昨日：https://topview.jp/t62c6438166e25-4501
の続きです。
Well, starting from yesterday, I have been trying to compare certain aspects of Japanese (J) and English (E). I hope you are enjoying it. Your comments are always welcome.
The topic I take up today is:
Why does E use personal pronouns (‘I’, ‘you’, ‘it’, ‘they’, etc.) frequently as opposed to J, which basically avoids using them?
A:「‘ ’ お母さんいかが？」—B:「‘ ’ 元気です、お陰さまで」
vs.
A: “How’s ‘your’ mother?”—B: “Oh ‘she’ is fine, thank ‘you’.”
The answer to the question is actually implicit in yesterday’s argument. Recall and review:
J: 「主観的事態把握」「虫の眼」—J speakers pre-verbally immerse themselves in the situation itself so that SELF is ‘invisible’ as it were, and the ‘addressee’ (in E ‘you’, ‘your’, etc.) is just there as a ‘given existence’ as it were. → e.g.「(((‘ ’ は ‘ ’ のことが))) 好きだよ/好きよ」、「すみません、ここどこですか？どうやら道に迷ってしまったようで」
vs.
E:「客観的事態把握」「鳥の眼」—E speakers pre-verbally recognize themselves as ‘one of the participants’ in the situation: SELF is ‘visible’ as alter ego, as it were, and thus realized verbally as ‘I’, ‘me’, ‘my’, etc. And the ‘addressee’ (i.e. ‘you’, ‘your’, etc.) is also ‘visible’ face-to-face with SELF (alter ego) and conceived as ‘another participant’ in the situation. → e.g.,「‘I’ love ‘you’.」、「Excuse ‘me’, could ‘you’ tell ‘me’ where ‘I’ am? ‘I’ seem to be lost.」
Yes. This grasping-mode difference probably can be said to be a “main” source of the frequency contrast in personal pronoun usage between J and E, i.e.
J: 会話の ‘参与者’ を明確には意識せず
vs.
E: 会話の ‘参与者’ を明確に意識
Plus, in E, ‘participants’ other than ‘SELF (alter ego)’ and the ‘addressee’ are construed as the ‘third party’ and verbalized as ‘he/she/it/they’―third-person personal pronouns, whereas in J, such distinctions themselves are tenuous and vague, J being indifferent and insouciant about the concept of ‘participants’ due to ‘Subjective Grasping of the Situation.’
But I postulate here “another” factor arguably affecting the personal pronoun usage contrast. It is the following difference:
J: 多様性を回避 vs. E: 多様性を指向
See the diagram above.
‘Cohesion’ and ‘coherence’ of the (meaningful) passage must be observed in (virtually) any language. Besides these principles, however, E happens to favor “another” aptitude. And this is a preference for a ‘variety of expressions’ to monotony. Thus, compare:
J: 昔あるところに ‘おじいさん’ とおばあさんが住んでおった。‘おじいさん’ は…、そして ‘おじいさん’ は…、そこで ‘おじいさん’ は……
(‘monotonous’―but then accordingly ‘transparent and straightforward’ in meaning interpretation)
vs.
E: Once upon a time, there lived ‘an old man’ and ‘his’ wife. ‘The man’..., and ‘the guy’... Then ‘he’......
(‘diverse’―and thus as much ‘a little bit opaque and cumbersome’ in meaning interpretation)
Notice here that from the ‘efficiency’ viewpoint alone, a ‘variety of expressions’ has a disadvantage; E prefers ‘diversity,’ NOTWITHSTANDING (perhaps in pursuit of ‘richness’ of expressions). As a result, ‘various expressions for basically the same stuff’ tend to be used in E, and these expressions include as part ‘personal pronouns’—this is precisely “another” factor of copious and proliferated use of them in E in contrast to J. In yesterday’s vid, too:「ねこちゃん」in J might be put into E as ‘a little cat’, ‘the kitty’, ‘he/she/it’, etc., and ‘he/she/it’ are ‘personal pronouns’! (Plus,「にあいました」might be ‘bumped into’, ‘came across’, etc., and「といいました」could be ‘said’, ‘addressed’, ‘greeted’, ‘saluted’, ‘answered’, ‘replied’, ‘responded’, etc. )
今日もだいぶ長くなってきたので、この辺で。続きはまたあした…。
To be continued...
の続きです。
Well, starting from yesterday, I have been trying to compare certain aspects of Japanese (J) and English (E). I hope you are enjoying it. Your comments are always welcome.
The topic I take up today is:
Why does E use personal pronouns (‘I’, ‘you’, ‘it’, ‘they’, etc.) frequently as opposed to J, which basically avoids using them?
A:「‘ ’ お母さんいかが？」—B:「‘ ’ 元気です、お陰さまで」
vs.
A: “How’s ‘your’ mother?”—B: “Oh ‘she’ is fine, thank ‘you’.”
The answer to the question is actually implicit in yesterday’s argument. Recall and review:
J: 「主観的事態把握」「虫の眼」—J speakers pre-verbally immerse themselves in the situation itself so that SELF is ‘invisible’ as it were, and the ‘addressee’ (in E ‘you’, ‘your’, etc.) is just there as a ‘given existence’ as it were. → e.g.「(((‘ ’ は ‘ ’ のことが))) 好きだよ/好きよ」、「すみません、ここどこですか？どうやら道に迷ってしまったようで」
vs.
E:「客観的事態把握」「鳥の眼」—E speakers pre-verbally recognize themselves as ‘one of the participants’ in the situation: SELF is ‘visible’ as alter ego, as it were, and thus realized verbally as ‘I’, ‘me’, ‘my’, etc. And the ‘addressee’ (i.e. ‘you’, ‘your’, etc.) is also ‘visible’ face-to-face with SELF (alter ego) and conceived as ‘another participant’ in the situation. → e.g.,「‘I’ love ‘you’.」、「Excuse ‘me’, could ‘you’ tell ‘me’ where ‘I’ am? ‘I’ seem to be lost.」
Yes. This grasping-mode difference probably can be said to be a “main” source of the frequency contrast in personal pronoun usage between J and E, i.e.
J: 会話の ‘参与者’ を明確には意識せず
vs.
E: 会話の ‘参与者’ を明確に意識
Plus, in E, ‘participants’ other than ‘SELF (alter ego)’ and the ‘addressee’ are construed as the ‘third party’ and verbalized as ‘he/she/it/they’―third-person personal pronouns, whereas in J, such distinctions themselves are tenuous and vague, J being indifferent and insouciant about the concept of ‘participants’ due to ‘Subjective Grasping of the Situation.’
But I postulate here “another” factor arguably affecting the personal pronoun usage contrast. It is the following difference:
J: 多様性を回避 vs. E: 多様性を指向
See the diagram above.
‘Cohesion’ and ‘coherence’ of the (meaningful) passage must be observed in (virtually) any language. Besides these principles, however, E happens to favor “another” aptitude. And this is a preference for a ‘variety of expressions’ to monotony. Thus, compare:
J: 昔あるところに ‘おじいさん’ とおばあさんが住んでおった。‘おじいさん’ は…、そして ‘おじいさん’ は…、そこで ‘おじいさん’ は……
(‘monotonous’―but then accordingly ‘transparent and straightforward’ in meaning interpretation)
vs.
E: Once upon a time, there lived ‘an old man’ and ‘his’ wife. ‘The man’..., and ‘the guy’... Then ‘he’......
(‘diverse’―and thus as much ‘a little bit opaque and cumbersome’ in meaning interpretation)
Notice here that from the ‘efficiency’ viewpoint alone, a ‘variety of expressions’ has a disadvantage; E prefers ‘diversity,’ NOTWITHSTANDING (perhaps in pursuit of ‘richness’ of expressions). As a result, ‘various expressions for basically the same stuff’ tend to be used in E, and these expressions include as part ‘personal pronouns’—this is precisely “another” factor of copious and proliferated use of them in E in contrast to J. In yesterday’s vid, too:「ねこちゃん」in J might be put into E as ‘a little cat’, ‘the kitty’, ‘he/she/it’, etc., and ‘he/she/it’ are ‘personal pronouns’! (Plus,「にあいました」might be ‘bumped into’, ‘came across’, etc., and「といいました」could be ‘said’, ‘addressed’, ‘greeted’, ‘saluted’, ‘answered’, ‘replied’, ‘responded’, etc. )
今日もだいぶ長くなってきたので、この辺で。続きはまたあした…。
To be continued...
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