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I came across this sentence:

「まるで触れ得為らざるものの様な...」

I am pretty sure that this is some kind of 'archaic' speech here and found following explanations for understanding this sentence:

https://www.weblio.jp/content/%E3%81%AA%E3%82%89%E3%81%96%E3%82%8B

(For further 'reference constructions'

https://www.weblio.jp/content/%E5%B0%8B%E5%B8%B8%E3%81%AA%E3%82%89%E3%81%96%E3%82%8B

https://kobun.weblio.jp/content/%E5%B0%8B%E5%B8%B8%E3%81%AA%E3%82%8A)

I believe that the constructions above means something like 'unable to do...' but I am still kind of uncertain about it; therefore my questions are:

What does 「得為らざる」mean and what word is referred to by 「なり」in the linked explanation? Is 「得為らざる」a construction on its own or the 'combination' of two different ones?

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  • I added a screenshot....
    – Himula
    Commented Dec 28, 2019 at 14:57

1 Answer 1

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The meaning here is probably まるで触れ得ないものの様な, which means "As if it is an untouchable thing".

My honest guess is that the author squeezed in 為らざる in order to make the sentence sound more archaic and impressive (rather than having some different meaning in mind). 為る here is equivalent to である、so adding 為らざる is equivalent to writing まるで触れ得ないであるものの様な、which is redundant. A more natural way of writing this is まるで触れ得ざるものの様な.

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