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Here's the sentence

カン蛙のよろこびようと云ったらもうとてもありません。

I know カン蛙のよろこび refers to "Kan the frog's joy", and I believe that I should read this sentence like this to help understanding the meaning :

カン蛙のよろこびよう、と云ったら、もうとてもありません。

Right?

But then what's the purpose of よう here?
It's weird to me because よろこび is a noun, so shouldn't the sentence be "よろこびのよう" instead?

The other thing I don't quite figure out is "もうとてもありません" which is relative in this conditional structure and of the form (time adverb + degree adverb + verb), I believe the degree adverb is a backreference to the first proposition's subject ("Kan the frog's joy") or else the subject doesn't exist which makes me confused.

The only thing I can think of is "What appeared to be Kan the frog's joy, is not that great anymore". Even though it sounds a little bit confusing still.

Hope to get your help to make the meaning more clear.

vdegenne
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    Related: [Could someone tell me why is よう being used in this sentence?](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/q/40278/43676) – aguijonazo Oct 26 '22 at 22:37
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    Related: [といったらなかった meaning](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/q/84083/43676) – aguijonazo Oct 26 '22 at 22:40

1 Answers1

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よう　is 様, means like how it looks. Roughly the sentence should be translated, "The way he is happy...".

"...もうとてもありません。" is a little unclear but I think it means like "no way to be described" or something like that (like もう例えようもありません。） So, in this case もう　does not mean "any more" or "yet", simply to emphasize what follows.

Tomoki
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