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ひとまず心を落ち着けようと、飲みかけのオレンジジュースに手を伸ばす。

Please help. I came across this line and I don't really understand use of と here. How exactly does と work here?

ElSigh
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  • Isn't this form what you get by just omitting `思って` (or possibly `思いながら`) after the `と`? – istrasci Nov 15 '13 at 22:20
  • Is that so? Is 思って often omitted in such a situation. (Thanks for the response) – ElSigh Nov 15 '13 at 22:22
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    I think it could also be like omitting `して`. [See @TsuyoshiIto's answer here](http://japanese.stackexchange.com/a/9710/78). – istrasci Nov 15 '13 at 22:23
  • I didn't realize the rules of omission are so flexible. Given the context both comments fit well. – ElSigh Nov 15 '13 at 23:33
  • My feeling is that it's possible to understand it as not having anything omitted, but I'll wait for someone who is more certain about this sentence to answer. –  Nov 16 '13 at 01:18
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    isn't this the "volitional+to suru" pattern, but with a different verb in place of suru? i don't see it as an omission of suru... it's more like a replacement of suru by nobasu. – Axe Nov 16 '13 at 04:02
  • Nothing whatsoever is omitted in that sentence. "xxx is omitted in this phrase" is just some people's favorite way of explaining things to learners. Be careful. –  Nov 16 '13 at 09:32

1 Answers1

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You may be reading too much into this; It is pretty simple.

Verb A + ようと + Verb B = "do B" so as to / in order to / for the purpose of "do A".

A is your goal / purpose. B is the method you are taking to achieve A.

ひとまず心を落ち着けようと、飲みかけのオレンジジュースに手を伸ばす。 means:

"I extend my arm to the unfinished (glass of) orange juice so as to relax myself for now."

  • Obviously this is not the intent, but your wording of `Verb A + ようと` makes it sound like you need to add `ようと` to a verb instead of it actually being the 意志形. – istrasci Nov 16 '13 at 18:13
  • @istrasci But the よう is 助動詞, no? http://dictionary.goo.ne.jp/leaf/jn2/226119/m0u/%E3%82%88%E3%81%86/ (We Japanese learn it as 助動詞 at school so I think most of us are not familiar with the term 意志形) –  Nov 17 '13 at 08:59
  • @ちょこれーと: I don't know the names of all the 品詞, so I'll trust you that it's true. But my point was, the answer used `Verb A` and `Verb B`, and that seems to imply that they use the same form, which they obviously don't in this pattern. – istrasci Nov 17 '13 at 19:28
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    It looks like 100% of the [Google results for 意志形](https://www.google.com/search?hl=ja&q=site%3Ahttp%3A%2F%2Fjapanese.stackexchange.com%2F+%22%E6%84%8F%E5%BF%97%E5%BD%A2%22) are istrasci posting on this site, so that might not be the best term... At any rate, `〜(よ)う` is often considered a separate form rather than 助動詞 in 日本語教育. The [日本語文法ハンドブック](http://www.amazon.co.jp/dp/4883191559) series calls this form the 意向形, for what it's worth. –  Nov 19 '13 at 02:39