Edward Mack

University of Washington

Page 2 of 2

Involuntary Causative

I am referring to this construction as the “involuntary causative” because it most often describes involuntary functions, usually of the body.  I have also seen it called the “reflexive causative” (再帰使役).

Consider the following sentences from the story “Uzu” by Takemoto Yoshio:

今日もいたずらすな子供がポチャポチャした頬っぺたを輝かせながら、しきりに狙いをつけているが、…

松田は蒼白い顔をくもらせて、直裁にでて来ない言葉をいくらか震わせながら、苦しそうな表情をした。

信介はベットリと冷汗の浸み出た額に、苦悶の色を浮かべて、藻掻き疲れた体をふるわせながら、絶叫していた。

一緒に山伐りをしていた人達は、能面のように顔を硬わ張らせて、…

Note that none of the causative verbs actually involve the subject consciously causing something to happen; in all cases, the actions are occurring involuntarily: cheeks glowing, expressions darkening, voices quaking, bodies shaking, and faces stiffening.

Though this construction primarily appears with bodily reactions, it can also happen with plants, animals, and machines. This article provides examples.

How do we distinguish situations in which the action is done voluntarily from those in which it is done involuntarily?  In almost all cases, this will reflect an involuntary action; the context should make it clear if it is voluntary.

三重瞼

Yet again, an entry on something I still do not fully understand.  In Japan (and other parts of Asia), a single-fold eyelid (hitoe-mabuta) is considered by some to be less desirable than a double-fold eyelid (futae-mabuta).  For more information, read this on the epicanthic fold and this on “Asian blepharoplasty.”

References to mie-mabuta (an eyelid with three folds) are less common; below is an image someone has posted of one:

I bring this up also to point out the following blog entry on mie-mabuta (and this follow-up.)  I wasn’t able to find anything on the blog to let me know who runs it, but I am going to presume that it is a native speaker in Japan.  The existence of sites like these show us that even native speakers (1) are sometimes uncertain and (2) are interested in these small details.

Tense/Aspect and Narrative

The question about verb “tense” in narrative comes up again and again. I will write more about this in the future, but the following article proposes some very interesting tentative explanations:

Hiroshi Nara, “Tense Alternation in Written Narrative Texts in Japanese” (PDF)

Here is my brief summary of his findings:

  1. Sentences that orient readers or provide evaluations are non-past if within the “extended” present of narration, and past if not; non-past slows narrative and heightens focus on the scene.
  2. Sentences that introduce complications or declare are non-past or past in the same cases as above; non-past used for habitual behavior and past for preparing for a narrative peak.
  3. Sentences that provide abstracts or codas are non-past.

If that makes little sense, please take a look at Nara’s clear explanation. Also note that the precise functioning of tense/aspect in Japanese-language narratives is still a matter of some debate.

Professor Nara recently published a related piece, “Aspect and Discourse in Tense-Switching” (PDF).

サッシ

妹「いや。聞こえる。絶対に鈴の音だ!」と呼ぶや、サッシを開け放った。その時、サンタはすでに玄関まで到達し、庭には誰もいなかった。

原成男「酒と涙と男と天ぷら」

More often than one might imagine, we encounter “sashes” (サッシ or サッシュ) being opened in contemporary Japanese. In cases like the one above, this does not refer to a strip of cloth worn around the waist (or even around curtains), but to a less common sense of “sash” in English: “a frame holding the glass in a window, typically one of two sliding frames.” (Oxford American Dictionary)

For those unfamiliar with this usage, consider “The Night Before Christmas”:

When out on the lawn there arose such a clatter,

I sprang from my bed to see what was the matter.

Away to the window I flew like a flash,

Tore open the shutters, and threw up the sash.

Note that the Kôjien lists サッシ (without the small “yu”) as only referring to the latter of the two meanings given above, while サッシュ can refer to either. Also note that this can refer to the frame of sliding glass doors as well, as in the image below.sash

Adversitive Passive

動揺と混乱を悟られたくなくておおげさに机にうつぶせたぼくの頭や背中に、類がどさどさと落ちてきた。

重松清「チマ男とガサ子」

We do not expect, in most cases, to find an object with a verb that appears to be conjugated as a passive. In this case, what we have is the indirect, or adversitive, passive (間接受身), in which the topic/subject of the passive verb will be affected (emotionally) negatively (in most cases) by the action, the agent of which would be marked by ni (if it appeared in the sentence.)

山田さんは奥さんに逃げられた。

Mr. Yamada’s wife ran away on him. (Presumably a negative.)

太郎は春子にタバコを吸われた。

Taro had a cigarette smoked by Haruko (imposed) on him. (Also negative.)

木村さんは美人に横に座られてうれしそうだ。

Mr. Kimura, having had a pretty woman sit beside him, looks happy. Here the effect is positive.

Usually, the agent of the event is animate and the action is volitional. There is, however, one common exception to that rule:

僕は雨に降られた。

I was rained on.

Therefore, the phrase in the sentence at the top, were it an independent
sentence with all implied elements made explicit, would be:

ぼくが彼に動揺と混乱を悟られたくない。

I do not want him to perceive the tumult and confusion (in my heart/mind) (as
that would bother me.)

開く・注ぐ・避ける・退く

A few general comments about verbs whose readings can only be determined by context.

First, let’s look at 開く, which can be either aku or hiraku (we will leave out hadaku to simplify things.) When functioning as an intransitive, aku is used if something that had been preventing the opening is removed and passage then becomes possible. Hiraku is used when something that is closed is opened (and usually left open.) The most common occurrences of hiraku as an intransitive involve windows or dialogue boxes on computers, flowers, events, and gaps. Curtains and doors can aku or hiraku.

Next is 注ぐ, which (when used as a transitive verb) can be read either as sosogu or tsugu. This will be read as sosogu in most contexts, with one important exception: when liquid is poured into a small container (eg, cup) in order to be drunk. It that case, tsugu is supposedly the appropriate reading, though many native speakers will still read it as sosogu.

We also have 避ける, which can be read as sakeru or yokeru. Although both mean “to avoid,” the former involves avoiding abstract things and things that one holds a strong dislike for; the latter, on the other hand, often implies a physical response — ducking, swerving, etc. Consider this example:

お互い、生い立ちや歳のことも、避けていた訳ではなくてただ話題に上がらなかった。

金原ひとみ「蛇にピアス」

Since their childhoods and their ages are abstractions, this would be read sakete.

Finally, 退く, which (when used as an intransitive verb) can be read as shirizoku, doku, noku, or hiku (in classical Japanese, as always, there are even more possibilities.) To begin with, these verbs can be grouped: shirizoku and hiku both mean to withdraw; doku and noku both mean to get out of someone’s way. Within the former group, shirizoku is the most common reading when this kanji is used; within the latter group, the difference today seems mainly a matter of regional dialect. Given this, how would we read:

それ以上、押し問答するのもみっともないので、女は「じゃあ」と言ってあっさり退いた。

小池真理子「捨てる」

As we know from context that the woman does not subsequently get out of the man’s way, but that she is retreating, abstractly, from a certain line of questioning, presumably the reading would be shirizoku.

相談を受ける

… 手塚さんから受けた架空の恋愛相談の内容まで思い浮かぶほどだった。

角田光代「マザコン」

It pays to be careful with electronic dictionaries that give a one word translation, sans examples. If one were to use such a dictionary to process the phrase sôdan o ukeru, one might presume that it meant something along the lines of “to receive advice.” If that were the case, we would read the above sentence to mean that the narrator had received fictional love advice from Ms. Tezuka. In fact, however, it was the narrator who had given the advice.

Nikkoku defines sôdan as “conversing in order to determine how to proceed,” which is thus the whole process of consultation, and not just the resulting advice.

The phrase sôdan o ukeru means, then, not to receive advice but to be called in for consultation; that is, to be consulted. In the example above, a contorted literal translation might be “the fictional love advice I had been asked to give by Ms. Tezuka.”

擦りつける

乱暴に煙草を灰皿に擦りつけ、酒井はぷいと出て行った。

青山真治「夜警」

Along the lines of the previous post, is it suritsuke, kosuritsuke, or nasuritsuke?

Let’s begin by eliminating the “easy” one, nasuritsukeru. What Sakai is doing in this sentence is a very concrete action, the rubbing out of a cigarette. Although its fundamental meaning is more or less the same as the others, nasuritukeru (vt.) is usually used abstractly, in the sense of “to attach one’s own responsibility or failure to another.”

Verbs with two readings often divide between concrete and abstract meanings. Consider 抱く, which can be read either as daku or idaku. The former is conventionally used when one embraces (e.g.) a person or thing, while the latter is used when one embraces (e.g.) an idea.

Nikkoku defines suritsukeru as follows: (1) to kosuritsukeru, nasuritsukeru; (2) to kosuru and thus ignite; (3) to conspicuously praise something that another does not like, so that that person might be motivated to buy it. (Let’s ignore this third meaning, which is traced back to the famous Japanese-Portuguese dictionary Nippo jisho of 1603.) An example from Natsume Sôseki uses the verb for “rubbing” one’s forehead on the floor as part of a groveling bow.

Nikkoku defines kosuritsukeru this way: to press one thing against another and nasuritsukeru; to rub with force. An example from Arishima Takeo uses the verb in the same way Sôseki did above.

An informal survey of native speakers resulted in a unanimous vote for kosuritsukeru in this case. A suggested reason was this: the verb kosuru, unlike the verb suru, denotes a repeated action, thus fitting better with the multiple passes presumably necessary to put out a cigarette.

埋もれる

マンション前に止まっている軽トラックと、運転席に座ってこちらを見ている男の姿とが、一瞬、白い花あらしの中に埋もれ、見えなくなる。

小池真理子「捨てる」

Which is it, umore or uzumore? There are a number of these verbs that cannot be distinguished simply by their okurigana or the grammar of the sentence. (We will deal with other examples in another post.) Without a gloss, we are left to the context to determine which of the readings (and thus meaning) is appropriate. So what of this case?

Let’s begin with umoreru (vi.). The Nikkoku (2nd. ed.) gives the following meanings: (1) to go under/into, or be covered by, something like snow or soil and disappear from sight (cf. uzumoreru and umoru); (2) used metaphorically, to be withdrawn (cf. uzumoreru), as in reserved, gloomy, or obscure.

And uzumoreru (vi.): (1) to be covered with something like snow or soil and disappear from sight, or to hide oneself by going deeply into something; (2) for a place to fill with things, people, etc.; (3) used metaphorically, to not be known, as in to be withdrawn, undervalued; and (4) to give oneself over to feelings such as sadness and despair.

The distinction is clarified here: the two words differ in the same way that uzumeru and umeru differ; that is, uzumu (vt.)/uzumeru (vt.) refer to covering something by heaping soil, etc., on top of it; umu (vt.)/umeru (vt.) refer to putting something into a hole, etc., and then covering that. In both cases the object disappears from sight.

Nikkoku identifies characteristic uses of various related words. For uzumu, “to pile a lot of soil, etc., onto something and thus cover and conceal it”; for uzumeru, “to fill a space with people or things, or to pile a lot of soil, etc., onto something and thus cover and conceal it”; for umeru, “to mix in another substance in order to modulate temperature or strength” or, metaphorically, “to make up for a loss or an insufficiency.”

So which is it, umore or uzumore? Since one key difference between the terms seems to be degree, and since presumably the truck is merely covered — not buried — in petals, this would likely be read umore.

Welcome

Welcome to the “Reading Japanese” blog, which has been constructed to augment my classes in advanced reading comprehension.  We will be using this space to discuss at greater length issues that arise in class.  I hope that it will come in handy.  Please do not hesitate to add comments, whether they be questions, clarifications, or corrections.

Newer posts »

© 2024 Edward Mack

Theme by Anders NorenUp ↑