Re: さ attached to nouns

Ben Monroe wrote:

Re-nominalization （再名詞化） may often be meaningful like in the English
case
of 'beauty - beautiful - beautifulness' ?

noun -> adjective -> noun

But for 勤勉さ and 多忙さ, sa is attaching to the 形容動詞 turning each word
into a noun.
If it was already a noun, then adding sa to it would be like:
名詞 -> 名詞, which is not very useful.
That is what I meant by re-nominalization.


IMO, they are originally adjective... the meanings are that of adjective,
isn't it? When 勤勉, 多忙 are used as noun, they are short/concise form
of 「勤勉/多忙であること」= "being diligent/busy", when they are used
with さ, not just "being diligent/busy", but "the way of being diligent/busy",
or 勤勉/多忙である度合い.

I'd try this way:
彼は多忙だ = He is busy
彼は多忙ではない = He is not busy
彼はそれほど多忙ではない = He is not terribly busy.
彼の多忙さはそれほどでもない = He is busy, but not terribly
彼の多忙さはかなりのものだ = He is very busy
(English is not direct translation, but interpretation for comparaison.)

Please note the IMO at the beginning, though.

muchan
.

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