It is a situation where a salesperson announces to a group of people to attract them to buy his goods.
Here is the full sentence:
しかもおねだんは半{はん}額{がく}以{い}下{か}ときている
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3 Answers
To answer without looking at or copying from anything,
「しかも～～～ときている」 means "On top of all that, it comes with ~~~."
This is an exclamatory expression or at least one of surprise.
It is difficult to translate 「ときている」 all by itself (and it is not often used by itself, either).
There would have to be other "advantages" mentioned in the immediate context besides the over-50% discount.
Edit: In case you are wondering, I did not use the phrase "to come with" in my translation because the original phrase contains 「ときている」. It is just a coincidence and I did not even notice it when I first posted my answer an hour or two ago.
Here, と + 来る is an idiomatic expression.
The デジタル大辞泉 entry says:
６ （「…ときたら」「…ときては」「…とくると」などの形で）ある物事を特に取り上げ強調して言う意を表す。特に…の場合は。…について言うと。「酒とくると、からっきしだめだ」「甘い物ときたら、目がない」
which roughly means "used to focus on and emphasize a particular matter; when it comes to; as for".
While the examples above don't perfectly match your case, you can get the spirit and translate it like:
...and what's more, you know what, it's more than 50% off!
Note
I have to say that I'm not completely satisfied with the dictionary definition I cited, but I couldn't find any other reliable sources. In my view, "とくる followed by conditional" and "independent とくる" are different, and the latter is used to point out the surprise when some event strikes you in an unexpected way.
answered May 3, 2015 at 5:09
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In all honesty, I am uncertain of how that definition copied from a dictionary would help a Japanese-learner learn how to use 「しかも～～～ときている」. You are not even satisfied with it yourself.– user4032May 3, 2015 at 10:53
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@l'électeur I think it's nice to mention the closest meaning in the dictionary for the same reason it's nice to have etymology (i.e., as a way to organize things in your head). At least it's useful to me as a learner. May 4, 2015 at 6:36
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1@l'électeur It seems to me that this word is harder to explain than I expected, and at least I think the dictionary isn't far off the mark. It's true that pragmatics rather than literal meaning is the essence of the word, but I also cannot agree on the way you tried to introduce this with しかも together, because it's felt like a too narrowed-down definition. May 8, 2015 at 12:03
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What is the etymology of this expression? Due to the similar meaning, I keep wondering if it is related to とついてくる / と一緒にくる although I could not find anything other than the standard dictionary definitions...– a20Jun 22 at 17:36
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@a20 This is totally my imagination but I feel the くる is like "pop up" or "(suddenly) emerge". Jun 27 at 14:35
It actually is "to kiteiru" not tokiteiru. The salesman is trying to say that the sale is upcoming. This website provides a nice response: http://detail.chiebukuro.yahoo.co.jp/qa/question_detail/q1144370201
"漢字表現をどうしても当てはめるなら「来ている」になりますが、 補助的な意味ですので、ひらがなで書いた方が望ましいかと思います。"
Perhaps rewriting the sentence could be elucidating:
"しかもお値段は半額以下と来ている"
What's more! The Price will be lower than Half Price! Coming soon! (English vers)
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1That link gives me a 404. Can you provide the relevant aspects of the answer there so that this answer stands alone?– CatMay 3, 2015 at 4:06
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Does this help? The main point is that you confused it as a single word, then it was actually "to" +"kite iru"– AndyMay 3, 2015 at 4:38
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"漢字表現をどうしても当てはめるなら「来ている」になりますが、 補助的な意味ですので、ひらがなで書いた方が望ましいかと思います。" does NOT mean ときている should write と来ている, but it means if you really want to write ときている in Kanji you could write と来ている, but you should write it in Kana because the meaning of "come" is just secondary.– TakashiMay 3, 2015 at 5:18