it appears bound to verb and adjective forms, as in 見たり and 行ったり.
Voiced allomorph seen in forms such as 読んだり and 遊んだり. It is not used for the archaic たり auxiliary and copula senses restricted to たり.
Archaic copular たり as from とあり and archaic auxiliary たり as from 〜てあり. The modern kana particle is a bound grammatical form; だり is the voiced allomorph in appropriate verb forms.