Re: no context

Curt Fischer wrote:
> Chris Kern wrote:
>
>>On Sat, 07 May 2005 14:40:55 +0900, Curt Fischer
>><tentrillion@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> posted the following:
>>
>>[...]
>>>公平に評すれば、彼は最善を尽くしたと言うべきだ。
>>>If it comments impartially, he should say that he rendered the best.
>>
>>I would translate this as "In all fairness, he did do his best" [...]
> Hmm, that makes a lot more sense than my version. I'm afraid the reason
> I didn't understand this meaning is the old "wa-ga" debate. I read this
> sentence and immediately thought of the
>
> 彼（は／が）帰国すると、さびしくなる
>
> ha-ga example. Since it was は in the case in my OP, I figured the
> topicallness of 彼 would wrap all the way around to 言う. I guess not (?).

The "quotative" と allows 彼は最善を尽くした to be a topic-comment
proposition on its own.

An interpretation such as "Were he to be fair about it, he should say I
did my best" is not totally impossible but the punctuation and the lack
of a 僕は or something between 彼は and 最善を尽くした inveigh strongly
against it. (I think it's even hard to take 彼は公平に評すれば、最善を
尽くしたと言うべきだ that way, because of the missing topic for the 最善
を尽くした, which makes me want to interpret it as a clumsy version of
the original.)

The と of 帰国すると、doesn't allow a proposition.

Bart
.

Relevant Pages

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