Understanding a broken sentence with stuttering

Question

「おまえクラスメイトがノラ犬にやられたんだぞ。学級委員として退治してくれよ」
Your classmate's just been hurt by a wild dog. As class representative, get rid of it.
「えっ、そ、そんな、ワ私がそんな、ズバリおそろしいでしょう」
Eh! W-what a.. ,I, I such a ... ????

I'm not familiar with the word おそろしい and I can't work out whether it's used to mean 'terrible' or 'frightened'.

Does 私が go with おそろしい here? Or is 私が just part of the stuttering? i.e. is it 私がおそろしい = "I'm frightened"? I don't know why, but I feel it would be 私はおそろしい if this were the case.

Or, is 私が just part of an unfinished sentence, and the main sentence is simply おそろしい = "This (situation/request) is terrible.

Answer 1

In Japanese, the important hints (and often answers) are always in the preceding sentences.

「ワ私がそんな」≒「わ、わたしがそんなことできるはずがない」

「そんなこと」, of course, refers to 「ノラ犬{いぬ}を退治{たいじ}すること」("getting rid of the wild dog")

Does 私が go with おそろしい here?

No, it does not. It goes with 退治する as I said above.

If it went with おそろしい, the particle after 「私」 would be 「は」 and not 「が」. "Me? Out of all these guys?" is the feeling of 「が」. The second speaker was appointed to perform a task; That is a 「が」 kind of situation.

A: 「お前{まえ}が行{い}けよ！」 ("Why don't you go?")

B: 「えっ、オレが？いやだよ！」 ("Me? No, thanks, man!")

is it 私がおそろしい = "I'm frightened"?

I am inclined to say no. What is おそろしい would be the task of getting rid of the wild dog.

If it meant "I'm frightened.", the speaker would not use 「でしょう」. he would use 「です」 because he would know for sure that he is frightened.