Re: A little Japanese test

B. Ito wrote:

"Bart Mathias" <mathias@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message news:VZadnf4EY4tNDkPVnZ2dnUVZ_vKdnZ2d@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
B. Ito wrote:

[...]
The English translations must be,
"My leg goes to sleep."

膝が笑っちゃった。
My leg has gone to sleep.

How about, "My leg is now asleep." ?
"My leg has gone asleep."

Are these good too?
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The sort of question that might even give a native speaker pause.

The last one is definitely out for me *at the moment*. I don't think anything "goes asleep" (maybe "He goes to school asleep" but there has to be a destination).
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I see. The verb 'go' often needs 'to' (whether it may be a preposition or
an infinitive 'to'.

Preposition here, I'm sure. "To sleep" comes across to me as a destination (of state), not as a verb.



"My leg is now asleep" bothers me slightly. I don't like the "now." But pull the "now," and then I don't like the "is." "My leg's asleep" seems OK to me. Similarly, I'm uncomfortable with the "ha-" in "My leg has gone to sleep." I'd replace it with "'."

Bart
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This one also I've learned before something like this: that natives prefer
the abbreviated form like you say, "My leg's gone to sleep." as it seems
that grammatically 'be-verb' instead of 'have-verb' used to be or preferably applied to past perfect sentences.

Well, except that "'s" is often, as here, short for "has." So the plural you speak of below should be "My legs've (or "legs have") gone to sleep."

This will let arise further question in case of a pluaral case when two legs
have or are gone to sleep.

Maybe, "My legs're gone to sleep."
And "My legs are gone to sleep." are equally acceptable in this case?

It doesn't sound quite so bad as I feel it ought to. Interesting.

Bart
.

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