Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!rutgers!ucsd!ucbvax!hplabs!hpcea!hpfcdc!hpfclp!fritz
From: fritz@hpfclp.HP.COM (Gary Fritz)
Newsgroups: comp.ai
Subject: Re: words order in English and Japanese
Message-ID: <7390003@hpfclp.HP.COM>
Date: 29 Jan 88 16:28:17 GMT
References: <1671@russell.STANFORD.EDU>
Organization: HP SDE, Fort Collins, CO
Lines: 33

Regardless of the validity Nakashima-san's linguistic theory, I must agree 
with him on one of his points:

> >It was his lack of prior research and his asser-
> >tation that the Japanese were more attuned to nuance and people's moods that
> >I found arrogant.
> 
> My appology for your misunderstanding.
> 
> But I never said that Japanese people are more attuned to whatever.
> I just said that Japanese language is.  The example is the honorific
> system which English lacks.
> 
> By the way, to see how Japanese is complecated in expressing ones
> mood, it is not sufficient to have conversation with Japanese people
> speaking in English.  You should speak Japanese yourself.

I have been studying Japanese for well over a year now, and if there is
one thing that is clear to me, it is that Japanese excells at vagueness
and expression of one's mood.  Many times my teacher (who speaks excellent
English) has tried and failed to explain the subtleties involved in 
seemingly unimportant changes of phrasing.  It appears that Japanese
is more finely tuned for subtly expressing one's feelings about a subject
than for actually conveying hard information about the subject.  This is
probably part of the reason why English-speaking people are considered
(by Japanese people) rather rude, because they come right to the point and 
convey information directly, rather than hinting at what they feel.

Obviously a year's study does not make me an expert in the language, but
I felt Nakashima-san had received enough flames and needed some support
on at least one of his points.

Gary Fritz