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

[i-paint-the-sky.livejournal.com]

If I'm understanding this correctly (I don't know the GW Japanese script well enough to know what Duo actually does), then Chichiri in Fushigi Yuugi uses them...he says "no da" after a fair amount of his lines. The English script translated it to "you know", which while it sounds really bad, is probably the best they could come up with.

[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?"

[miyabiarashi.livejournal.com]

Is the particle "ze"? 'cause that's really badass. I think it was Kurogane who uses it too?

[solitude1056.livejournal.com]

Doh. Kurogane is...that's the anime name? It's ringing a bell but I can't place it.

[christeos-pir.livejournal.com]

Peas Maker?

[solitude1056.livejournal.com]

Doh. Gotta be it. Err, I think. Are there two Kuroganes? I can't recall. *dhed*

[gakifang.livejournal.com]

Hi, I'm completely random, but doesn't Reno from FF7 use 'zo to' and 'yo' alot?

[solitude1056.livejournal.com]

No problem to be random. I have no idea if Reno does -- I only saw Advent Children and spent most of the time going "hunh? who's that?" (I'm not a gamer) -- but he certainly has the personality of a yakuza talking smack! ...when he's not getting thrown out of places, that is.

[solitude1056.livejournal.com]

I've heard the 'no da' in some animes -- when it's repeated incessantly, it becomes really annoying even if you can't grasp the actual meaning! It's sort of like midwesterners who put "mmkay?" at the end of every flippin' sentence. I had a professor who did that, and by the second hour of the seminar, I was ready to get up, walk down to the podium, and STRANGLE the man!

[solitude1056.livejournal.com]

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

[miyabiarashi.livejournal.com]

Ah, I meant Kurogane in Tsubasa. Sorry 'bout that. ^^;

[i-paint-the-sky.livejournal.com]

Yeah, sometimes it can take away from things...in the Fushigi Yuugi manga, they leave it as "no da" at the bottom of the speech bubbles, and when Chichiri is being cute and happy, it works...but there was one time in the lastest vol. where it was just inappropriate, because he was being rather serious.

Also, Chichiri not being one of the main/on the screen all the time characters helps, because he doesn't have as much dialogue as say, Miaka or Tamahome.

[gakifang.livejournal.com]

--; I woke my roommate up cackling at that scene. I'm fairly sure that even in the game, in the japanese speech bubbles, he used a lot of zoto and yo. I remember hearing somebody bitch about how the game was less fun when the people sounded so generic in their speech bubbles in english.