--- In [email protected], Anthony Bryant
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> First point: passive voice ("sareru") requires an outside
> actor to create the event. If you say bakuhatsu sareta,
> you're not saying "it exploded" -- you're saying "it WAS
> exploded" -- someone caused that to happen.>
OK. That is to say, I should have used "sareta" in the scenario of
the bullet and the missile?
> Second point: Some really eccentric Japanese. The Japanese
> word for "missile" is "misairu" (think of the British
> pronunciation for "missile"). "Tobidogu" is missile in the
> sense of anything thrown or tossed (like an arrow, a rock,
> or a dart). Likewise, the generic word for gun is "jû" or
> something (one of several possibilities) with "-hô" in it.
> "Tsutsu" means cylinder, jug, vase... Never heard it used
> for gun.>
I guess that the self-propelled missile is of recent advent among
the Japanese. Didn't they attempt to coin a new term using Chinese
readings for kanji?
For "gun", my dictionary shows "taihô", which is a term for
artillery. So, the term for gun would be Perhaps "tsutsu", is an
obsolete term for "gun".
Perhaps I should have used "taihô", since a small gun would not be
enough to deal with an incoming rocket-missile. Also, "taihô" use
artillery shells, not bullets. Therefore, wouldn't "tama" be
inappropiate here? Would "bakuhatsu-butsu" a good term to use in
this case?
Hope I wasn't using dialect. Certain dialects, such as Kagoshima-
ben, use words that are either obsolete or rarely used in the
standard Japanese.
> > 1. Bakuhatsu sareta tobidôgu
>
> "The missile that WAS EXPLODED (by some outside force)."
>
> > 2. Bakuhatsu shita tobidôgu
>
> "The missile that EXPLODED."
>
> > 3. Jibun ni bakuhatsu sareta tobidôgu
>
> Jibun *de* bakuhatsu *shita* *misairu* -- "the missile that
> blew up on its own."
>
> > 4. Jibun no bakuhatsu shita tobidôgu
>
> Ick.
What do you mean by that? Perhaps this sentence is entirely
artificial in its construction?
>
> > To express, "The building that was exploded by the missile",
which
> > of the following is better?
> >
> > 1. Tobidôgu ni bakuhatsu sareta tatemono
>
> "The building that WAS EXPLODED by the 'missile'."
>
> > 2. Tatemono wo bakuhatsu shita tobidôgu
>
> "The 'missile' that exploded the building."
>
> > And to express "The missile that was exploded by a bullet from a
> > gun", which of the following is more appropiate?
> >
> > 1. Tsutsu kara no tama ni bakuhatsu sareta tobidôgu
>
> Jû no tama de bakuhatsu sareta misairu -- the missile that
> was exploded by a gun's bullet.
>
> > 2. Tsutsu kara no tama no bakuhatsu shita tobidôgu
>
> Jû no tama no bakuhatsu shita misairu -- the missile that
> the gun's bullet exploded.
"Jû" could mean anything here. Wouldn't there be another word to
describe a rifle or similar weapon? Japanese is rich in vocabulary
pertaining to swords. Given that guns were not so prevalent in Japan
up until the Meiji, there must have been no choice other than to
import foreign words.
- Arian I.
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