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Dragon Ball Super ending 9 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5lRjWkjHKDg

in a part of the song says

"waratteru ka naiteru noka"

which is translated as

were you laughing or were you crying?

Is there any reason why the first part uses the particle "ka" and the second "no ka"? is there a rule or something for doing so in a case like this?

Pablo
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1 Answers1

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Please look at: What is the meaning of のか and how does it differ from か?

Maybe by parsing, as @psosuna noted, it would sound more like, "Were you laughing, or could you have been crying?"

On the other hand, it could just be added syllables to make the song lyrics fit.

knowledge_is_power
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  • However, it could be that the Japanese only put the の particle at the very end to save space/time rather than emphasizing the last part. Do you have another source to support your claim? – YoungsterJoey Jul 31 '17 at 21:11
  • Yes. See the explanation in the answer to: https://www.italki.com/question/68085?answer-sorting=1 – knowledge_is_power Jul 31 '17 at 21:13
  • You only gave another link for an explanation of んだ/のだ. Do you have a source that proves the の at the end of this sentence only emphasizes "were you crying" rather than emphasizing both? To me it looks kinda weird if it were written 「笑っているのか泣いているのか。」in the same sentence. – YoungsterJoey Jul 31 '17 at 21:21
  • Actually, looking at the question again it could even just be the explanation の rather than emphasis. Probably need native confirmation on this one. – YoungsterJoey Jul 31 '17 at 21:42
  • If you look at the answer in the link, "のか( "profession, order, decision or emphasis" of verb) in questionary sentence " – knowledge_is_power Jul 31 '17 at 23:59
  • What do japaneses have to say about this? Is Gabby answer right or wrong? – Pablo Aug 01 '17 at 13:12
  • I'm not sure, but it could be right. We'll probably need to summon Chocolate or something. And in response to Gabby, they only used のか rather than か AND のか in that description (if that would make any difference). I realized now that it's actually a song, so the artist just may be adding/omitting syllables for the beats to flow better/properly in terms of music. And if that's the case, the の may not have much more significant meaning at all. – YoungsterJoey Aug 01 '17 at 16:25
  • I do see this too. I looked in my book of particles, and saw no のか, which doesn't help. But if Chocolate knows, let them at it. – knowledge_is_power Aug 01 '17 at 16:37
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    I'm not Chocolate at all, but my parsing sense sees this in this way -- [笑ってるか][(泣いてるの)か]. In this case, 泣いてるの is a question that is being asked as part of the comparison of states of being either in laughter (which is what the person thinks) and in tears (which is what the person is wondering could be). – psosuna Aug 01 '17 at 16:55
  • What do you mean, that if you drop the "no" there would be no sense of "or" in the sentence? – Pablo Aug 01 '17 at 17:47
  • I believe my question it's the same than the one asked in the link posted by Gabby and unless someone from Japan tells me otherwise I'm going to leave his answer marked as right. The answer given in the link by l'electeur seems to say the same Gabby said – Pablo Aug 01 '17 at 17:56