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From: edwards@uwmacc.UUCP (mark edwards)
Newsgroups: net.nlang
Subject: Re: A second Try at Japanese Look-Alike Sentences
Message-ID: <1861@uwmacc.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 30-Dec-85 08:49:25 EST
Article-I.D.: uwmacc.1861
Posted: Mon Dec 30 08:49:25 1985
Date-Received: Wed, 1-Jan-86 00:57:53 EST
References: <2541@sdcrdcf.UUCP>
Reply-To: edwards@uwmacc.UUCP (mark edwards)
Organization: UWisconsin-Madison Academic Comp Center
Lines: 54

In article <2541@sdcrdcf.UUCP> barryg@sdcrdcf.UUCP (Lee Gold) writes:
>
>That makes "Nihonjin no kanajo ga iru mo" probably mean "I once had
>a Japanese lady."
>
>Problems (as analyzed after some desultory study of Japanese for ten years)
>	Kanojo is a pronoun, not a noun -- and so doesn't take adjectival
>constructions.
>	Mo- goes at the start of a sentence, not the end.  The verb (in
>polite form goes at the end.
>	Ga is an emphatic particle.
>	Your verb is present form, not past.
>I'd write that sentence as "Mo- nihonjin no musume wa imashita."

 First of all please don't put words in my mouth. The only error as
 I see it is "kanajo" (Should be kanojo). I showed the romanji sentence
 to a Japanese native and she looked at it uncomprendingly. Then I read
 it to her, the light went on. 

 The Japanese often add things at the end of spoken sentence, and
 since my spoken is much better than my written, it comes across that
 way. As for the plain verb, I learned to speak in Aomoriken or hicktown
 Japan.
>
>>Ima watashi no kanajo wa nihon ni modotte, juku o oshiete iru. Kanajo
>>wa mochiron nihonjin desu. Kanajo wa sugu america ni kaette kuru to 
>>omoimasu.
>
>This group seems to mean, "Now my lady has returned to Japan; I am studying
>at a private school.  She was certainly Japanese.  I think she will someday
>return to America."
>
>	Problems (besides those cited above)
>	You seem to be confusing modoru (to return) and kaeru (to go back
>to one's proper place, to go home).
>	You seem to be confusing the progressive (e.g. I am teaching) with
>the passive (e.g. I am being taught).   Combined with a misuse of -o, this
>means you said you were teaching a school instead of learning AT a school.
>
>I'd rewrite that group as "Ima kono musume wa nihon ni kaete ga
>juku ni naraimashita....Sugu ni kanajo wa amerika ni modotte to omoimasu."

 Again you are putting words in my mouth. I know the correct use of kaeru
 and modoru. If you think of them in my frame of mind, her real home is
 here, thus kaeru. And she has temporarily returned to Japan. Oshiete iru
 means oshiete iru. She has a teaching license and is teaching juku.

 ================================================================
 But since I do not always spell english correctly or utter well formed
 english sentences, is it possible to do the same in another language?
 Can I sue my grade school teachers and school for lack of a good English
 education ???   I'd make millions.

 mark