22
votes
Accepted
What does it mean when multiple 々 marks follow a 、?
「々」is called「同{どう}の字{じ}点{てん}」it is used to repeat 1 previous character.
人人 = 人々
When there are multiple 同の字点 it means to repeat 'n' previous characters.
已及深更、深更後... =
已及深更、々々後...
&
令召右大辨、...
- 7,441
14
votes
What do ー, 「, and 」 mean?
The latter are quotation marks, equivalent to " " in English. For example, the sentence:
Mr Tanaka said "Good morning".
could be written as something like:
たなかさんは「おはよう」といいました。
The former may ...
- 1,602
14
votes
Accepted
What does 「／＼」 mean in this sentence?
This is supposed to be an iteration mark.
This type of iteration mark is usually only used in vertical writing (the traditional layout for Japanese writing). It looks like a big く but is twice as ...
- 48.4k
14
votes
Accepted
What do these symbols in manga mean?
This seems to be an encoding/typesetting issue and the "symbols" are indeed Greek letters Ψ, Π, π that seem to be displayed instead of !, ?, 〜.
There is another typographical oddity that suggests ...
- 48.4k
11
votes
What is the Japanese equivalent of English editorial brackets?
There is no special symbol for this, but simple brackets () can be used in most cases. They are especially common in interview articles, where the editor has to fix or supplement what was actually ...
- 337k
10
votes
What is the meaning of the dot (.) in Japanese dictionaries?
This is the first dictionary I've seen use this particular notation, but it appears to be a delimiter between the part of the word composed by the kanji reading and the okurigana.
See how for both ...
- 4,810
9
votes
Accepted
Are there means (formal rules or conventions) of use-mention distinction in Japanese writing?
「鉤【かぎ】括弧【かっこ】」 is probably what you're looking for. Example:
「は」は係助詞です。
These are used like quotes in English.
There's also a doubled-up form that can be used if the text is already quoted.
...
- 38.6k
9
votes
Accepted
Is there a reason why the 濁点【だくてん】（ ﾞ）are placed below the stroke at ぐ and で as opposed to the other hiragana characters?
The position of a dakuten is not as strict as you think. It has to be placed near the top right corner, but it may be moved or rotated according to the font designer's choice. Here are some examples ...
- 337k
7
votes
Accepted
Why does some manga have dots above some of the words?
This is the Japanese version of [underlining]{LLLLLLLLLLL}. It's a way of marking a word for emphasis.
Update
The Japanese name for this is variously 圏点{けんてん} (literally "enclosing mark"), 傍点{ぼうてん} ...
- 38.6k
7
votes
Accepted
What does ▲ mean in a newspaper?
段落（paragraph）の区切りです・・・
毎日新聞のコラム「余禄」では、▲
朝日新聞のコラム「天声人語」では、▼ を使って、
「ここで段落が変わる」ことを示しています。
（段落が変わるので本来は改行するところを、スペースが限られているため、代わりに記号で表している）
産経新聞のコラム「産経抄」は ▼ で、こんな感じです：
また、このページによると、
読売新聞のコラム「編集手帳」では、◆ ...
- 66.4k
6
votes
Accepted
How many syllables does くの字点 affect?
It is a matter of memorization.
You must already be familiar with the word or phrase to read it properly the first time.
However, because other marks for single character repetition already exist, ...
- 7,441
6
votes
Accepted
Spaces and end of sentences in まんが
Translated from NAVERまとめ:
With most manga publishers other than Shogakukan (which uses more standard punctuation markers), it is an implicit rule to use spaces instead of the reading and ...
- 7,230
6
votes
Accepted
Is a sentence ending with "か……。" a question or a questionative statement?
The correct term is rhetorical question, and yes, in this case it is a rhetorical question. Also there is no "why" in the Japanese sentence.
Japanese people often use か like that, especially ...
- 2,010
6
votes
What are these vertical lines called in Japanese?
This is a double hyphen (＝), rendered vertically because the text is written vertically. The mark is called a ダブルハイフン in Japanese.
The double hyphen in Japanese is typically usually used to separate ...
- 3,757
6
votes
Accepted
Addressing someone without punctuation?
The answer is nothing. Japanese does not have a special form for vocative other than nominative (not many languages have), and before the introduction of punctuation, you can just guess it from the ...
- 52.7k
5
votes
Accepted
What does the hyphen in this dictionary entry mean?
It's just a hyphen to split the word stem from the suffix 家. It's not written that way in normal text, but you do see it in dictionaries or word lists.
- 11.7k
5
votes
Accepted
Usage of interrobang (?!) in Japanese
!? is much more common than ?! in Japanese literature (see !? in nicopedia), although many laypeople do not care about the order. It is not very common in serious novels, but some old novels like 蟹工船 ...
- 337k
5
votes
Accepted
What is this dash-like punctuation at the beginning of lines, seeming to indicate rapid-fire thoughts?
It's indeed a (long) dash. See:
Is Japanese em dash equal to Latin em dash?
Meaning of long horizontal bar in Japanese
What does ー mean in this context?
It has several uses, but here, it is similar ...
- 337k
5
votes
Accepted
Questions about punctuation in a light novel
Both methods are for emphasizing something, but they are used a little differently.
Brackets are used to emphasize important keywords and words with non-standard meanings. Their role partly overlaps ...
- 337k
4
votes
Accepted
Interrupted Dialogue
Either a 3点リーダー or a dash is used for this purpose. Note that a Japanese dash is usually longer than an English em-dash.
The last example (leaving a Latin consonant) is fairly unconventional, but it ...
- 337k
4
votes
Accepted
In terms of comma placement, does the following rough translation match the Japanese?
However I want to know if there is another way to translate the Japanese so that the comma is also used in the English translation.
Sure, if you don't mind an unnatural English, you could translate ...
- 2,010
4
votes
Accepted
How to express “X (and parenthetically Y)”?
This kind of interrupting parentheses are a common practice in Japanese too. Beware that, however, the linguistic and cultural difference between these two languages might make literal translations ...
- 52.7k
4
votes
Accepted
Using an asterisk to indicate a disclaimer
This is a common practice also in Japanese (called 脚注 "footnotes"). But Japanese people tend to use superscript kome-jirushi (※) instead of the asterisk. When there are many footnotes, ...
- 337k
4
votes
Accepted
Does でも mean "but" in this sentence?
「話すことができぬでも、頷く(unazuku)ぐらいはできるだろう」
The first part of this sentence is archaic or old-fashioned. This is, of course, used in order to show the story takes place in the past. Let's rewrite the above ...
- 1,259
4
votes
Accepted
Why is there a comma between 初めて and the following part it modifies?
You can put the comma in either of two places as below.
大学生になって、初めてその本の本当の価値が分かるようになった。
大学生になって初めて、その本の本当の価値が分かるようになった。
The two sentences give slightly different impressions. The first simply ...
- 21.8k
3
votes
use of noun then comma and そして
This sentence appeared ambiguous and poorly-written to me. After looking at some articles about Struts, I think this sentence should mean:
An action servlet consists of a collection of action ...
- 337k
3
votes
Accepted
What's the difference between English & Japanese parenthesis?
Yes parentheses are used like this in novels. From Wikipedia 括弧:
小説等の文学作品やゲーム作品では、会話に表れない心中表現や外国人や動物のセリフの訳文であることを示すのに用いることがある。また、ゲーム作品においては、回想シーンやテレパシー（実際に喋っていない）等での会話に用いる事もある。
And "(?)" as in "...
- 337k
3
votes
What does ー mean in this context?
The way I take it is that it represents a reflective pause -- showing the author to be lingering on the thought of the situation they have just described -- not just reporting a bit of information ...
- 6,194
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