6.2. NOMINALISING 2976.2.16 Incidating apparent behaviour using
literally means immitation, and it is typically used to indicate appar-
ent (and insincere) behaviour. When an observer knows that certain be-
haviour is not typical, or is uncertain about whether it is genuine,
can be used to characterise that they are not sure what they are observing
is sincere. This usually comes down to using it for negative statements,
implications or questions:
”Stop acting like an adult.””It’s just weird (how) she always pretends to be upset (at the smallest
things).”Of course, it can also be used for blanket questions such as
, which literally asks someone to explain the kind of behaviour they
are apparently displaying. Translations for this can range, due to the fact
that it refers to behaviour, but typical translations are ”What do you think
you are doing?” or ”What’s going on?”.6.2.17 Talking about a ’something’ using
There is one last nominalising statement we need to look at, and that’s
the nominaliser that lets us make comments regarding ’somethings’. In
English, a sentence such as ”The beach is a crowded place” can be inter-
preted in two different ways - the first as a specific statement pertaining
to a particular beach, the second as a commentary on beaches in general.
In Japanese, these two different interpretations use different grammatical
paĴerns, with the first being a simple [X] [Y] statement, and the sec-
ond using :”The beach is (so) busy.””The beach (in general,) is (a) busy (place).”The difference in interpretation comes from what literally
means: [X] translates to ”that which we call X”. can be suf-