5

This question is about puns, or dajare, where at the end of a sentence almost every time there's dake ni to be heard. I'm having trouble understanding what role dake ni has in these sentences? When translated literally it doesn't make much sense to me. These are all from recent anime I'm watching, for example:

  • One is about shougi (将棋): Sugu komacchau, koma dake ni
  • One pun was: juudou (柔道) is a sport where every person throws at the same angle, which is juu do (十度), juudou dake ni
  • This one was about bicycle club, where when members drive, Okane ga ochite, charin, charin, chari dake ni

So what's dake ni doing there? Or rather how should it be translated?

Improve this question
4
  • Did you check a dictionary? E.g., WWWJDIC has だけに "as might be expected (from ...); (precisely) because ...; ... being the case".
    – Earthliŋ ♦
    Commented Mar 1, 2014 at 17:23
  • 1
    That would give "j­ūdō is a sport where every person throws at the same angle, jūdo, as might be expected from jūdō".
    – Earthliŋ ♦
    Commented Mar 1, 2014 at 17:27
  • Seems like Tangorin and WWWJDIC use the same database... Well yes, I checked the dictionary, but trying to translate the last one this way will give: Money go bling bling when falling, as might be expected from a BICYCLE? That's not a funny pun to me, even considering onomatopeic charin and the word chari. I think there is more to dake ni in puns, which direct translation does not capture. Or I can't understand puns at all.
    – Kitet
    Commented Mar 1, 2014 at 17:43
  • Look up "all the more ... because", and you'll see eow.alc.co.jp/search?q=all+the+more+because
    – user4092
    Commented Jun 15, 2017 at 5:32

2 Answers 2

Reset to default
1

だけに is used when the result that appeared is contrary to the expectation. It's difficult to give an exact meaning for the phrase in these contexts. だけ and だけに can also occur in other contexts as well that are not based on this meaning.

It is often used incorrectly by young Japanese people to make what they are saying seem more interesting.

Improve this answer
12
  • 1
    Here is an example that だけに　is correctly used: 「予期していなかっただけにショックは大きかった」 but, when combined with ダジャレ(dajare), does it make sense to you? People 'do' put those words at the end, and they sometimes don't really make sense to us at all. I'm just trying to help. People in Japan would never stab you in the back, we are 武士. But you're doing it by downvoting without giving some comment or explanation why didn't you like it.
    – hanishi
    Commented Mar 2, 2014 at 12:10
  • 1
    I'm not your downvote, but I think your answering style and/or English level makes it a little hard to follow your answers.
    – virmaior
    Commented Mar 2, 2014 at 12:27
  • Thanks, I'm relieved now. It's really different from StackOverflow. (I checked your profile. I'm sure what it is)
    – hanishi
    Commented Mar 2, 2014 at 12:31
  • 1
    I've suggested corrections just for the English. If it were me, I would say だけに can end up meaning "just because" or "only because" in many contexts -- but also sometimes "even though".
    – virmaior
    Commented Mar 2, 2014 at 12:37
  • 1
    Or is it unspoken Because it's ... at the beginning of my little translation...?
    – Kitet
    Commented Mar 2, 2014 at 17:04
2

I think the point of this dake ni is to underline the apparent meaning, the "double meaning", by treating it as the real one. To give a really terrible English example "He put dents in my teeth - just as you'd expect of a dentist". It isn't that you would really expect that of a dentist, but that in the "world" of the joke dentist means "person who makes dents".

Improve this answer

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .