Questions tagged [rhetoric]

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7 votes
1 answer
581 views

Is there a term for the rhetorical rephrasing of e.g. "良子はエビ天にかぶりつく。" into "エビ天にかぶりつく良子。”?

Here is an excerpt from a novel, AURA〜魔竜院光牙最後の闘い〜 by 田中ロミオ; note the sentence in bold. やがて盆に乗った天もりが二人前やってくる。反射的に炸裂した良子の手づかみを阻止し、箸を持たせた。 「非論理的工具」 「うるさいなー。みんな頑張って慣れたんだよ」 悪戦苦闘しながらも、そばには目もくれずにエビ天にかぶりつく良子。...
kini's user avatar
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5 votes
2 answers
2k views

いいじゃない。vs いいのがない。

I was watching this video about conversations in Japanese. There's a couple discussing about what apartment they should buy... Wife: そうねえ、じゃ、これはどうかしら? Husband: なかなかいいんじゃない。これ見に行ってみるか。 W: あ、ちょっと待って。でも、...
Felipe Chaves de Oliveira's user avatar
5 votes
1 answer
1k views

Phrase translation: 何を言い出すかと思えば

I'm hoping to confirm (or receive corrections) on a guess I have about the meaning of a sentence. I'm reading a manga, and Character A stares at Character B for a long time with a serious expression. ...
Leila's user avatar
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3 votes
1 answer
364 views

Was "not necessarily to Japan’s advantage" meant to be an understatement?

In Emperor Hirohito's announcement of the end of World War II, there was a section that's been translated into English as "not necessarily to Japan’s advantage". But now the war has lasted for ...
Andrew Grimm's user avatar
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3 votes
1 answer
279 views

Does Japanese use litotes?

Are litotes and similar understatement typically used in Japanese? The Japanese Wikipedia entry on litotes is no War and Peace, which makes me suspect they don't use them very often.
Andrew Grimm's user avatar
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1 vote
2 answers
1k views

What are the basic physical differences between japanese poetry and prose?

I am not asking about genre, meaning or anything other subjective issues. I am talking about the following type of things in english: English prose (no rhyme, no rhythm). May also have literal ...
James Wilson's user avatar
11 votes
1 answer
1k views

Learning Japanese rhetoric and composition [closed]

One aspect of studying Japanese that has greatly frustrated me is my university's lack of writing classes. Learning kanji, vocab, grammar and an academic or other style is important, but Japanese ...
Nate Glenn's user avatar
  • 3,959
10 votes
2 answers
501 views

Varying word order for stylistic effect

Sometimes, for stylistic or rhetorical effect, one wants to delay mentioning a word/concept until the end of a sentence. For example, it's often best to save the punchline for the very end: I was ...
Mechanical snail's user avatar