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In the Ghibli film The Castle of Cagliostro, there is a scene where Lupin, a male character who mainly makes use of stereotypical-masculine language throughout the whole movie, utters the following line:

それがコテンコテン しっぽ巻いてよ 逃げちゃった

I have seen uses of ね as an interjection in the middle of utterances, so I thought that this use of よ was a similar case, but while doing research for a school assignment, I encountered readings on the "teyo-dawa speech (てよだわ言葉)" (https://content.ucpress.edu/chapters/10494.ch01.pdf, https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%A5%B3%E6%80%A7%E8%AA%9E, etc), which made me wonder if the above utterance should be counted as an example of "teyo-dawa speech."

Since it is my first time seeing よ following a non-request -て form, I am confused whether or not this interjecting よ should be considered a deliberate use of "teyo-dawa speech" by the character to exaggerate his speech for the purpose of mocking himself for running away. If this should not be considered "teyo-dawa speech," what is the function of よ in the utterance, and what are other examples of よ being used this way?

Cyaii Kais
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1 Answers1

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According to Jisho.org here, よ in the given sentece is defined as "3 used to catch one's breath or get someone's attention ​in mid-sentence".

Particle

  1. indicates certainty, emphasis, contempt, request, etc.​at sentence-end
    1000円かそこらで買えますよ。You can buy it for a thousand yen or so.

  2. used when calling out to someone​after a noun
    恋人よ、我に帰れ。Lover, come back to me.

  3. used to catch one's breath or get someone's attention​ in mid-sentence

  4. yo!​

     Wikipedia definition

  5. Yo (kana)​よ, in hiragana, or ヨ in katakana, is one of the Japanese kana, each of which represents one mora....

Apart from "teyo-dawa speech", the よ in this given sentence is called one of a "ねさよ言葉{ことば} ne-sa-yo speech".

ね and さ are used as the same function as よ in the given sentence as:

(A) それがコテンコテン しっぽ巻いて 逃げちゃった (女性的、子供 female, child)
(B) それがコテンコテン しっぽ巻いて 逃げちゃった (関東弁 Kantou dialect)
(C) それがコテンコテン しっぽ巻いて 逃げちゃった (男性的 male)

Anyway, the basic form of the given sentece is:
(D) それがコテンコテン しっぽ巻いて逃げちゃった

Example

(E) 俺が道を歩いていたら昔の友達に会った。 When I was walking the streets I met my old friend.
(F) 俺が、道を、歩いていたら、昔の、友達に、会った
Though the last ぜ does not belong to the group of nesayo-speech, it is usually used at the last of the sentence like (F) by a man.
It is better not to imitate (F), because it is a poorly behaved way of saying.

Bonus

(D) それがコテンコテン しっぽ巻いて逃げちゃった
If you rewrite (D) plainly, it will be like (G).
(G) 彼がどうなったかと言うと、それが、彼は誰かにコテンパンにやられ、負け犬のように尻尾{しっぽ}を巻いて逃げたよ。
The interpretation of (G) in English will be like:
As for him, he was beaten black and blue and turned tail and ran.

  • "コテンパンにやられる" is a passive form of "コテンパンにやる". "コテンパンにやる" is also said "コテンパンにやっつける" in the same meaning. They both mean "to beat a person black and blue".
  • "尻尾{しっぽ}を巻{ま}いて逃{に}げる" is an idiomatic phrase in Japanese that expresses figuratively how a person behaves when he loses the fight by quoting how a dog sneaks away or runs off with its tail between its legs when the dog loses the fight.

Since I learned that they use "to turn tail and run" to describe the same situation in English, it is very interesting that these expressions are very similar in both languages.

mackygoo
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