Re: Alphabet (you're a fish?)

Tristan Alexander McLeay wrote:
> I was always taught that 'X wa Y desu' meant 'X is Y'. We did many a
> role-playing thing where you went into a restaurant and ordered food, and I
> don't think I ever heard of 'watash wa Y desu' being 'As for me, I'd like
> Y'.
X wa Y desu USUALLY means "X is Y", but actually what's going on is that
"X wa" indicates that you're talking about "X", and "Y desu" is the
sentence with no express subject.  Normally, it's assumed that the
subject is the same as the topic, that is, "As for X, X is Y", but it
can mean something else.  Thus, in a restaurant, if someone else has
already ordered, you could say "Watashi wa sakana desu", meaning "As for
me, [what I want] is the fish", like:
A:  watashi wa gyuuniku wo onegai shimasu.
B:  watashi wa sakana desu.

That is:
A: I'll have the beef (lit. "As for me, beef please" - I TOP beef ACC
favor do-polite)
B: I'll have the fish (lit. "As for me, [it] is fish" - I TOP fish
be-polite)

In A's statement, there's no express verb, the implied verb, I presume,
being something like "give", that is, "please [give me] the beef"

> Apropos of weird statements in Japanese, I was once forced to construct the
> sentence 'rajo* wa oishi** desu' in Year Eight.
Rajio wa oishii desu, if you're trying to say "The radio is delicious",
but why are you trying to say that?  :-)

--
"No just cause can be advanced by terror"
ICQ: 18656696
AIM Screen-Name: NikTaylor42

Replies