linguistic theory for the day

[kaigou]

Emphatic participles in Japanese, for which there is no direct equivalent in English, may instead be translated as follows (as deduced after lengthy research, discussion, and some chocolate). Just take a simple statement:

I'm going to walk the dog

...and add the following:

you gotta problem with that?



Works for pretty much any statement, anywhere, anytime.

Hah.

Now, I wonder. What characters other than Duo (GW) use this kind of emphatic participle in the original Japanese? Do tell.

Comments

[mikkeneko.livejournal.com]

Heh heh heh. I'm just remembering an Oldenburg lunch, where we were sitting at the language tables (no english allowed, or aloud, either) and one of the Japanese professors, this tall geeky glasses looking fellow, comes up and politely asks us if he can sit down.

A beat, and then he suddenly remembered that he was supposed to talk in a manly fashion, and added "...yo..." afterwards.

So it come out sounding kinda like, "I was wondering if you had room for me to sit at your table...... SUCKAS?"

[solitude1056.livejournal.com]

Bwah. That does kinda ruin the effect, if you have to make the effort for that kind of attitude!