pm215 Wrote:This is a question about a sentence from ゼロの焦点 (a crime novel); it's describing a receptionist who the main character has just seen:

Quote:その女は受付にすわってはいるが、三十近い年齢ごろに思えた。痩せてはいたが、目のくりくりした、ちょっとかわいい感じのする顔だった。

(年齢 is read とし here).

To me it does look like the contrastive は, like in your 春 example. 痩せている doesn't have a positive nuance, so he's using the は to help contrast that with the attractiveness of her face.

Although she was slightly underweight, her face, with its big round eyes, was actually quite pretty.

Edit：Oops, I was looking at the wrong sentence. I agree with the above about 座ってはいる though.

A quick question...
このとなりにはこの国旗掲揚を手伝う助手の如き立場の学生が控えている。

This 如き is ごとき, right? As in …のように。…のとおり。, right?
I saw that this could be read as しく, but I haven't seen this been written in kanji before, so I'm guessing this is ごとき.

pudding cat Wrote:@pm215 I've seen the film and I really enjoyed it. Is the book good?

I'm enjoying it, yes (about halfway through it at the moment). I've read the same author's 点と線 as well, and I think this is better. In 点と線 it's pretty clear from the outset whodunnit and it's really in the alibi-breaking subgenre; ゼロの焦点 has much more of a mystery element to it, although of course if you've seen the film I guess that's less effective :-) I like reading mystery fiction in Japanese because for me the desire to find out what's actually going on causes me to read more...

Javizy Wrote:痩せている doesn't have a positive nuance

Mmm, I'd wondered if that was what was going on there. Is it always negative? I've seen it used in the context of dieting, in which case I'd imagine it's considered a good thing...

Zorlee Wrote:A quick question...
このとなりにはこの国旗掲揚を手伝う助手の如き立場の学生が控えている。

This 如き is ごとき, right? As in …のように。…のとおり。, right?
I saw that this could be read as しく, but I haven't seen this been written in kanji before, so I'm guessing this is ごとき.

Yeah, that's ごとき, but it's the prenominal form, so it's more like のような. ごとく is のように and ごとし is のようだ.

pm215 Wrote:

Javizy Wrote:痩せている doesn't have a positive nuance

Mmm, I'd wondered if that was what was going on there. Is it always negative? I've seen it used in the context of dieting, in which case I'd imagine it's considered a good thing...

I think it's positive more often than not, like 'slim', but it can mean 'skinny' too, which I guess the は helps us understand better in this case.

Zorlee Wrote:I saw that this could be read as しく

As far as I know, that しく is obsolete and only shows up in kanbun texts.

Thanks! =)

Another question from Matilda, haha. Probably the last since I only have a few pages left.

ミス・アガサ・トランチブルなる人物は、≪赤い家≫に、ただ勝手に住んでいたに過ぎないのだという。

The basic meaning of the sentences is "It was nothing more than a matter of Miss Agatha Trunchbull just living in the 'red house' of her own accord."

My question is about the なる--what is the meaning here? And why 「ミス・アガサ・トランチブルなる人物は」 rather than just 「ミス・アガサ・トランチブルは」?

なる is the archaic copula, so it's just like の; I'm not entirely sure why the translator used it here but if we could see the original English sentence it might make it clear. It's basically "The person called..." or "The person who is"

EDIT: The original says "...until recently had been occupied by a Miss Agatha Trunchbull" -- I think the なる is trying to make the same feeling as the "a" in the English. Just like in the English, it sort of sounds like you don't know who she is.

Thanks for the explanation, and going to the trouble to find the original. Makes perfect sense.

If I'm right, I think the Japanese was trying to convey the information as told from an objective viewpoint as well, by using the だという,

Yeah, since the information is coming from Ms. Honey's father's will.

Annnnnd, I finished Matilda. Still a good book, even when you're 24. It's actually a bit darker than I remember, haha.

There were also a few sentences that used fairly advanced grammar, surprisingly enough (even just the last few pages used ~やら~やら and や否や).

Okay, another question.

Now I'm reading ノルウェイの森.
Context:
Naoko is in a sort of mental health hospital, and Toru is visiting there and they're walking around in a field. Toru says he will always be there to protect her, and she responds that it's impossible. She says even if they are married he'll have to get a job, and he'll be too busy to protect her, and he'll eventually get sick of her. He responds that she won't always need him to be right by her side, that eventually she'll become strong and maybe help him even more than he helps her. This is all in the context of them worrying about her mental health.

Then he tells her 「ねえ、もっと肩の力を抜きなよ。肩に力が入ってるから、そんな風に構えて物事を見ちゃうんだ。肩の力を抜けばもっと体が軽くなるよ」

I'm mostly wondering what he means by 肩の力, literally power of the shoulders. Any ideas? (My assumption is that they're just talking about her mental health)

The other two things that I'm not 100% sure on are
1)抜きなよ: I assume this just means 抜くな--don't lose any more power in your shoulders.
2)構えて: Here, does this mean something like 'to taking things in a certain way'?--You have power in your shoulders, so eventually you'll end up looking at things in that way.

Yeah, I'm obviously confused.

Kenkyuusha Wrote:肩の力を抜く relax; 《口語》 take it easy.

It makes some sense, because when you're stressed and such, your shoulders seem to tense up, I guess.

As for 抜きな --> I don't have any sources to back myself up, but masu-stem + な is a form of command. It might be a shortened version of なさい

The 構えて thing...I'm not really sure, to be honest...but I think it's pointing out that she's not seeing things as they really are. Some examples from Kenkyuusha:
構えた態度 an affected pose; a put-on attitude.
病いを構える feign [pretend] illness
批評家然と構える put on the air of a critic; speak as if one were a critic; adopt [assume] the role of a critic.
So perhaps it's because she's so "tense" that she 'fools herself' into seeing the world that way?

Thanks! Haha, it all makes so much more sense now that I know what 肩の力を抜く means. You're right that 抜きなよ must mean 抜きなさい.

I didn't give you enough context for part of it I think. As part of his response to the rant about him not being able to always protect her, he also says 「どうしてそんなに固く物事を考えるんだよ？」My new theory about 構えて is based on the example sentences in my dictionary: のんきに構えていよう--"Let's take things easy." It sounds to me like he's saying "You're not relaxed, so you end up looking at things in that sort of (固く) way."

I think it's more or less this definition (from goo):
５
①事に備えて、ある姿勢・態度をとる。「来るなら来いと―・える」「のんきに―・えてもいられない」

Asriel Wrote:As for 抜きな --> I don't have any sources to back myself up, but masu-stem + な is a form of command. It might be a shortened version of なさい

I'll back you up on this one. I don't remember reading it anywhere, but I remember asking my friend years ago when I saw it in a ドラえもん manga. It seems to be used with よ a lot.

What does this phrase mean?

おじの容態は今夜が山だそうだ。

I'm kind of confused about the 山 part.

Bokusenou Wrote:What does this phrase mean?

おじの容態は今夜が山だそうだ。

I'm kind of confused about the 山 part.

http://books.google.co.jp/books?id=ys6n_...82&f=false

fakewookie Wrote:

Bokusenou Wrote:What does this phrase mean?

おじの容態は今夜が山だそうだ。

I'm kind of confused about the 山 part.

http://books.google.co.jp/books?id=ys6n_...82&f=false

Yeah, It's from my N1 vocabulary book, but I still am not sure I understand it. "重大な場面" In other words, the speaker's uncle is in critical condition this evening? Or something?

今夜が山　seems to be an idiom indicating that if the person survives the night they should be OK (i.e. tonight is the hardest part, the "mountain")

http://detail.chiebukuro.yahoo.co.jp/qa/.../q10777570

yudantaiteki Wrote:今夜が山　seems to be an idiom indicating that if the person survives the night they should be OK (i.e. tonight is the hardest part, the "mountain")

http://detail.chiebukuro.yahoo.co.jp/qa/.../q10777570

Ahh, now I get it! Thanks a lot! ^-^

I have to ask, what 出来る事　mean? I see it all the time, and is it prounced, こと　or ごと？because sometimes i will read 出来るごと
here is an example i have read
私達に出来る事、ちゃんとやって行きたいと思いますっ！

also what does とういうことで mean?

It's こと. The phrase doesn't have a special meaning, it's just できる + こと (in your example, "things I can do").

ということで depends on the context, but often it's just a connector between phrases meaning something like "on that note" or "having said that". It can also have a more literal meaning.

Does anyone know what the で here does grammatically? I don't expect it to be there at all.

田舎に来たのはいい機会なんだろうけど、無ければ無かったで別のストレスを溜め込んでしまうような気もする。

Coming out to the countryside is probably a good opportunity, but I also get the feeling that a different type of stress, one that wouldn't have turned up had we not arrived here, will accumulate.

What is the difference between カップ　コップ？

I always get questioning faces from my friends when I say コップ for a drinking cup