4.5. TRANSLATING PREPOSITIONS 223
the darkest night is something that faces us from this theoretical location:
literally: ”I expect my friends to be waiting ...”
”(My) friends should be waiting for [me] across the street.””(I) heard that across the ocean lies a different world.”- Nearby, around
The noun literally means ”vicinity”, and when used as a conceptual
location noun, means ”near”, ”close to”, and the like:
”(I) lost (my) wallet somewhere near the fish shop.”and- Besides, next to
This word pair is (yet another) illustration of how Japanese conceptualises
things differently from western languages. The words required to create
what in western language is the prepositional construction ”next to” are an
excellent example of such a difference: while in most western languages
when two objects are placed side by side, they are said to be ”beside” or
”next to” each other, Japanese requires you to pick the right word for this
spatial relation depending on whether or not these two objects are of a
similar category. For instance, placing two apples next to each other, or
two bikes, means you can use the noun
to indicate that one is next to
the other:
”I left my bike standing next to my (younger) brother’s.”This is perfectly valid use of , as the two objects in question are
clearly of the same category.