What kind of a thing is a "やつ"?

Question

I've been seeing やつ used for "thing" reasonably frequently in Manga/online etc, for example:

ほとんどは本とか食玩とか細かいやつかな。
"It's virtually all stuff like books, those small toys sold with food and small things I suppose."

富士を目指しましょう。地方富士というやつよ。
"Let's set our sights on Fuji. The thing that's called 'the local Fuji.'"

「正直がいちばん」というやつだ。
"Honesty is the best policy"

But what kind of a nuance does やつ have and when can it be used compared with 物 and こと? (I'm guessing it might be colloquial, sometimes joking, and possibly sometimes derogatory but I'm not really sure).

Is there any way to translate this usage of やつ into English without losing too much of the original nuance?

Answer 1

やつ is used as a head noun modified by a relative clause or an appositive clause. My guess is that it can be used only when the referent is what is technically called d(iscourse)-linked, or the set of possible choices is (assumed to be) established within the context. The interest is setting the choice from a given set rather than introducing a new entity to the context.

For example, 細いやつ presupposes that the set of things under consideration is established in the context. Among them, there is/are thing(s) that can be categorized as 細い. What 細いやつ is doing is not introducing an entirely new entity into the context but is picking one from the set of possibilities established in the context.

A: 君はどんな麺が好きなの。
'What kind of noodle/which noodle do you like?'
B: 僕は細いやつが好きだ。
'I like the thin ones'.

As you can see above, when there is a relevant wh-question proceeding it in English, the wh-expressions what kind of ..., which ..., can be used instead of what, where, who. A good English translation for ...やつ would be the ... one(s).

It has a rough nuance compared to the alternative の, and a conservative person may not expect it to be used by a female. This is probably connected to the fact that another usage of やつ is an impolite third person pronoun.