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ok so, i'm reading デューク and there's a line that says

その格好がモップに似ていると言って、みんなで笑った。

with my limited comprehension, i'm unsure of whether this means

  • everybody laughed that he resembled a mop.
  • i laughed when people said he looked like a mop.
  • something else completely

i read this which is what made me think my first translation was probably wrong, but i'm still quite unconfident on the matter...

Josephine Lawrence
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1 Answers1

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The more context the better (we don't even have a subject here), but I would understand it as: everybody laughed

The linked question is a bit different, it is about 笑わせる which is a causative form - it's about making (or letting) someone laugh (and I believe これ vs みんな can also make a difference).

Here, you can say で marks a way how the verb was performed and that is "as everyone".

It is similar to other constructs like 一人で (by myself, alone)、家族で (as a family), ...

NoxArt
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  • You can also check https://japanese.stackexchange.com/a/44711/9719 It describes this expression from maybe? a different angle using formal sources, though I cannot think of a difference it would practically make. This answer is about how I understood it – NoxArt May 12 '18 at 14:10
  • See also: http://www.lit.kobe-u.ac.jp/linguistics/sells-postconf-ho.pdf –  May 12 '18 at 15:00
  • Thank you very much for the link. I'll give it a read, for now I'll keep hoping my answer is not wrong then : ) – NoxArt May 12 '18 at 15:01
  • (if we assume the possibility of a hidden subject) – NoxArt May 12 '18 at 15:09
  • Well, I upvoted because I think your explanation ('everybody laughed') is the right way to understand it. I don't think you can add a が-marked subject in addition to みんなで, though, so I think it might be best analyzed as what Martin calls a 'group subject'. We could see if anyone else has an opinion about adding a が-phrase, though. I'm just a learner, and my intuitive judgments aren't always right. –  May 12 '18 at 23:09