Re: Nanitozo

On Wed, 02 May 2007 09:29:38 +0900, John R. Yamamoto-Wilson wrote:

I wrote:

In English people say "May I go?" in these situations

Well, they could say other things, of course, like "Do you mind if I
make myself scarce?", "Can I bugger off now?", and so on. "Is it OK if I
go?" is probably the closest, structurally, to the Japanese expression.

It appears you are using the term 'structurally' more in the sense of a
literal translation. I agree, "Is it OK if I go?" is very close to the
literal meaning of the Japanese.

However, I would have thought that you would think of structure more in
terms of an illocutionary force indicating device; namely, the linguistic
tools whereby the speaker conveys the illocutionary force. Linguists who
employ the concept of the illocutionary act tend to interpret sentence
structure as illocutionary force indicating devices since they encompass
everything from syntax and word order through tone of voice.

Phil Yff
.

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