Questions tagged [ambiguity]
曖昧な表現. A situation where multiple interpretations are possible as a result of scarcity of information. Ambiguity can exist at the grammatical and lexical level, and is usually resolved through context.
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Are Japanese modifiers "greedy", "anti-greedy", or do they mean whatever people choose them to mean?
(I'm a beginner. I just started learning Japanese about a month before I wrote this.)
The Japanese Wikipedia article 飛べない鳥, which corresponds to the English Wikipedia article Flightless bird,
has the ...
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Confusion with Japanese particle と in its multiple uses
I have read about the different uses of the different particles in Japanese but often become confused as to how it should be translated in different sentences. In other words the actual intent of the ...
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「星が見えない=Stars can't be seen」 but 「目が見えない=Eyes can't see」, why?
Are the two 「が」 different?
Is 「目が見えない」 (at least in principle) ambiguous (eyes can't see / eyes can't be seen)?
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"Seemingly cute" - かわいい + 〜そう
The 〜そう form means "seemingly 〜" and is usually conjecture made based on first-hand information. This usually means seeing something or hearing about something and making a conjecture, e.g.,...
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私に言われても versus 私が言われても
I am aware that "言われる" means "to be told". My impression would be that "私に言われても" means "Even if I told you..." while "私が言われても" means "Even if I am told...".
But this site answer seems to suggest that ...
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General meaning of AとBのC?
Is it (AとB)のC, Aと(BのC), or (AのC)と(BのC) ...?
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How to use 彼 and 彼女?
The first time I saw these two terms, they were used in a love context, to mean "boyfriend/girlfriend". Later, I came to know that you can also use these to refer to "that guy/girl".
So, what I ...
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What is the difference between ちょっと and 少し?
Specifically for when they mean "a little".
In what situations would they be used and are they completely interchangeable without any differences?
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Would 私は怖い mean "I'm scared" or "I'm scary"?
Or does it mean both? If so, is there any way to explicitly distinguish between "I'm scared" and "I'm scary"?
If it only means one and not the other, how would you say the other?
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How to unambiguously express sentences with lots of relative propositions?
Background, problem statement
Very often, I find myself in situations where I have to build structurally complex sentences in Japanese, and find myself struggling, trying to put all I want to say in ...
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The exquisite depths of 和菓子's mind
和菓子は季節とともに変化するもの。パッと見て何を模したかわかる形もあれば、どんな意味が込められているのか考えるものもあり……。(source)
As I understand it, the last clause is supposed to mean "there are ones (i.e. certain 和菓子) that make you ponder about what ...
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How to choose between 「いれる」 and 「はいれる」?
The questions is how to choose between 「いれる」 and 「はいれる」.
As far as I know, the same kanji is used for both (入れる).
How can one make the distinction when reading a text?
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Help parsing a sentence with possibly embed relatives
“はっきりとしてくれないわたしが好きな人”より“はっきりとしているわたしを好きな人”を憎からず
はっきりとして=Be clear
くれない=not give to me
わたしが好きな人=The person I like
[はっきりとしてくれない]>わたしが好きな人 so はっきりとしてくれない modifies わたし
or
はっきりとしてくれない modifies 人
The ...
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Does there exist a poem that uses direction to change its meaning?
I've been reading about writing order and the question has been poking at me for a while now: since writing order could theoretically introduce ambiguity, is it possible that someone has written a ...
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How to interpret 分 in the following passage
報酬分は働かせてもらうよ。もちろん追加をもらえりゃあ、その分よく働くってもんさ。
The first sentence is ambiguous to me. Is the second sentence actually an explanation of the first sentence here, i.e. "let me work the amount appropriate to ...
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たとえ-Continuative-たとしても
「そう、この世界には死者は存在しない。
夢というものは生者が見る共通無意識だ。
故に、すでに死亡したものはこの場に参加する事ができない。
たとえおまえ自身が強く記録し、その復活を望んだ人間がいたとしてもだ。
些細な役回り……そうだな、通行人Aという役割を用意したとしても、死者はこの劇場に入れない。
役割があっても役者がいないという事だ」
In this world ...
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What does の apply to after a list of items with と?
I've looked around, but I couldn't find an answer for this question. Here's the example phrase that I'm trying to translate that I pulled from a light novel:
せりとレタスとキャベツの違い
I'm not sure whether ...