Japanese Language Stack Exchange
Japanese Language Stack Exchange

Questions tagged [parsing]

構文解析. Questions about understanding how a phrase / sentence / utterance is put together, what its components are.

308 questions
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How to separate words in a Japanese sentence?

Unlike some languages (English, French, ...), written Japanese sentences don't have spaces between words. I know that it is the same in Chinese for example, but the fact that the Chinese language only use one alphabet (hanzi) makes it easier to…
tama
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Are Japanese modifiers "greedy", "anti-greedy", or do they mean whatever people choose them to mean?

(I'm a beginner. I just started learning Japanese about a month before I wrote this.) The Japanese Wikipedia article 飛べない鳥, which corresponds to the English Wikipedia article Flightless bird, has the…
edom
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How do I parse 正当に行うことができるものとして与えられている能力

I came across a definition of a word 権限 in a dictionary (三省堂 スーパー大辞林): ある範囲のことを正当に行うことができるものとして与えられている能力。また、その能力が及ぶ範囲。 However, am not sure if I should read the bolded clause as ((ある範囲のことを正当に行うこと)が(できるもの)として与えられている)…
user11053
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Telling the speaker apart from the person being spoken about

A recent question about the usage of quoted speech contained this interesting sample sentence: ハイリアの民は、ふしぎな力を あやつることが、できたと言います。 Often when I read this kind of sentence, I wonder if ハイリアの民 is part of the quoted sentence, or the actor doing the…
waldrumpus
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Having trouble parsing this triple negative sentence

In my JLPT practise book, there is this sentence, which is designed to test if one can track all the negations: その仕事{しごと}ほどおもしろくない仕事{しごと}はないのではないかと、私{わたし}は思{おも}った。 Up to の, I think it's saying, "there is no job as uninteresting as that job." But…
Questioner
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Does 両目 have a special meaning or is it just a mistake?

Today I found this sentence on my Japanese textbook (みんなの日本語中級I - 本冊 pg. 70) And it didn't make any sense to me. 前から２両目の電車を降りたところで待っています。 I looked for 両目 on 電子辞書 and it says it means both eyes. Still didn't make any sense to me so I put it in…
Sergio
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What does "もんだなって" mean?

I'm reading a manga and I found that phrase. What is it supposed to mean? Is it some kind of informal way to speak? This is the full sentence: 男でもいけるもんだなって思ってさ
Renji
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Meaning of「なんじゃって」

I have difficulty understanding the dialogue below. Context: Somebody asked him what does this phrase「好きじゃなくもない」means. He thinks it means "like." I have two ways to interpret his response. I can rewrite the dialogue like this 「好き」なんじゃないかと思うかな It…
Ray Siplao
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Is 誰か行きたい人 a form of double-headed relative clause?

I came across the phrase "誰か行きたい人" in this thread and I think it would be used in a context like "誰か行きたい人がいるか？". However I am kind of confused by how it works grammatically. Is 誰か行きたい a relative clause modifying 人, while it is at the same time…
JMC
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Usage of 全部束 and かなう

同級生の男の子を全部束にしてもかなわないほど頻繁にハリーは散髪させられたが、... Harry was made to get a haircut so often that even if you made the boys in his class into a complete bundle it would not rival it The meaning is clear (I think): "Harry was made to get a hair cut more…
user3856370
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Can adverbs modify adjectives?

For instance： 昔の日本は身分の差が大きく厳しい上下関係があります。 Is 大きく modifying 厳しい? But the way I understand this sentence is in ancient Japan, there were large social divides and strict social hierarchy, which is in effect 大きくて厳しい上下関係があります。 Thank you!
moshimoshi769
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How to break 信じようとしていただけかも知れない into separate parts?

I tried, but I came up with either: 信じる(~よう(vol.)) + とする(~ていた(prog. past)) + だけ + かもしれない。 信じよう + として + いただける(stem) + かもしれない。 I highly doubt that second one is true, because かもしれない "takes" dictionary or past forms, but I am nit sure what だけ would…
SkillGG
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Can と and な have the same meaning?

I was told that the following uses of と and な after 色々 were the same. 彼女のために色々と甘いものを買ってきた。I bought a bunch of sweets and brought them to my GF. 彼女のために色々な甘いものを買ってきた。 If this is true, is this an added use of the generic particle と that is not…
yadokari
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Parsing a NがNのNは construction?

I was reading the following example sentence: お父さんが医者の学生は三人います。 My first instinct was to parse this as: {お父さんが[医者の学生]}は三人います。 But this led to a slightly non-sensical translation along the lines of 'There are three fathers who are students of…
Noktis
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How to parse インターネットの手続きはお客様のほうで取って頂く形になります?

I asked the apartment agent about the procedure to have internet access in my room. The agent wrote in his reply as follows. インターネットの手続きはお客様のほうで取って頂く形になります。 I can understand this roughly: I must process the application (to get internet access)…
Second Person Shooter
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