298 CHAPTER 6. LANGUAGE PATTERNS
fixed with , , and to do the expected things, and usually
is:
He, having come from a rural area, had never (even) seen anything
like (what we call) the beach.To demonstrate the contrast, the sentence without means
something subtly different:
He, having come from a rural area, had never (even) seen the sea.In this sentence without , the crucial ”what we call” is
missing, changing the meaning of from what we generally understand
as being called ”the beach”, to its literal meaning of ”sea”.
This construction is also quite convenient when you want to ask
questions:
A:
B:A: ”Shall we have a Japanese kaiwa?”
B: ”I’m terribly sorry, but what is a ’kaiwa’?”This ”using in order to turn a specific thing into a general
statement” is a very common practice in Japanese, and you’ll be running
across it a lot, which makes this both an important construction to know, as
well as not that important to learn, since you’re going to be continuously
exposed to it anyway, you’re most likely to learn it through pure condi-
tioning.
6.3 Social language paĴerns
In addition to language constructions, it is also important to know how to
talk to other people. Social status and respectfulness are important facets of
the Japanese culture, and thus are reflected in the Japanese language. This
final section of the chapter on language paĴerns focusses on such maĴers
as giving and demanding face (a concept akin to social respect), address-
ing others, giving and receiving, and steering people’s behaviour through
suggestions and recommendations.