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While playing persona 3, I came across the following line:

…もしかしてチミ、ボクのファッソン気にしてる？

いいかい、ボクが休日に制服なのはだね…

……。

他の服が入らないからだよッ！！

I was under the impression that 入る refers to something entering another thing, so it was very unexpected for me to see 服 marked as the actor here rather than the target of what I assume the speaker does not fit into. I take it some kind of potential is being expressed here, so I thought of some explanations for what's going on:

  • Some sound change has happened away from 入（はい）れない (maybe to avoid confusion with 入（い）れない??)
  • 入る already has some potentiality baked into its meaning, like with わかる or 見える (would love other examples of this if this is the case)
  • が is being used purely for exhaustive emphasis and has no logical function here

Searching on google suggests it's not a typo, so I'd love another opinion on this :)

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  • I think it's 他の服が気に入らないからだよ
    – Jimmy Yang
    Commented Aug 28 at 23:03
  • As for the reading of 入る, it was originally いる, and はいる was originally 這{は}い入る, but later to avoid confusion people "fused" 這い入る together, and now we read 入る as はいる except for fossilized terms such as 気に入{い}る, 日の入{い}り, 入{い}り口, etc.
    – dvx2718
    Commented Aug 28 at 23:15
  • Then, as for why 服 is the actor, I'm thinking that it's 他の服が要{い}らない (other cloths are not needed) here. 要{い}る is cognate with 入{い}る, which have the meaning of to be needed, but later that meaning is written with the Kanji 要 and the Kanji 入 is used for "to enter." Still, if something "enters, gets in," it's needed. Those aren't needed "don't get in." I'm not saying this is a typo, but maybe the author used the Kanji 入 to still represent the meaning of "to be needed." In speech though, I think any Japanese person would think of 服が要らない when they hear people say ふくがいらない
    – dvx2718
    Commented Aug 28 at 23:20
  • 5
    「（太って）ズボンが[入]{はい}らなくなった」、「昔のスカートが[入]{はい}らない」ってフツーに言いますね。これ、チャットで問いかけてみたことがあります chat.stackexchange.com/transcript/511/2015/10/17 けど、誰も返事しなかった・・・
    – chocolate ♦
    Commented Aug 29 at 4:17

1 Answer 1

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+100

The same 入らない（はいらない）is used for trousers for legs, rings for fingers, and screws for sockets; it means that there is a fixed or given space and there is an item too large for it (or small enough when you say 入る).

以前にはけたズボンが入らなくなった

https://www.town.abu.lg.jp/1438/

今まで入っていた指輪が入らなくなった

https://www.pref.chiba.lg.jp/kf-kimitsu/documents/29gou.pdf

Compared to similar but different expressions like ウエストがズボンに入らない, 指が指輪に入らない，etc, what is marked with が (from ウエストが to ズボンが) appears to be swapped here, and I think this is why you think it is not logical.

I feel like one explanation for this is that the roles "space" and "item" are indeed swapped here, from 指(=item)が指輪(=space)に入らない to 指輪(=item)が指(=space)に入らない, although their physical shapes might say otherwise. People might feel it right in the context we are talking about, because the "space" is supposed to be fixed, and the "item" is supposed to be replaceable or variable. You might be able to buy a better replacement of an ill-fit ring but you cannot buy a replacement finger. Or, you cannot just decide to slim down your waist, at least not as easily as you can get different trousers.

In the first 3 examples I wrote above, I think screws and sockets are different in that the same swap is not possible or at least unusual. ねじがソケットに入らない - ソケットがねじに入らない（？）

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  • This idea of an item’s replaceability being relevant seems to confirm a thought I had: in regards to a situation where something doesn’t fit, it’s understandable that a speaker would want to attribute that situation’s actor - and thus the fault of this fact - to the clothes, rather than themselves.
    – teeferz
    Commented Sep 5 at 13:49

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