I can't understand this sentence:

(鎖ねぇ…何でだろうな)
地獄につないでおかねばならないような連中がこの世で野放しになってるからだろう。

I think I get the first half 'people that should be chained to hell', but what about 野放し? I looked it up and found 'leaving something to take care of itself' but it doesn't seem quite right...

EDICT 野放しにする 2 to leave at large (a criminal); to leave unregulated; to leave something to take care of itself or something
Green Goddess 野放しになる　go [be] unchecked; go uncontrolled; be rampant; be free of control; be out of control.

Set the search type to Prefix in your dictionary program (or Inc in EBWin4).

(lol@"to leave something to take care of itself or something")

Thank you Vempele

jmignot Wrote:

yudantaiteki Wrote:The mothers are receiving the benefit, and are the subject of 持つ.

This makes sense. However, I am still confused about the grammar:
目的はお母さんたちに児童館に親しみを持ってもらい、…

First, if the mothers are the subject, why is it "お母さんたちに"?

That's how you use the てもらう grammar; the doer of the action (and the person giving the speaker the benefit by doing that action) is marked by に.

Sorry I was wrong earlier; it's the speaker that's receiving the benefit of the moms growing close to the child care center.

Quote:In the "canonical" example, （私は）鈴木さんにおごってもらった, in contrast, 鈴木さん followed by に is not the subject (rather, I am the one that benefits).

Maybe "subject" is a bad term then; 鈴木さん and the お母さん above are both the doers of the action.

jmignot Wrote:I have a problem to analyse the construction of the following sentence:
このイベントが行われた目的はお母さんたちに児童館に親しみを持ってもらい、交流の場として活用してもらうことです。

[...]

Here, I have trouble mapping the different components of the sentence on the above pattern.
Who is the subject "receiving" the benefit of the 持つ action, and who/what is the subject of 持つ in the first place?

Just backing up what Tzadeck said, the mothers will 親しみを持つ and 交流の場として活用する, and its the care centre who will get the 'benefit' of this.

So the construction is the same in both cases :

1. I received from Suzuki-san the benefit that HE gave me a treat
2. (The care center) receives from THE MOTHERS the benefit that THEY get more familiar with…

It can never be like: "I receive from my friend the benefit that I could use his sports car over the week end"
The latter case would require using a causative form, right? (…that he let me use…)

Thanks for the clarification. I had been struggling with this one for a while…

An additional note on てもらう; the construction frequently means that the speaker requested the action be done. Although this is not true 100% of the time, a phrase like おごってもらう will often mean that the speaker was the one to ask for the treat. Otherwise it's more likely that おごってくれる will be used instead.

(The 明鏡国語辞典 has the note 依頼に応じてその行為がなされるといった感じが強い。)

yudantaiteki Wrote:An additional note on てもらう; the construction frequently means that the speaker requested the action be done. Although this is not true 100% of the time, a phrase like おごってもらう will often mean that the speaker was the one to ask for the treat. Otherwise it's more likely that おごってくれる will be used instead.

(The 明鏡国語辞典 has the note 依頼に応じてその行為がなされるといった感じが強い。)

This is a good point. Grammar books often focus on the sentence patterns and fail to point out such nuances.

I have doubts about my understanding of this sentence:

世界の物理法則がよく出来ていることに感心しつつ自嘲しつつ

I think of ことに as emphasizing whatever came before it and consider the repetition of つつ an indicator of the contemporaneity of the feelings felt by the narrator, is this correct?
Because I thought that ことに was always preceded by a verb in its past tense and that, when used to indicate simultaneity, つつ only appeared once as in stem+つつ+2nd_verb

EDIT: I thought about it and now believe that 世界の物理法則がよく出来ている is a modifier of こと and the particle に indicates what the feelings are about. I'm still not sure about the double つつ though.

I read つつ here as having the meaning of ながら, so it indicates the two (somewhat opposite) feelings the speaker has.

All right, thank you

How do you translate into Japanese "spouse" where specifically it is a same-sex spouse you are speaking of? Does it make a difference whether you're talking about two men or two women?

I came across the line いつも知らんプリ in a song. I'm assuming this プリ is for "pretend", but is this an actual construction used in real Japanese? Or is it some sort of outdated slang? The song is from the late 70's (美術館で会った人だろ by P-Model, in case you're curious.)

poblequadrat Wrote:I came across the line いつも知らんプリ in a song. I'm assuming this プリ is for "pretend", but is this an actual construction used in real Japanese? Or is it some sort of outdated slang? The song is from the late 70's (美術館で会った人だろ by P-Model, in case you're curious.)

Not sure if it's slang or not (if I had to guess, I'd say it's not), but I still hear it used.

Hey everyone, quick question with this one...

人さえいなければそういって溜息をつくのは夜ごと日ごとのことである

what does そうい mean?

thanks!

そういって is そう plus 言って.

wow, completely overlooked that option. Thanks

poblequadrat Wrote:I came across the line いつも知らんプリ in a song.

It's a liaison of 知らぬ and 振り.

What's the meaning of '白い服に赤い花が映える' ? and when is it used?

viharati Wrote:

poblequadrat Wrote:I came across the line いつも知らんプリ in a song.

It's a liaison of 知らぬ and 振り.

Ohhhhhh I see! I'm so ignorant! Thanks a lot to you and Tzadeck!

Kuroro Wrote:What's the meaning of '白い服に赤い花が映える' ? and when is it used?

Since the only results I get when googling is some JLPT stuff, I guess it's just an example sentence to show that 映える not only means "To shine", but also "To be pretty".

Thank you for your reply I did find it in a book for N1 but I was hoping for some weird proverb or something, what a letdown

Can someone explain me the とけ in やめとけ mean?
i searched google and weblio said it's an abbreviated version of やめておけ
there are some expamle sentence.
まぁ、そんなに格好つけるのやめとけよ。
おい、いい加減パンツネタはやめとけよな、読者が退く、ドンビキ。
i got the word from Mahouka anime.
レオ　もうやめとけ　予鈴だ
Leo, just back off. That's the first bell.

well, that word kinda gives me the "suggestive" tone. can some give me a good explanation please?
btw is there any other that has that とけ attached at the end?

I've always thought about it as a contracted form of やめる in its て-form followed by おく in its imperative form やめて+おけ -> やめとけ.
I'm pretty sure this is the correct interpretation, but I'm still a beginner myself so take it with a grain of salt.

Well it's quite easy really, やめておく is a dual verb, combining やめる "to stop/cease" and おく "to leave/put in place" (note おく　isn't an auxialiary here). And the meaning as rikaichan says is "to cut it out/knock off".

-け is the imperative of first group (godan) verbs.

edit: ninjad