Japanese Language

12:31 AM

Oh man, I can't convince myself whether the second interpretation of が is possible in 文２構造２: japanese.stackexchange.com/questions/20863/…

I think it might be, but man would that need some serious context to work.

Darius Jahandarie

1:25 AM

You know, I'm actually not sure if the subject of the the inner clause can vary now that I think more about it. I think I would always use 彼が or 彼女が even if it was clear from context that the inner subject is not あなた...

But I can't quite tell if that is just the clearer way to write it, or you must write it like that.

Maybe I should remove my answer and let someone else handle it.

broccoli forest

2:17 AM

@DariusJahandarie that interpretation works perfectly. If no subject filled in from the context, I'd interpret it as "I know"

Darius Jahandarie

Sorry, I wasn't clear in what I can't convince myself of.

In 文２構造２, I'm wondering if 何かを特定する「が」 is possible or not

(BTW my terminology is a complete mess here, I welcome fixes to it)

broccoli forest

ah, that's ok too if you put "stress" on the が

but not default interpretation

Darius Jahandarie

Okay, interesting, thanks.

broccoli forest

your Japanese is excellent too, I almost didn't notice it's you until I saw the name :)

Darius Jahandarie

Ah, I'm sure there are plenty of errors in the answer lol. Please do fix them if you have time, that is the "StackExchange way" at least.

broccoli forest

2:22 AM

ahh but, "主語が決定というわけでもありません"

oh, I'm not sure I can edit others' answer yet

Darius Jahandarie

決まっているわけでもありません

broccoli forest

はい

決定 isn't an adjective

Darius Jahandarie

Thanks!

broccoli forest

no problem

Darius Jahandarie

So regarding my other worry... you do think that in あなたは［（○が）何をしているか］を知っている, while the subject of the inner clause does default to あなた, it can technically be something else if the context suggests it?

broccoli forest

2:26 AM

might well

Darius Jahandarie

「ジョンは何をしているんだろう…。あなたは何をしているかを知っているよね。」みたいな

I would always say 彼が or something like that to make it clearer, but I think it works without it.

broccoli forest

yes for sure

Darius Jahandarie

Okay, great, thanks again.

broccoli forest

speaking of naturality, the most unnatural one I think is 文１構造２, but perhaps it's matter of frequency

Darius Jahandarie

「ほとんどの人の考えは分からないな。あなたは何を考えているかは分かってるけどね。」

かな？

Mmm, I guess the outer は before 分かってる is the necessary one there, not the inner one.

Yeah I'm actually having a hard time figuring out a sentence where the inner thing is は but the outer one is を. Is it always more natural to just have it on the outside?

broccoli forest

2:39 AM

mmm maybe because it's garden path sentence?

Darius Jahandarie

Heh, yeah, could be.

broccoli forest

The government plans to raise taxes were defeated

from WP

Does it baffle you in English?

Darius Jahandarie

Yeah, though that is short enough to not be that bad. "The government's plans to raise taxes were defeated" would be the better version of that anyways.

"The complex houses married and single soldiers and their families." is definitely worse for me.

I guess "plans" as a verb and a noun are both pretty available to my brain, but "houses" definitely gets the noun interpretation and then the verb one is pretty unavailable after that.

broccoli forest

that's a good example, saved in my folder lol

Darius Jahandarie

(Also from WP :-)

broccoli forest

2:47 AM

oh, I can't believe my eyes...

maybe I thought the last one must be the most difficult one?

Darius Jahandarie

Also "The old man the boat" is quite bad for me.

broccoli forest

by the way, I googled "あなたは何をしているかを知っている"

and only got machine translations

Darius Jahandarie

Heh. Well, it's not exactly a great sentence for various reasons, like the 「あなた」, and not to mention that it's kind of a tongue twister with している and しっている right next to each other like that.

Anonymous

@broccoliforest It took me less than a second to figure it out, but that might be because I saw that we were discussing garden path sentences ahead of time

Anonymous

I've certainly spent a lot longer than that on garden paths in the past :-)

Darius Jahandarie

2:52 AM

Heh.

Anonymous

@DariusJahandarie That was harder for me, too

Anonymous

I've seen it before, though―I wonder if that had to do with how quickly I figured it out

Darius Jahandarie

Probably. Once I realize which thing in the sentence is the thing that I mixed up, I can generally figure out the right meaning within a few seconds.

broccoli forest

perhaps making zero-theme sentence with an contrastive は is really impossible

知っている、あなたは何をしているかを。

Darius Jahandarie

Oh, that works for me!

broccoli forest

2:57 AM

that sounds so-so

(stab)

Darius Jahandarie

Oddly, I think I can interpret that as non-contrastive too though.

That might just be my personal quirk though

Argh. My head is exploding from thinking about this too hard. :)

broccoli forest

maybe, but I couldn't come up with that situation...

for now

Darius Jahandarie

I think it's gotten to the point where all my judgments about it are probably wrong.

broccoli forest

you're just like me in a few weeks ago :D

Darius Jahandarie

By the way, it's common to talk about "interpretations" or "readings" of sentences in English linguistics. Is 解釈 used similarly in Japanese linguistics, or is it always just 意味?

broccoli forest

3:04 AM

theoretically 意味 can cover both, 解釈 is a nonce 意味

but neither of them is a defined term

they are common words

Darius Jahandarie

Hmm, can't you say "あれはかなり変な解釈です。" but not "あれはかなり変な意味です。" if you're trying to say "that is a pretty weird interpretation of that sentence."?

That is to say, when something is not a weird meaning, just a weird interpretation.

broccoli forest

I'd rather say あれはかなり変な意味になります。

かなり変な意味です。 is always "weird meaning", yeah...

so... 意味 is a relatively consistent one, and 解釈 is temporary

意味する and 解釈する are totally different

Darius Jahandarie

In English, the sentence has "a meaning", while it is an actor who has "an interpretation"

I guess it is the same with Japanese, especially when you think of the difference between 意味する and 解釈する

broccoli forest

agreed

can't you use "interpretation" for "interpreted meaning"?

Darius Jahandarie

Yeah, you can.

broccoli forest

3:15 AM

then it's basically the same, I relieved

Darius Jahandarie

Hehe, sorry, what I said earlier was misleading.

「［ジョンは来ない］と思う。」 is fine, yeah?

broccoli forest

no problem

ahh, because it's quotation?

Darius Jahandarie

Yeah, I'd guess so.

Or a "complement", whatever you want to call it.

broccoli forest

but [あなたは何をしているか]で変わってくる。 is weird

as like あなたは何をしているかでモンスターの動きが変化します。

Darius Jahandarie

Maybe the incompatibility is really with は and a question word.

And 〜か requires [+wh] so I guess it isn't surprising that everything seems weird.

broccoli forest

3:23 AM

モンスターがあなたは動いていることを認識します。

Darius Jahandarie

That seems fine to me grammatically.

broccoli forest

but I can't imagine the situation this sentence comes valid

I'm trying to make context

Darius Jahandarie

Yeah...

The reason I ended up using 「あれは［私には役に立たない］方法だ」 in my post was because I was having a hard time thinking of a case where just a plain 「は」 works instead of 「には」.

I figured that was just me having trouble thinking of something though.

broccoli forest

wait a moment, is the topic of "～が～は何をしているか知っている" or "～は～は何をしているか知っている"?

I'm getting so confused XD

Darius Jahandarie

I think both are interesting, but I think the latter one is the relevant one for the answer.

broccoli forest

3:33 AM

the latter is relatively easy to come up with

ahh wait

Darius Jahandarie

ｗｗｗ

Anonymous

@DariusJahandarie は is almost entirely incompatible with question words but not 100%

broccoli forest

the ～は～ sentence as a subjunctive clause itself is very unusual, isn't it?

not subjunctive

Anonymous

Subordinate

broccoli forest

thank you

Anonymous

3:42 AM

Which is funny because literally subjunctive should mean "subordinate" but instead we use it for some other meaning thanks to Greek grammar :-)

broccoli forest

and how linguists use comparative and contrastive

no, I should have a lunch

Anonymous

> 「兄さん、じゃもう一つ聞きたいんですがね、人間は誰でも、他人を見て、 誰は生きる資格があって、誰は資格がない、 などとそれを決める権利を持ってるものでしょうか？」

Anonymous

books.google.com/…

broccoli forest

Wow, an acrobatic sentence

It's only allowed when paralleled, I think

Anonymous

The conditions I read included not only that it's parallel, but that the halves divide up a group 100% with nothing left over

Anonymous

3:54 AM

Hmm… Where did I read that? Martin's Reference Grammar of Japanese, maybe?

Anonymous

I should check my notes

broccoli forest

It's used like a placeholder

誰と誰がデートしたのか言え！

no it doesn't use は

ah, Google Books has more example

Anonymous

> 誰はもらって誰はもらわないというのはよくない

broccoli forest

books.google.co.jp/…

Anonymous

Oh, thanks!

Anonymous

4:01 AM

That's an interesting sort of sentence

broccoli forest

"誰は" in Google book search is so useful google.co.jp/…

and どれは google.co.jp/…

何は doesn't hit much, many of them are junk

Anonymous

Can you think of a grammatical sentence with 何は (other than 何はともあれ or such phrases)?

Anonymous

I can't recall reading any (but I'm just learning :-)

broccoli forest

why was I logged out from the site?

Anonymous

I don't know.

broccoli forest

4:08 AM

Theoretically the same as 誰は

Anonymous

The example sentence above with ……よくない is from Martin, but he says most speakers prefer が there

broccoli forest

何は良くて何はダメかちゃんと教えてください

Anonymous

(page 61)

Anonymous

@broccoliforest Oh, I see!

broccoli forest

何が良くて何がダメか sounds like a bisection

Anonymous

4:09 AM

Ahh

broccoli forest

何は良くて～ is something like

A, B, C, D ... is good and X, Y, Z ... is bad

and fill in the blank

-ish

Darius Jahandarie

4:52 AM

Hmm, it'd be interesting to see a graph of "total reputation distributed per [time period] over time". I wonder if you can get that from whatever that SQL interface was for StackExchange.

Anonymous

data.stackexchange.com

Darius Jahandarie

5:29 AM

Oh, I guess this one which I wrote earlier is a good-enough approximate of that. data.stackexchange.com/japanese/query/222223/…

Hmm, a steep drop in eventually-downvoted answers. data.stackexchange.com/japanese/query/222224/…

Coincidentally, the drop starts in Sep when I made a meta thread about not downvoting answers, but I think I will avoid deluding myself into thinking that is actually the reason. ;)

It is a little surprising to me that this graph trends upwards overall though. You'd think the things that have been around longer would have had a longer period of time to get a downvote, leading to a downward trend, but apparently not.

broccoli forest

Is there something like votes per post over time?

Darius Jahandarie

You mean average votes per post?

broccoli forest

Yes

Darius Jahandarie

I can easily write one for "average votes per post per month over time". The more interesting thing would be a moving average but that's probably more annoying.

Darius Jahandarie

5:58 AM

Here we go: data.stackexchange.com/japanese/query/257711/…

I wonder if there is some way to not make it latch to integers.

broccoli forest

data.stackexchange.com/japanese/revision/257722/335638/…

I think I made it

well, ah :D

Darius Jahandarie

Hah, that is a much simpler way of doing it too. :)

broccoli forest

based on your query, though I don't know if it's the best way

By the way, do you say "latch to integers" for rounding in English?

Darius Jahandarie

Not usually. I had originally written "latch to the nearest 0.5" because I misread the graph, and then changed it to "integers".

I think "latch" only works when you have a graphical representation, although I guess it'd always work by metaphor.

broccoli forest

Oh I see, thank you

Darius Jahandarie

6:08 AM

I am surprised you know SQL by the way. I was under the impression you were a pro linguist, not a programmer, hehe.

broccoli forest

I'm neither of them actually :D

I'm a linguistics student

Darius Jahandarie

Ah. Well, natural languages are much more difficult than programming languages as far as I'm concerned, so I guess it is not so surprising either way. :)

broccoli forest

It's that, I once was in a scary place that every member obligatorily operates SQL

Darius Jahandarie

Haha. 強制労働収容所の場面を思い浮かべる。

broccoli forest

当たらずとも遠からず

Darius Jahandarie

6:25 AM

I did web development for ~6 years. I definitely had enough of it by the end. Funnily I'm doing more of it at my new job, but it's very different so I like it. :)

broccoli forest

lol, is it the reason why your website is so minimalistic?

Anonymous

I did web stuff for years, but always back-end stuff, so I never really had anything to do with designing stuff

Anonymous

So when I actually make HTML myself, it's always really simple :-)

broccoli forest

I'm glad that HTML becomes hand-codable again in it's ver.5

Anonymous

6:49 AM

That question about かどうか is interesting to me

Anonymous

It reminds me of another question

Darius Jahandarie

@broccoliforest Haha. That's just because I'm a minimalist!

Anonymous

1

Q: What does 「かけようかどうしようか」 mean?

The sentence below is taken from a light novel. 声をかけようかどうしようか迷っていたら、ほんの一瞬風が止んだ I don't understand what 「かけようかどうしようか」 means. Is it an expression? This light novel sometimes omits kanji and I'm wondering if there should be kanji in here or not. I know that 「どうしようか」 is like “What should I do”,...

Darius Jahandarie

I thought that was an interesting question.

Or, interesting construction anyways.

Anonymous

I tend to view questions as excuses to discuss something :-D

Anonymous

6:53 AM

Though in that case I didn't really participate

Darius Jahandarie

It feels more like "I wasn't sure if I should say something or what" than "~ or not" to me really.

I'm not sure about that though.

Anonymous

I'd be really curious how much variation there is on that sort of construction

Anonymous

行くかどうか　　　　　　　→　行くか行かないか

Anonymous

行こうかどうしようか　　　→　行こうか行くまいか

Darius Jahandarie

The latter doesn't feel like that to me, but I'm totally willing to believe I'm wrong here. :P

broccoli forest

6:58 AM

"行こうかどうするか" is also heard

Anonymous

@DariusJahandarie Well, I don't mean to imply that it's 100% identical

Darius Jahandarie

行こうかどうしようか doesn't feel like it's quite between two options (yes/no) in the same sense 行くかどうか does.

I think 行くかどうか and 行くか行かないか are pretty close for that reason, while 行こうかどうしようか and 行こうか行くまいか aren't as close (even ignoring the register differences)

Trying to think of a context where only one works doesn't seem to be leading to anything though, so maybe they aren't that different, lol.

Anonymous

7:51 AM

I wonder if Chinese speakers have a tendency to think of snails like cows

Anonymous

I asked about 蜗牛 (＝蝸牛) and was told that they're 牛 because they have two "horns" and are usually grazing if they're awake :-)

Anonymous

I'm interested in how orthography and language affect how we think about things

broccoli forest

8:11 AM

I heard that panda is 熊猫 in China and 貓熊 in Taiwan, so they fall under "cat" in China and "bear" in Taiwan

may or may not be true

broccoli forest

8:22 AM

a joke related to snail's bovinity (Chinese): c.yerboo.com/yule/620/10935

speaking of this, is shellfish fish in English?

Anonymous

People might think so because of the name. I don't know.

Anonymous

Or it might take a moment to think about it and say "Hey, that's not a fish!" :-)

Anonymous

I have a hard time answering questions like that

Anonymous

Poor mollusks.

Anonymous

No one ever knows what they are.

Anonymous

8:28 AM

I would guess a lot of people would say cuttlefish are fish

broccoli forest

oshiete.goo.ne.jp/qa/5785121.html

Anonymous

I do wonder why タコ is more often 蛸 than 鮹

Anonymous

(I think I had a discussion about that once, but I forgot what I learned!)

Anonymous

corpus.tsukuba.ac.jp/headword/N.05939/#tabinfo

broccoli forest

here is a possible answer detail.chiebukuro.yahoo.co.jp/qa/question_detail/q1363462078

maybe sushi restaurants prefer 鮹 :)

broccoli forest

12:00 PM

@DariusJahandarie I saw your latest comment

only なかなか + (negative) has the meaning of "difficult to V"

なかなか + (affirmative) is "V better than expected"

and, "私は～を思いつかない" is not grammatical

you can say "私が思いつく", "アイディアが思いつく", and "私にアイディアが思いつく"

に could be reduced when followed by は

ah, "アイディアを思いつく" is OK, but for some reason this form refuses to take explicit subject

broccoli forest

12:33 PM

OK I know what happened

broccoli forest

12:45 PM

please forget about above
思いつく has two meanings: "sth occurs to sb" and "sb thinks up sth"
the former takes person with に, the latter with が
the potential-negative of the former is "思いつかない" (because subject is a thing)
while that of the latter is "思いつけない" (because subject is a person)
so you had to say either "私に/は/には～が思いつかない" or "私が/は～を思いつけない"

3 to 5 business days

1:35 PM

タコ bell

Anonymous

@3to5businessdays You fiend! Now I want tacos.

3 to 5 business days

taco taco kisses

Anonymous

タコベりたいなぁ

2

3 to 5 business days

yes, coined new verb haha

Choko

4:32 PM

0

Q: What does each of the four symbols mean, and what is the significance of the centerpiece in correlational to the symbols

I brought this art piece in an open market while stationed in Okinawa, Japan

symbols

symbolsって、みえてる？

@ssb し切る　だとおもいます

broccoli forest

upvoteボタンと、downvoteボタンと、favoriteボタンと、投稿者のアイコンが見えます

Choko

@snailboat そ～そ～　しばく sounds a bit softer than なぐる, no?

@broccoliforest お

1000rep たまったからかな？

しばく is kansaiben... (I think)

ん？

@broccoliforest ごめん、今わかったｗｗ

Anonymous

@Choko They didn't include the image but if you click "edit" you can see it

Anonymous

broccoli forest

しばいてもいいですw

Choko

4:39 PM

おおお

Anonymous

> 龍騰千禧

Choko

沖縄っぽいかも

ちょっと中国っぽいのかな

禧　←これ、日本の漢字？

broccoli forest

日本の漢字でなくはないですが

Choko

読めないｗｗ

縁起がいいな～って気はする

broccoli forest

読み方は喜と同じです

音読みすれば、リュウトウセンキ

Choko

4:43 PM

「竜が・・・なんかして、千の、なんかいいことがある」みたいな

broccoli forest

でもこれだけだと何のことだかわからないですし、"significance of the centerpiece"と言われても…

竜が、舞って、いっぱい、幸せ…

Choko

ぐぐったら、

なんか、中国語ばっかり・・・

broccoli forest

この表現自体は中国語ですし、そういえば字体もなんか中国っぽいかも

たまたま沖縄にあった中国の製品かもしれないですね

Choko

中国語のフォーラムで聞きなおしたほうがいいかも～

あ、でも翻訳依頼は、アカンのやったっけ・・

Anonymous

It would be off-topic on Chinese.SE too

Choko

4:50 PM

そおか～ｗｗ

Anonymous

They have the same close reason

broccoli forest

翻訳を引いたら残るのは、真ん中の絵だけですが、それも竜だからとしかいいようが

Choko

ELL に質問を投稿したら、ELUに同じ質問があったみたい・・

broccoli forest

hey, I found Japanese Culture site in Area 51

Choko

duplicate扱いになるんだろうか・・・

broccoli forest

4:57 PM

but it's not Japanese after all

Choko

@broccoliforest なんかね、投票だけしたよ

Damkerng T.

@Choko It's a great question anyway! :D

Choko

@DamkerngT. いあ～おはずかしい

２時です　寝ます

おやすみ～

broccoli forest

おやすみなさい

Damkerng T.

Good night!

Darius Jahandarie

6:34 PM

@broccoliforest Thanks! I knew something was weird about that.

「彼は来るかどうか分かりません。」 is definitely an interesting sentence.

I don't think the same interpretation works with 知っている. I guess because it doesn't work with the "dative subject" like 分かる does.

Yang Muye

6:58 PM

Perhaps simply because と思う is somewhat transparent. The clause before と is perfectly a sentence by its own.

So は is more common.

I don't quite understand what broccoliforest says :-(

I think 彼は来るかどうか分かりません ≒ 彼は来るかどうか、私には分かりません

Although が might be more common. I feel that には should be used instead of に here.

Yang Muye

7:19 PM

> 誕生日はいつか知ってますか

は～か is fine with 知っているか

Darius Jahandarie

8:08 PM

Yes, I'd say には is certainly more likely than に there, because the only reason you'd be putting 私 in in the first place is to contrast something. But に is the underlying hole.

Darius Jahandarie

8:26 PM

I don't *think* が works, but I'm not sure. You're thinking something like

[kare-ha]_j [t_i [t_j kuru ka dou ka], [watasi-ga]_i wakarimasen]

yeah?

I think the scrambling of kare-ha over watasi-ga is the weird thing. Scrambling over watasi-ni seems fine.

Anonymous

There's always ᵢ ⱼ

Darius Jahandarie

I ran out of time to edit it. :P

I think が is not entirely wrong but it feels weird. But that's just my feeling, should wait for a native speaker's judgement.

Yang Muye

I don't understand the notation _j and _i. :-(

Darius Jahandarie

Sorry, it's just suppose to mark what thing came from where.

It's LaTeX for subscripts.

Yang Muye

Watasi-ga wakarimasen sounds wrong to me, though it's grammatically correct. I can't think of a situation I would use it.

@DariusJahandarie I see...

> [kare-ha]_j [t_i [t_j kuru ka dou ka], [watasi-ga]_i wakarimasen]

Actually the sentence sounds like two sentences to me.

> kare-ha kuru ka dou ka

> watasi-ha wakarimasen

Darius Jahandarie

8:37 PM

Hmm, it doesn't sound like that to me. Dunno. :)

Yang Muye

I think this is not a perfect example, because the first clause is not a real sentence, so は is less likely to be used.

But the clause before と思う is very independent. I would always use は.

Darius Jahandarie

In general scrambling two subjects over another seems weird to me, at least if they are "similar" or "confusable" somehow. I guess the problem is if they are both animate? Or something else. When they aren't the same it seems like you can scramble them over each other without confusion, at least IMO:

宝箱はあるかどうかをジョンが分かっている。

seems better to me than a sentence where both things are humans.

Yang Muye

I think と思う functions like some kind of 助動詞.

Darius Jahandarie

I think when you use は with と思う it is definitely contrastive, so I wouldn't necessarily default to it personally.

I guess the question is if the topic in this sentence is actually being scrambled out of the inner-most clause, or the information flow is the other way.

Yang Muye

Well, I sometimes think all は are contrastive, and sometimes think most は are neutral. For us non native speakers, I guess there is no real good way to distinguish them.

Anonymous

8:45 PM

と思う is definitely a grammaticalized construction, or can be

Yang Muye

8:56 PM

It seems that we aren't talking about the same は. I was talking about the は of the inner clause, the ha in 彼は来るかどうか.

As for the ha/ga in ジョンが分かっている, 私は分かりません, I think only はis neutral, even though it's contrastive. が might be used when ジョン is emphasized. I wonder if someone would use に in any case.

宝箱はあるかどうかをジョンが分かっている。 --- perhaps 宝箱が and か without を are much more natural.

Or maybe with or without を are both common.

I don't know how to search in corpora, but I can't find a single reference of 彼に分かっている while there are a few references of 彼が分かっている

I think it is hard to say the に is the underlying hole of には.

> 好きでした

I don't know why people say this instead of 好きです.

I think they mean the same.

Perhaps both are short for ずっと好きでした/です

Darius Jahandarie

@YangMuye I think the argument is that it's not in the inner clause.

@YangMuye Yes, on both accounts, but the point is that this is possible when I think an animate thing marked by は is not possible.

Yang Muye

@DariusJahandarie Sorry, I didn't read really the originally post. I just read a few comments.

Anyway, は is just something I can never truly understand.

Maybe it's just random.

Darius Jahandarie

@YangMuye For dative subjects, you always see には unless it's embedded, I believe, in which case you can see に to avoid a contrastive meaning.

Yang Muye

9:13 PM

> 私に/は/には～が思いつかない" or "私が/は～を思いつけない

It's interesting that some verbs are both 自動詞 and 他動詞

分かる can be used in this way too.

Oh, today I encountered an pair of verbs: さがす・さぐる

Not sure the relationship between them.

But they are obviously cognate.

Darius Jahandarie

Neat.

Yang Muye

さがす is evidently more 他動詞/意志動詞 than さぐる

though さぐる is 意志動詞 too

Darius Jahandarie

I don't think I've ever seen a -uru/-asu intransitive-transitive pair before.

Yang Muye

I think there are some. Just I can't think of any.

Darius Jahandarie

There are definitely -eru/-asu ones, like 溶ける・溶かす

Oh wait!

Anonymous

9:19 PM

@DariusJahandarie I can't think of any

Yang Muye

すぐれる　すごす

marginally...

I can't think of any more.

Anonymous

探す and 探る are both 他動詞

Yang Muye

Yes. Like the famous 教わる/教える

But I believe 探る is more passive than 探す.

明くる　明かす

Not really a verb.

Yang Muye

Someone asked an English question if he can say I is a dog. Everyone replied No! I am a dog! I was going to say it could well be It is a dog, but it just looked so hilarious that I resisted the temptation.

Anonymous

Maybe if it's roman numeral I :-)

Anonymous

9:33 PM

I is a dog. II is a cat.

Yang Muye

That's what happened in a Chinese forum a few days ago.

そういえば、うなぎ文 exists in English too.

I remembered I have heard it once when I watch the Big Bang Theory.

I've found it.

> Leonard Hofstadter: [handing out Chinese take-out food] Let's see: Raj was the Kung Pao chicken...
Penny: I'm the dumplings.
Howard Wolowitz: Yes, you are.
Penny: Creepy, Howard.

marginaliae.wordpress.com/2013/06/10/…

Anonymous

Oh, yeah, when I first read about ウナギ文 that sort of thing occurred to me, too

Anonymous

Nice to have an example! Thank you!

Anonymous

@YangMuye toki.nagomix.net/j/files/dl.php?id=21

Anonymous

There are some examples in there

Yang Muye

9:55 PM

Thank you. The examples are very helpful.

Besides, I agree that

> One is that Japanese da is not a true copula verb as English be. Its
grammatical status is not clear and can be just a particle.

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