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その中には巨体の芳江が泡を吹いてノビている姿もある。

I got the above sentence from a short story that goes like this: a gymnastics club made up of high school girls is ordered by the student council to attack one high school girl who is a member of the Comic Book Club. This girl has proven to be more than a match for them and knocked out more than 10 of them.

I can figure out parts of the sentence.

  • その中には has the meaning of “among them”. In this case, “among the girls who have been knocked out”.
  • 巨体の芳江 seems to have the meaning of “big-bodied Yoshie”. Regrettably, the story does not provide how to read her name, so I am just guessing. What is clear to me is that the sentence is talking about a club member who has a bigger body than the others.
  • 泡を吹いて has the literal meaning of “blowing bubbles”, but the picture that comes with the story indicates that the meaning is closer to “frothing”, that is to say, drooling.
  • ノビている seems to be a slang form of 伸びる, and I am not sure if it is referring to her “stretching out” or “passing out”.
  • 姿もある might have a meaning like “even has a figure” or “there is also an aspect”. There might be some other meaning that I missed.

Right now, I think the sentence is translated into English as follows:

Among them, big-bodied Yoshie is frothing and even has a figure that has passed out.

I don't know if that's exactly right. Please tell me if I'm right or wrong. If I'm wrong, please tell me what a better translation might be.

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  • This 姿 is modified by 芳江が泡を吹いてノビている, not ノビている alone. 姿 means "figure/picture/appearance", but it's often omitted when translated into English.
  • This 姿もある is simply "there is a 姿, too". The topic of your sentence is その中(に), which cannot "have" a thing. (A sentence like 彼女には夢がある is usually translated like "She has a dream", but it's literally "Within her, there is a dream".)
  • ノビる means "to stretch out on the floor after being beaten or exhausted". A person who is ノビている is at least groggy, but may not be completely unconscious.
  • The reading of 芳江 is almost certainly Yoshie.

So my attempt is "Among them was big-bodied Yoshie, frothing and lying flat on the floor".

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  • Thank you so much for your answer! I guess I was thrown off by the 姿もある part of the sentence. Well, at least I was on the right track. (Relieved) Jan 24, 2020 at 21:07

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