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I saw this as a comment someone posted on Google+ in response to NHK announcing a show:

本気{ほんき}なら地上波{ちじょうは}でやれよ、受信料{じゅしんりょう}返{かえ}せ

I think it's saying "If this is really what you intend to broadcast, give me back my broadcast fees!"

I'm not confident in that, though, because of that よ that comes just before the comma. My translation is more because I can't think of anything else that makes sense.

So far as I know, よ is just a for emphasis. As such, I don't know if I've ever really noticed it being used in the middle of a sentence before. If it just emphasis, then we should be able to take it out, like this:

本気なら地上波でやれ、受信料返せ

Which to me looks incomplete. If I wanted to say in Japanese the same sentiment, I would use ば, like so:

本気なら地上波でやれば、受信料返せ

Is よ in the original sentence serving the same purpose as my ば, or is there something completely different going on?

What exactly is the best translation of the sentence, assuming mine is off?

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    They just look like separate clauses. "If you're serious (about that/whatever), then broadcast it; give me back my fees." Though I'm unsure of the translation, not really knowing the context. I'd say there's a comma because they're closely enough related they don't need to be separate sentences, but not so closely that they need a connecting particle/grammar.
    – SomethingJapanese
    Aug 25, 2012 at 13:35
  • Post it as an answer :)
    – Hyperworm
    Aug 25, 2012 at 17:46
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    This is pretty simple. The punctuation is wrong. The text you posted should be 本気なら地上波でやれよ。受信料返せ。
    – Gradius
    Aug 26, 2012 at 1:25

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I'd agree with SomethingJapanese and his/her translation, with one small edit, ("If you're serious (about that/whatever), then broadcast it over regular terrestrial broadcast; give me back my fees.") in the comments above.

They are two different clauses. You can imagine an English sentence that takes advantage of a comma splice to create the same effect: "If you're a real candidate, drop the birther issue, focus on the real issues."

And I think Japanese is a lot more tolerant of comma misuse. Also, this is from an Internet comment, which is far more casual than other writing.

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