Nyanda wrote:

How do you know how to read it if you can't see the sentence and context.
The most obvious thing is to assume in the sentence it would be following の as in の下.
but even then is it のした or のもと?
You would have to put in so much additional information around the word in question that you may aswell use the entire sentence as is.

In cases like this (where the reading depends on the other words) doesn't come up too often, but in cases that it does, I suppose adding a minimal amount of context wouldn't be so bad. But these instances are pretty rare, so I wouldn't really worry about it. The only one that comes to mind at the moment is 潜る, which can be くぐる or もぐる。

You also said:
"It requires you to think about the general nuance of the word and make you think what of context it could be used in."

But if you had the sentence to read from on the question side and just got used to seeing the word used in certain contexts anyway, why make yourself do that extra work?

That's exactly what I've been thinking about, and what my question boils down to: do you get used to seeing a word in a fixed context so often that it is more difficult to adjust its meaning to a different context when you run into it again?

This is nothing but a  bunch of pondering; I've been making cards as you have for the past year or so. But I've been studying for the JLPT, and when you are given a set of four words in a multiple choice set, and nothing else. Thus you must conjure up an example of how that word is used without the help of any contextual sentence surrounding it, like you would be given in Anki.

Last edited by samesong (2009 November 13, 10:32 am)

samesong wrote:

That's exactly what I've been thinking about, and what my question boils down to: do you get used to seeing a word in a fixed context so often that it is more difficult to adjust its meaning to a different context when you run into it again?

No.  In every language there are words whose meaning depends on context.  "Post" means one thing to a soldier, another thing to a fence builder, and another thing on a webforum.  So, if you're learning English

So, if you notice you have trouble with context-dependent recall, treat the new context like it's a completely new word.

wildweathel wrote:

No.  In every language there are words whose meaning depends on context.  "Post" means one thing to a soldier, another thing to a fence builder, and another thing on a webforum.  So, if you're learning English

So, if you notice you have trouble with context-dependent recall, treat the new context like it's a completely new word.

I understand what you are saying. A word's meaning can differ depending on it's context. Here is an example of where too much context seems like it's hurting my learning of the word:

Side 1:
父の誕生日に寿司をあつらえた.　

Side 2:
We ordered sushi for my father's birthday.

order 《an article from a maker, abroad》; give an order 《for an article to a maker》; place an order 《with a maker, in a country》


In a case like this, I tend to skip over あつらえる, because any word placed in that type of context is either going to mean order or eat (and in this case, order). The rest of the context kind of gives away the meaning without really having to concentrate on the word itself.