6

[真]{ま}[逆]{ぎゃく} (not [真]{ま}[逆]{さか}, which is an interjection standardly used) is another 若者言葉, or an expression that is used mainly by young generation (with low education level) that makes me feel uncomfortable.

逆 is a polarity notion; Something can be either the original (元), or the opposite (逆). There is no intermediate values like "half-way opposite", hence no room for quantitative/qualitative notions like genuine (真) or fake/quasi (偽) to come into play. I have no idea what meaning 真 is adding to 逆. How is 真逆 different from 逆? How would you justify the addition of 真 to 逆?

Improve this question
9
  • 2
    I always thought it was something similar to adding 真っ to 逆さま and 正 to 反対... the reading of まぎゃく sounds awkward to me though.
    – user1016
    Commented Mar 16, 2012 at 18:20
  • 3
    Just another thought: does slang have to be justified?
    – summea
    Commented Mar 16, 2012 at 21:04
  • 1
    An analogous argument to yours seems to deny the difference between 反対 and 正反対. In fact, I have been assuming that まぎゃく is a slang for 正反対 and so far it seems that this assumption has been good enough to understand the intent of the speaker.
    – Tsuyoshi Ito
    Commented Mar 16, 2012 at 23:59
  • 1
    I agree with Chocolate and TsuyoshiIto that the same argument applies to 真っ逆さま and 正反対. And I actually do wonder the same thing with these examples, although it is true that I do not feel discomfort with these examples as I do with 真逆, and am wondering why I feel different.
    – user458
    Commented Mar 17, 2012 at 2:21
  • 4
    Perhaps you dislike it because (a) it is new, and associated with a sociolect you dislike, and/or (b) it is a (native) Japanese prefix attached to a Sino-Japanese morpheme, which is not unheard of but less common than other patterns.
    – Matt
    Commented Mar 17, 2012 at 9:20

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
6

真逆 seems very similar to the expression "total opposite" in English.

I think we can take 真 here to be an intensifier/emphasis rather than something that affects the meaning. It emphasizes that something is not just 少し違う, but in fact 逆.

I'd even say that not even 真逆 requires you to be absolutely precise. Let's say someone wanted to head east (0°). West (180°) would be 逆. If you saw them going in essentially entirely the wrong direction -- almost due west -- you might want to use 真逆 to emphasize how badly they're going wrong, even if their true course isn't exactly 180°.

It's an abuse of terminology, technically, but I think this is how the language is used.

Improve this answer

You must log in to answer this question.