Can I only spot the meaning of 'to' from context here?

私は、リーサと言います。

I mean, it could say "I spoke with liisa" as well?

No, という is a set expression that always means 'to have as one's name.' (or 'to be called,' if you don't mind putting it in the passive.) It's the same as the ～というのは that you see in definitions. And when 言う is used in the sense of speaking, it always means something more like 'to say' rather than 'to speak' -- just like you would never say "I said with Lisa," you would never say リーサと言いました to mean 'I spoke with Lisa.'

If you want to say 'I spoke with so-and-so,' you have to use another verb, like 話す.

I think it could also mean "I say Lisa", but the only situation I can think of where you might say that is if someone asked what the pronunciation of Lisa was and you weren't entirely certain. Either way, the meaning of と remains the same.

Thora Wrote:

Splatted Wrote:Sorry to go back to this, but I'd like to know if it's always the case that in situations like this where you've got multiple なs they always describe the noun. If that isn't the case, how did you know what was correct in this instance?

This wasn't directed at me, but here's my 2 guesses. I find that comma use is really inconsistent, so I basically try to stay flexible and interpret sentences on a case by case basis (using a combination of grammar and word/clause meaning). Commas are often used to avoid a misinterpretation, so at least you can rule out one possibility. :-)
English has some rules relating to order of pre-noun adjectives, but I haven't come across similar rules for Japanese.

A sequence of adjective nouns (na-adjs) is supposed to use で　to join them.
親切な＋きれいな　→　親切できれいな　 　　kind and pretty

で　is also used with clauses in the same way, but perhaps clauses are more likely to retain the な? Without the comma, perhaps it would have used で　and had more of an "and" meaning.

I'd probably interpret your sentence as the ような　clause modifying 変な日本語　as a single entity. (In the same way that 変な人　almost feels like one word...) Also, "strange Japanese that Japanese wouldn't normally use" might be contrasted with "rude Japanese that Japanese wouldn't use" or "archaic Japanese that Japanese wouldn't use use" To me, this has a very slightly different feel than : "Japanese that people don't use and is strange." It's more of a causal relationship than two independent properties of 日本語.

With other sentences with multiple relative clauses, it's more apparent that each one modifies the noun separately. (Maybe bc it's hard to perceive a noun modified by a relative clause as a single entity?) I don't think it's something you need a hard rule for.

Not really sure though, so I'd be interested to hear what others think.

I'm not sure I've understood this properly. Are you saying that you can't have multiple なs modifying the same noun, so (you think) 変な日本語　has to be treated as single entity that is modified by 普通の日本人の使わないような?

「ほかの連中がおまえをみてロボットだと気づかんようなら大成功だ！」　I don't understand the 「気づかんよう」　part. Is it using かんよう essential; vital; crucial; importance? "If they realize it's essential, huge success"?

No, it's 気づかん よう なら

気づかん is a contraction or casual form of 気づかない, and よう is ようだ (appears as if, seems as if)

Your interpretation is impossible for two reasons -- first, 気づ isn't a word, and second of all objects of verbs always go before the verbs, not after.

Thank you. I probably should have considered contractions, it seems obvious now. lol :/

Question1;
What does ギャーギャー mean? Giongo is hard. I saw it in manga:

"ギャーギャーウレウセェな！はやくマサムネをクレェ！"

Question2;

What does this mean?
"こんだけ　脅かときゃ　もう　ここには　寄りつかんだろ"


Thank u in advnce!

animehunter123 Wrote:Question1;
What does ギャーギャー mean? Giongo is hard. I saw it in manga:

"ギャーギャーウレウセェな！はやくマサムネをクレェ！"

ぎゃあ‐ぎゃあ
［副］
１ うるさく泣きわめく声を表す語。「火がついたように―（と）泣く」
２ 不平不満などをうるさく言いたてるさま。「―（と）文句を言う」
http://dictionary.goo.ne.jp/leaf/jn2/540...%E3%81%82/

ギャーギャーうるせぇな！Shut up and stop complaining! or something like that lol depending on the context.

Quote:Question2;

What does this mean?
"こんだけ　脅かときゃ　もう　ここには　寄りつかんだろ"

You forgot the し in 脅かしときゃ.

これだけ　脅かしとければ　もう　ここには　寄りつかないだろ

I dunno the context and I suck at making natural sounding English translations but something like.. "If I scare you this much I doubt you'll ever come near this place again"

You might try some other dictionaries besides EDICT, if that's what you're using. The dictionary at goo.ne.jp has this:

ぎゃあぎゃあ
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〔鳥の鳴き声〕screech, scream; 〔うるさい話し声〕yak-yak, yakity-yak (▼擬音語)
ぎゃあぎゃあ泣く
scream loudly／〔特に，幼児が〕squall／〔鳥が〕squawk／〔発情した猫が〕caterwaul
ぎゃあぎゃあ反対してやめさせた
We stopped it by raising a roar of opposition.／((口)) We stopped it by screaming bloody murder.
つまらない事でぎゃあぎゃあ騒ぐな
Don't make a fuss about little things.

The dictionary at alc.co.jp has another 15 or so examples.

Betelgeuzah Wrote:Can I only spot the meaning of 'to' from context here?

私は、リーサと言います。

I mean, it could say "I spoke with liisa" as well?

To give a precise explanation of how the grammar here is working, literal translation would be something like:
I, (people) say (it(my name)) like Lisa.

This is the quoting と, used to express quotes. I see it as identical to another usage of と to express the manner in which actions take place:
地雷がドカンと爆発した. The landmine exploded with a bang.

'With a bang' here is adverbial. It's not an object.

Likewise with 言います, と isn't defining the object of the verb say. It's not "I, say lisa." magically resolving to "I'm called Lisa". The thing being 'said' is the name, and と is defining the nature of the action or the accompanying phenomenon to the action (ie. the sound Lisa) if that makes any sense.
the verb 言う doesn't take the actual spoken words as its object. 言う interprets the を marked word as either the thing said (in the abstract sense (name/age/address etc) or the target (thing being referred to). Eg:
これを箸と言います。 (We) say(call) this(chopsticks) hashi. (target)
名前と住所を言って。Say your name and address. (abstract object)

In theory 私は、リーサと言います。 could mean something like "I'll say (it) together with Lisa", but you'd more likely say something like " 私は、リーサと一緒に言います。"

Thank you. On the first glance I can understand very well why the grammar works how it does, but getting to the very core of what they are meant to express and distinguishing similar sounding grammar points outside the example sentences is quite tough right now.

What's the difference between ie and uchi? 'House', that is.

The way to distinguish similar grammar points is generally to focus on the meaning of the words themselves, and arrive at the meaning that way by translating japanese sentences to meaning and figuring out how the japanese syntax is really working, rather than relying solely on grammar patterns taught via pairs of syntactically similar (but often different) example sentences. Natives develop killer intuitive grammar sense by interpreting from their first language to meaning via knowledge of vocabulary and experience, they don't memorise patterns via another language. Not saying that using L2 is bad. In fact it's really useful, just it's better to use that as a starting point or hint to arrive at the real meaning of the individual units of meaning.

uchi refers to one's home or one's inner circle or family. ie refers more to just the place one lives or the physical house.

I think so far I have been able to learn the language "as is" without english or finnish getting in the way. The structure just feels natural and the way it should be, although it is different.

I don't understand what 'kedo' is doing at the end of the sentence:

「きょうはじゅぎょうがない」とせんせいからきいたんだけど。

Sorry for the lack of kanji.

It's not possible to say for sure without seeing the context. It's just like ending with "but...." in English; it implies something additional that is not stated.

Yeah, there's no context unfortunately, and the grammar being taught is direct quoting. The translation doesn't have anything concerning the 'kedo' part either. It didn't sound right to have the kedo there for apparently no reason...

The only thing that came to my mind was to express uncertainty about the accuracy of the quote?

That's one possibility, it could also mean "so what do you want to do?" or something else. There's really no way to tell.

最近彼女が結婚をちらつかせ始めて。。。

The bit that's confusing me is ちらつく. I looked it up in a dictionary and the result is "to flicker; to flit; to litter; to be dazzled"
I've also looked at a few example sentences and apparently you can use it to mean that something can be seen (or acknowlidged to be there) e.g. どこを見てもあなたの顔がちらつく

And this is the causative form right so I means something like to make me know. So I could translate the sentence as something like "Lately she's started dropping hints bout marriage" right? Is that close or am I completely wrong?

ちらつかせる is also a verb all on its own, and I think that's the meaning here,
'to dangle (something) before (someone's) eyes'. Like a carrot in front of a rabbit or a promotion in front of a salaryman.

http://dic.yahoo.co.jp/dsearch?p=%E3%81%...=0&dtype=3

[Zgarbas]

I'm confused about "裸のつきあい"
(encountered in a legacy core 6k sentence, 彼らは裸のつきあいをしているよ as meaning "They have an open relationship with each other."). The English translation lead me to think it means "open relationship", but given how most google results take me to baby videos I think I may have misunderstood it=/

My guess:
裸, naked. 付き合い, going out or spending time together. This is probably why lots of baby videos are popping up - skin on skin contact with a baby. From the point of view of a relationship, if people are naked together they're not hiding anything from each other whicj leads to the idea of a relationship with no secrets, an open relationship. I'm assuming here it's 'open' as in 'honest'.

「あんたって人は」それとも「あんたって子は」の意味はなんでしょう？教えてくれたら嬉しいです。
文脈からの感想は誰かが驚かせてしまうそれとも思いがけない台詞を言っているの反応と思う。

Reading Major and came across a few lines that are sorta stumping me.

バッティングだけなら、トレードで獲得したい選手はいくらでも挙がってるんだ。
→What gets me here is 挙がる which I can't understand in this context.

今すぐにでもテストして、我々の前で結果を出せるぐらいでなきゃ。
→I guess this might mean, "If you test right now, you have to show results in front of us."

やはり、球団は君を選手として在籍させておくわけにはいかない！
→"As expected, the baseball team won't let you enroll as a player." Perhaps?

TheVinster Wrote:バッティングだけなら、トレードで獲得したい選手はいくらでも挙がってるんだ。
→What gets me here is 挙がる which I can't understand in this context.

Bit hard to be certain without context (especially with a verb with as many senses as agaru!), but my guess is that this is the intransitive counterpart to 挙げる 'to give an example'. Compare
http://dictionary.goo.ne.jp/leaf/je2/505...%E3%82%8B/
(I'm not sure there's a single closely corresponding English verb here.)

Quote:今すぐにでもテストして、我々の前で結果を出せるぐらいでなきゃ。
→I guess this might mean, "If you test right now, you have to show results in front of us."

The conditional of this 'if' is not just the first clause 'take a test right now' but the whole thing. "If you can't take a test right now and show results in front of us [then we're not interested in having you on the team]."

Quote:やはり、球団は君を選手として在籍させておくわけにはいかない！
→"As expected, the baseball team won't let you enroll as a player." Perhaps?

"There's no way we'll let you..." might get closer to the force of わけにはいかない.

sikieiki Wrote:「あんたって人は」それとも「あんたって子は」の意味はなんでしょう？教えてくれたら嬉しいです。

It has the meaning of "a real" or "such a"

http://tatoeba.org/eng/sentences/search?...und&to=und