「本当"に"」なのに何故「マジ"で"」なのか。"マジに"考えてしまった。(この 使い方は合ってるか…？)

ブログにするような記事ではないんだけど、自分のFBのタイムラインで(せっかく)長く書いたからこっちにも残しておこうと思って。

以下がその文。間違ってる記述とか変な記述もあるかも知れないけど、そこはまぁ素人が思い付きで書いた文だと思って大目に見て、良かったら間違いを指摘してください。

"本当"って言葉は副詞的に"本当に"って使うけど、"本当"と同じ様な意味で使われる"マジ"は"マジに"とは使わないよね。"マジで"だよね。

「で」と「に」の感覚的な違いを考えると、なんで「本当"に"」と「マジ"で"」なんだろうと思う。"で"って場所や手段を表すのに使われるのに。「日本で...(働く)」とか「車で...(行く)」みたく。"に"も場所や動作とかの方向や対象を表して使われるけど。「日本に...(行く)」とか「人に...(会う)」とか。

"に"の他の意味、用法としては先に言ったように、形容詞を副詞にする時。"キレイ"を"キレイに(作る)"みたく。"キレイで…"とは言わない。つまり、同じ副詞的に使われる言葉でも"マジで"の形の方が例外的だなって思うんだけど、違うかなぁ。他に"で"で終わる副詞ってぱっと思い付かない。"に"で終わるのは思い付く。実際に、現実的に、確実に、上手に…

ま、どんな言語にも言葉にも例外はあるけどね。英語だって大抵の副詞は形容詞の形に-lyを付けるだけだけど、例外だってある。形容詞と副詞の形が一緒とか。hardが一例。余談だけど、hardlyになると"殆ど…ない"になる。例えば"work hard"だと"ハードに(一所懸命/しっかり)働く"って意味だけど、"work hardly" (間違えて hard を副詞にして hardly にしただけって仮定だからこの順だけど実際に自然な言い方(本人の意図する意味とは違ったとしても)は "hardly work") だと"殆ど働かない"って意味になっちゃう。全く逆の意味になっちゃう。平叙文では大抵の場合副詞は動詞の前でも後ろでもいい(でも基本的には多くの場合で前。でもこれも例外があって後ろじゃなきゃだめな時もある。例えば "I thought well" (よく考えた) とは言うけど "I well thought" とは言わない。でも "He kindly welcomed me" とも "He welcomed me kindly" とも言える。前者の方が自然だけど)。

蛇足が長くなったね。ま、元の話に戻るけどこういう言葉の不思議とか例外とか、考えるのは"マジに"面白い。"interestingに"考えさせられる。

「例えば」の現代日本語における文法的なナンセンスさ

日本語でふと思った事。

「例えば」って言葉は「例えるなら」って意味として使われるけど、この「例えば」って現代の日本語の文法に当てはめると、doesn't make sense （ここでは「意味をなさない」みたいな意味）だよね。って言うのも、「例え」って言葉は名詞で、動詞にすると「例えよ」ってなると思うけど、「〜ば」って形とするならば「例えれば」じゃん。動詞だと終止形って言うのかな、動詞として辞書に載ってる形は「例える」だし。終止形（命令形）としては「例え」じゃないじゃん。だから、現代の日本語の文法で言うと「例えるとするならば」って意味の「例えば」は「例えれば」になるべきじゃないのかな。もちろん「例えば」は単に慣用的な言葉として使われてはいるしみんな同じ意味で使ってるから問題はないし、直せとは思わないけど。

例えば！「言えば」って言葉も「言い換えれば」とか「（敢えて）言うとするならば」とかいう意味で使われる（少なくとも俺の周りでは）けど、「言ば（いば）」とは言わない。「言わば」とは言うけど。これはちょっと違う話かな？「言い換えば」とは言わないで「言い換えれば」と言うっていうのは良い例かな。

ま、何て言うのかな、とにかく「例えば」は言葉の構成(？)としては現代の日本語としては変だなと思うってこと。

NEW!ってなってる所の「日本に住む外国人が好きな日本人」って見た時、一瞬意味分からなかったのよ。で、あぁ俺みたいな人かって思ったけど実際は違う意味だった。笑 みんなは分かる？

これ考え方によって３通りの意味になるよね。「日本に住む外国人、その人たちに好かれてる日本人」と「外国人の事を好きな日本に住む日本人」と「日本に住んでる外国人のを好きな日本人（この日本人は日本に住んでる人限定ではない）」。

外国人男が好きな日本人女とかいるじゃん。だから俺はその意味かと思ったのよ。

Where it has an icon NEW! it says 「日本に住む外国人が好きな日本人」I couldn't understand what it means for a moment as it can have three meanings. I decided it means "Japanese people living in Japan that like foreigners" - it's people like me. But what i

t means was not that, but it was "Japanese people (e.g. historical people) that foreigners living in Japan like."

I believe those who have good understanding of Japanese grammar can see the confusion that the sentence can have three meanings "Japanese people living in Japan that like foreigners," "Japanese people that like foreigners living in Japan," and "Japanse people that foreigners living in Japan like." Explaining it in English, maybe it seems funny for those who don't know Japanese well enough that one sentence can technically (grammatically) have those completely different three meanings.

Let me explain further as to why it happens. To do so, let's break down the sentence. BUT before that, you should know that the expression "~ な ..." in Japanese describes something - an adjective comes at "~" and the thing described comes at "..." For instance, "有名な人" is "person (people) that is/are famous." Note that it's not the same as "famous person/people." In English, adjective describes what comes after the adjective, but in Japanese, unless the adjective ends with ~い (like きれい) sound, the very principle idea is like "[something] that is [adjective]" (although the adjective spatially comes first). So, more simply, "きれいな花" in English would be "beautiful flower," but what "きれいな花" grammatically has as a nuance is more like "flower that is beautiful." Got it? I think it's like French. "room, huge." hah

Having the idea above in mind, you can see "外国人が好きな日本人" as "Japanese people that like foreigners." If you combine "外国人" that with what's before that, "日本に住む" it would mean "foreigners living in Japan." So if you see the sentence divided as "日本に住む外国人" and "が好きな日本人" it means "Japanese people that like foreigners living in Japan."

To mean "Japanese people living in Japan that like foreigners," you see "日本に住む (living in Japan)" and "日本人 (Japanese people)" together as "日本に住む日本人 (Japanese people living in Japan." In this case, you see "外国人が好きな日本人" just as an adjective (describing "Japanese people living in Japan). So, grammatically it's unnecessary information - that those "Japanese living in Japan" like foreigners. To make the sentence clearer to mean "Japanese people living in Japan that like foreigners," you can chance the order of syllables into "外国人が好きな日本に住む日本人." Oh well, now it can mean "Japanese people living in Japan that foreigners like." Now it's "foreigners that like Japanese people living in Japan," not "Japanese people living in Japan that like foreigners." lol Well... But with this sentence "外国人が好きな日本に住む日本人," it has only two possible meanings: "Japanese people living in Japan that like foreigners" and "Japanese people living in Japan that foreigners like."

Okay, lastly, for the sentence to mean what it was meant to mean, "Japanese people that foreigners living in Japan like," you can see ...hmm this is the trickiest (that's why I got the meaning wrong) OK, let's use commas. if you put comma "日本に住む外国人が、好きな日本人" that case it's clear that it means "Japanese people that foreigners living in Japan like."

For the two meanings I wrote above, if I have to keep the words in this order, I would write "日本に住む外国人が好きな、日本人" to mean "Japanese people that like foreigners living in Japan" and "日本に住む、外国人が好きな日本人" to mean "Japanse people living in Japan that like foreigners." But now it can also mean "Japanese people, who are living in Japan, that foreigners like." So... Ichiro, MLB player is not living in Japan currently, I guess, so he will be excluded. lol

*素人の語学的な説明ですが専門的な知識をお持ちの方、何か間違っている所があったら訂正してください。*

*My linguistic explanation is only as an amateur, so if any Japanese linguists or anyone with deeper knowledge finds any mistake in my explanation, please correct me.*

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"Eliminated" Subjects in Japanese Language

If you are reading this blog, you are likely a subscriber of my YouTube channel, I believe.
Thank you, if so.

As I have just recently talked about Japanese language especially on the general idea among those who are learning Japanese and are familiar with Western languages (or English, at least) that in Japanese language, the subjects are often eliminated. (The link: http://youtu.be/GuiGe8nT_os)

Even though I have already TALKED about it in the video above, I decided to give some further examples comparing more real-life, longer sentences both in Japanese and English.

I will try to write the English sentences as natural as possible, so I believe it should sound natural unless you try to nitpick or I make big mistakes. Then, I will write the same thing in Japanese as closely to the English sentences as possible. I will not translate what each Japanese word and sentence means, or I will not write the Japanese sentences again with hiragana or romaji. In today's Internet-based world, you must be able to look up on the Internet like Google or any translator.

I hope you will see some differences between Japanese and English in their natural sentences.

So, here we go.

Yesterday, I decided to go to the cinema to watch "Amazing Spidermam" with my family today, since on every 1st day of a month is a day that we can watch movies for 1,000 yen each. I was looking forward to it because I love wtching movies, and Amazing Spiderman was one of the movies I currently wanted to watch.

To get to the theater early in order to buy the tickets in time, we had to wake up at 8 am. However, when I woke up, it was already 10 am! I checked the living room, but there was nobody. My family had already gone (and actually the movie had already started according to the schedule), and I was so shocked. I thought I had set the alarm on 8:00, but I didn't hear any sound.

But good news is that I will go to the cinema again on the following Wednesday since it's another "special day" when a pairs of people can watch movies for 1,000 yen each. I will go with my mom, and I will have her pay for me!

毎月一日は映画が1,000円で観られるから、今日家族と「アメージング スパイダーマン」を観に行こうって昨日からなってた。今観たい映画の一つだったし、俺映画が大好きだから楽しみにしてた。

早めに映画館に着いてチケットを買うためには朝8時に起きないといけなかった。でも起きたらもう10時だった！リビング見てみたけど誰もいなかった。もうみんな行っちゃってて(実はもう既に映画も始まってた)、かなりショックだった。8時に目覚ましセットしたつもりだったんだけど、何も聞こえなかった。

でも良い事があって、次の水曜日も映画が二人で行けば1,000円で観られる「スペシャルデー」なの。だから母と行って、お金払ってもらおうと思ってる。


Okay, that's it. You know what? Having written those sentences in Japanese, I kind of felt odd with the sentences. Grammatically, there should be not (at least big ones) mistakes, but it just feels odd to write Japanese sentences... I think I would write more casual way if I am to write about this kind of daily event.

Or let me write the same thing in maybe different sentences.
If I try NOT to make the sentence sound closer to the English sentences, I think it will be natural.

一日は毎月映画が1,000円で観られるから、今日家族でアメージング スパイダーマン観に行こうってなってて、俺映画大好きだしスパイダーマンも見たかったから楽しみにしてた。

朝8時には起きないと早めに映画館に着いてチケット買えない感じだったから、朝8時に起きる予定だったんだけど、起きた時はもう10時だった。リビング見てみたらもうみんな行っちゃってたの。マジでショックだった。8時に目覚ましかけといたはずなんだけど、何も聞こえなかった。

でも、次の水曜も二人で行けば映画1,000円で観られるから母と行って、そんでお金も払ってもらって映画観ようと思う。笑


Having written the same ideas in English and Japanese, I've noticed that each requires different ideas, thinking, and techniques. Having to, or trying to, write the same sentences in Japanese and English respectively, it was kind of difficult. I'd rather write only in English or Japanese, or using only some words or phrase that I can't express only with Japanese or English. That works better for me.

Kouhei

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Cup Noodle, Ice Bar, and Lightsaber

Hello. I realized that this Random Japanese Stuff has the fewest posts. lol

Whatever.

So, today I had these for lunch. Cup Noodle Kalbi, ice candy bar called Gari-gari kun, and a Lightsaber!

First, this is Cup Noodle Kalbi, called KalbiST. What? Plus, in Japanese on the packages says, "For those who love salt kalbi from the bottom of heart." Seriously.

And next, this ice candy bar. Look! Obi-Wan Kenobi is on the package! It's collaborated with Star Wars ep. 1 coming up on March 16th in 3D in Japan. So cool.

And then, on the bar has a print of Obi-Wan's lightsaber. This kind of ice candy ガリガリ君 has loto, 当たり (you won the lotto), or ハズレ (if you didn't win, it says nothing). With regular ガリガリ君, if you get an 当たり, you can get another bar for free. But with this Star Wars version, you will get a limited T-shirt. Man, I want one!

For those who were wondering, YES, I had ice candy and cup noodle at the same time for lunch. I had ice candy first, and then cup noodle. What's the matter? NOTHING.

Kouhei