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それはたしかに、言うとおりなのだが。自分だって彼以外の『エイティシックス』は──何しろ会ったこともないわけだし──得体が知れないし、ちょっと怖いなと思わなくもない。

 でも、そんな大仰に言うことでもなく。普通に声をかけて、話をして、どういう奴なのかわかっていければ、いいだけじゃないかと思うのだけれど……。

86─エイティシックス─Ep.2 ─ラン・スルー・ザ・バトルフロント─〈上〉 安里アサト

Why is the だけ used in the sentence? Can we just say いいじゃないか? How should I understand the だけ? And does the bold ことでもなく mean the same as ことはない, namely, "not necessary"? Or, literally, it is just "it’s not something to be exaggerated"?

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・・・ことはなく、・・・いいじゃないか works and means almost the same, but it adds somewhat the blaming tone. In simple terms, ことはない sounds It is not something you should say in such a 大仰な way (but you do and I'm uncomfortable with it) while でも weakens the tone and sounds a bit softer. That said, semantically mostly the same with or without でも.

Similarly だけ adds 'no big deal' tone to いいじゃないか and both are not that different in meaning. It is kind of correlative with the previous でも. The sentence could be translated as But you don't have to say in such a 大仰な manner. Instead you just have to...

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  • Thank you very much. I previously thought the だけ meant "only" and added the nuance "it is only good (but no bad aspects of doing those things)". Commented May 29, 2022 at 13:54
  • By the way, how do you tell that this ことでもなく doesn’t mean the same as ことではない, namely, "it’s not something to be exaggerated"? Commented May 29, 2022 at 13:58
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    @chinoalpha Re 1st point, it could be interpreted as only: You have only to... Re 2nd point, I think both are similar. The subject of 言う is you, so ことではない would mean not something that you (should) exaggerate. All these boil down to more or less the same thing, but only subtle nuances. ことではない may imply it is something else due to contrastive は, ことはない sounds You shouldn't or possibly You'd better not.
    – sundowner
    Commented May 29, 2022 at 14:10

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