こんにちは！
先週と今週を一言で説明すると、
「一難去ってまた一難」
という表現が最適でしょう。
二つの工学の試験が終わって、やっと休める！
と思ったら、宿題とレポートの量が急に増えて、また忙しい状態になってしまいました。
今週末なるべく宿題を終わらせて、
感謝祭のお休みまでなんとか頑張ります！
今週も日本語学で書いた小論文を貼らせてもらいたいと思います！
二つ目のトピックは「誤解を招きやすい文を集めて、分析してください」でした。
誤解を招きやすい文に関するトピックだったんですけども、
なんでプラグマティックス（語用論）が大事かというのを見つけ出すトピックでもありました。
僕達人間は思わず文脈にめちゃくちゃ頼っているので、
文脈なき世界だったらどれだけ誤解が多いのかを調べてくださいと言われました。
クラスでそう言われて、最初はまた「これ簡単じゃない？」と思ったものの、
実際に書こうとしたらすごく苦労しましたｗ
なぜあんなに苦労したかというと、
例を見つけるのが特に大変だったからです。
バラエティ番組を最近いつも見てるので、
番組を見れば例が簡単に集められるだろうと思っていました。
ちょっとなめてましたね。ｗ
バラエティを見て、見つけようとしても全然見つけれなかったです。
2本くらい見終わって、全く見つかってない時に、
このまま続けば書くことないわーって思って、少しあせりました。
バラエティ番組の中でいろんな会話があったんですけど、
どれも普通に聞こえて、「誤解を招きやすい文」として考えられるような例が全然見つかりませんでした。
そしたら、やっと気づきました。
その会話を最初から聞いてるから普通に聞こえるってことに。
会話の中で聞くと、その前の会話の流れがあるからおかしくなくて、筋が通ります。
しかし、セリフを会話から取って、文脈なしで言ったら、
大変面白くも、または変にも、または差別的にも聞こえることがあります。
文脈がないと誤解しやすい文を探すのが課題の意味だったのに、やっと分かるのに結構かかりました。ｗｗ
気づいて「あーー、こういうことだったんだ！はいはいはい」って思いました。
それから例を集めるのが楽しくて、簡単になってきました。
最後にいろんな例（小論文の証拠として使ったのも使ってないのも）を載せました。
皆さんが見たことがある番組で見つけた例が出ているのかもしれません！！
良かったら読んでみてください！
The study of pragmatics makes it clear that there is no truly context-less sentence. Without a logical situation or social background to complete a sentence, it can never be considered” wrong”, as long as it is grammatically accurate. A fact like “The earth orbits around the sun” is reduced to nothing different from any factual or false sentence, for without the common knowledge on which we base this fact, there is nothing to say it is “true” or “false”. “Pigs are born with the ability to fly” is just as grammatically accurate, and if we strip this sentence of its context, it theoretically has the same value as the first sentence. Thinking about our language in this way makes us realize the vital role pragmatics plays in making sense of the world in a logical way.
The listener must constantly adjust his/her way of thinking based on the speaker’s assumptions of “common sense” and what the speaker thinks the listener knows. On the other hand, the speaker must constantly assess the knowledge and background of the listener and adapt to the listener’s level of comprehension. This sensitive relationship is key to good communication between the two parties, and this mutual understanding of the context is the basis for pragmatics. This essay will look into the importance of pragmatics by using Japanese sentences whose meanings are easily mistakable without the proper context. Four types of these sentences were chosen, but they are by no means the only types.
The first type of 誤解を招きやすい文 is the case of “Phrases that sound strange without the proper context”. It is difficult to search for some of the other cases that will be referred to later, but this is by far the easiest to find. It seems that the reason for this is that practically any sentence in a conversation sounds strange without any knowledge of the situation (hence the need for pragmatics). Watching バラエティ番組 for a few minutes immediately produces a few examples. One such example was 「またキリン斬ったんだ」. This is very abrupt and outlandish, and with no background information seems almost insane. With these types of sentences, an array of questions arises. Why would anyone cut a giraffe? Why doesn’t the speaker seem shocked at all by this, and acts as if it’s a fairly normal thing to do? In that 5 minute portion of the show, too many weird-sounding sentences arose that one would be hard-pressed to choose the most strange.
Now, to reveal the context and shed light on the confusing situation: it was the show しゃべくり００７, and the hosts were taking part in a コント with the guest, 能年玲奈 (The くだらなさ of the コントmakes it not worth explaining for a whole paragraph). Since it was a コント and not real life, it quickly degraded into a crazy pretend-situation, acted out with the intention of making the audience laugh. However, with or without context, that sentence would be accurately translated in the exact same way. That is what the 芸人さん meant when he said it, so one would find no difference in the translation including or not excluding the background story. This is particularly interesting because it directly opposes the following case.
The next case is “Phrases that sound illogical or have a completely different literal meaning without context”. This will focus specifically on ones particular to Japanese. This is a very long title, but a few examples will make this category clear. Probably the most famous in the Japanese linguistic world of this case is the “うなぎ文”, which we discussed in class. It relies on the Japanese language’s unique grammatical system to make it possible to say completely illogical sentences that, with the proper context, are completely natural (it is worth mentioning that Korean is also capable of this, for its grammar is quite similar to that of Japanese). In English, no one would ever dream of saying “I’m pizza!” There’s nothing grammatically incorrect with the sentence, but in no real life context could you get away with that sentence. “I am pizza” can only be taken as the equation “I = pizza”. As in, I am one and the same thing as pizza; I am pizza and pizza is me. Which, unless pizza can talk, is simply nonsensical.
It is also nonsensical in Japanese…unless you choose the right context. For example, when watching the same show as before, しゃべくり００７, the staff gathered 能年玲奈’s favorite foods (including ハムバーグ、ピザ、ポテトチップスなど) for everyone to enjoy. When they were deciding who would eat what first, she said 「私、ピザです！」. This can be interpreted to mean the same thing as 「私はピザです！」with the particle は dropped for convenience. As everyone was saying what they were interested in eating, it becomes redundant and unnecessary to keep repeating the “I want to eat~” part of the sentence, and simply saying the food you want is easier. The phrasing of this sentence in Japanese, can be modified to what 能年玲奈 said, with zero 違和感.
While a literal translation would do it no justice, and make her seem unintelligent, a proper explanation of the context turns what she said into a perfectly acceptable sentence. For this reason, translating the extremely simple phrase 「私はピザです」becomes much more complicated that one might think. The translation adequate for one situation might be completely incorrect in another, and for that reason the idea of the context-less sentence once again fails. Here, we see that it not only fails logically within one language, but also between languages when translating, since what works in one language might not in another.
In English, this type of illogical sentence doesn’t work, but others do. People sometimes say “Is that you?” when the “that” is an inanimate object and is in no way equal to the person they are referring to. For example, when waiting at a train station with your friend, who is getting on a different train than you, and a train pulls up, you might say “Is that you?”, meaning “Is that your train?” These are much less common than the Japanese version, and some people might never use that type of speech.
The third case is “Phrases with a heavy emphasis on the implied meaning”. This can only be used in cases where the speaker can assume the listener will understand fully, without an explicit explanation. This goes back to the delicate relationship between speaker and listener, so the importance of this mutual understanding cannot be stressed enough, especially in this case.
One example of this is 「何時ですか？」. Depending on the situation (place, time of day, etc.), this can be interpreted to have a less obvious meaning that it at first implies. When you wake someone up at 6:30 am by splashing water on their face, they might say 「えー。今何時だよ。。。」. Here, they might be interested in the time because they want to know how early you woke them up; however, it is much more likely that their implied meaning is “I want to go back to bed, so let me sleep!” It’s more an expression of anger and outrage than a serious question as to the exact time. In another situation, if you’re working overtime even though you were planning on getting home early to watch your favorite television show, you might ask your coworker 「今何時ですか？」. While you are probably genuinely interested in the time, what you actually (maybe subconsciously) mean is to bring attention to how late it is in hopes of leaving as soon as possible. It can be equated to such phrases as “I want to go home”, or “I’m tired” in the right context, even though it goes no further than “What time is it?” if given no background. It is fair to say that this type of case transcends into many languages, and can carry the same implied meaning in Japanese or English.
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