Question Vocations and の

[seaDonkey]

こんにちは、I am, as ever, working on a strange mnemonic system for learning Japanese. My motivation is a desire to increase fluency but it is also just a fun project I enjoy. Within the mnemonic system I attempt to create a context for the word being studied and use the visual imagination to aid it's recollection. This rather long journey has led me to create characters that are able to interact, this is how it is possible for the context for a word to included in a mnemonic. I also include the parts of a words kanji, all together, making a scene that can be visualised. Needless to say the results are odd as within kanji parts there are many different meanings and concepts and it is difficult to connect them with the meaning of the word, let alone tie everything together into a visual scene! Animals are a big part of the system with an animal representing each hiragana character ( This is core as it brings the phonetic element into the mnemonic. I feel guilt because this is audcious ) but I have decided to include a human character in each mnemonic for convenience and have decided to make the human character a witch. I have described my project to qualify the odd nature of my sentence and can finally ask my very simple question. I want to write these mnemonics in Japanese to increase my fluency. I typed the following into DeepL and it gave me these translations.

The mosquito witch Ku's hand
蚊の魔人クーの手
or
蚊の魔女のクーの手

It is my understanding that when a persons name comes after の the preceding noun should be an organisation. It was explained to me that historically in Japan a person would use the name of the temple they belonged to, it seems this construct is commonly used today to say which company a person works. There is no organisation in this compound noun and yet の no is put before a person's name. Is vocation の persons name a grammatically correct construct?

DeepL gave me the following for "The mosquito witch Ku embracing the vampire seagull Da."
蚊の魔女クーが吸血鬼カモメ・ダを抱きしめる。

It seems 抱きしめる has connotations of romance which I do not wish to convey within this mnemonic but that is off topic. We have a vocation and a persons name creating a compound noun. This seems ok but at the same time a bit confusing. Also the species of the animal called Da is donated simply by placing the two nouns together, I understand the・ is used to avoid confusion when reading. Can a persons name be used in a compund noun like this?

Inputing ダというの吸血鬼カモメ。DeepL gave me "Vampire seagull named Da". It is simpler to just combine the two nouns but perhaps using というの is more natural. I have not recognised or come across examples of simply putting a persons name with a noun leading me to believe it is not grammatical but it does seem like it could be. Any help clearing up my confusion would be greatly appreciated.

 

[mdchachi]

Is vocation の persons name a grammatically correct construct?

Yes. Not only organizations but also vocation can be used in this way. 大工の源さん = Gen, the carpenter.

Also the species of the animal called Da is donated simply by placing the two nouns together, I understand the・ is used to avoid confusion when reading.

Your original input was not a complete sentence hence I guess the output was not a complete sentence and ・was used.
抱きしめる is not always romantic. It depends on the context.

Can a persons name be used in a compund noun like this?

Yes. No. Maybe. This thread might be helpful.

Inputing ダというの吸血鬼カモメ。DeepL gave me "Vampire seagull named Da". It is simpler to just combine the two nouns but perhaps using というの is more natural. I have not recognised or come across examples of simply putting a persons name with a noun leading me to believe it is not grammatical but it does seem like it could be. Any help clearing up my confusion would be greatly appreciated.

As the thread I linked above discusses, depending on the context it could be name, it could be fairy tale style name or it could look like a title.

 

[seaDonkey]

Yes. No. Maybe.

Very helpful (joking). Joking aside thank you for your insight. In the thread you linked 姫 (ひめ) was discussed、it seems to be an honorific suffix like さん. A piece of creative writing about a princess called Hikari could perhaps have the title 光の姫ひかりの旅行 - The pricess of light Hikari's holiday. Within the prose the author could(would?) refer to her as ひかり without any suffix but her subordinate would call her ひかり姫 and an older sibling might use a more casual honorific suffix depending on the formality of their relationship. This is my understaning of how to use name suffixes in creative writing. Back to the original point it seems from that thread that using の eg 魔女のクー would make the piece of writing stylised and as we can see in the title 魔法少女まどか☆マギカ not using の eg 魔女クー does not add any such flowery stylisation. I think I will use the most direct way of introducing characters in my creative writing. I suppose I should set the scene by introducing the character and then, after that, just use the characters name.

The Chimpanzee witch Su had descended from her tree and was searching for Sa the bat. Su entered Sa's cave but is was completely dark. Using her hands she tried to locate Sa but instead found a tiny crown. Once more in the daylight Su could see that the crown was engraved with the number eight. In that moment Su knew that it was the crown of the vampire rabbit Ka and quickly threw it back into the cave. The end.


チンパンジー魔女スーは木から降りてコウモリのサーを探していた。スーはサーの洞窟に入ったが、そこは真っ暗だった。魔女は手を使ってサの居場所を探したが、代わりに小さな王冠を見つけた。昼間にもう一度見ると、王冠には「八」という数字が刻まれていた。その瞬間、スーはそれが吸血ウサギのカの冠であることを知り、すぐにそれを洞窟に投げ返した。おわり。

DeepL has done a good translating in my opinion. Has my mnemonic system borne fruit at long last? My mnemonics were very abrupt but a chat with ChatGPT ( I dislike ChatGPT's writing style as it is overly flowery) taught me that including things about the animals in the story eg caves for bats is helpful in making a mnemonic useful and memorable. The next step for me is to make a video using this story then... profit. I will post it here

EDIT:

On second thoughts. I will go ahead and make a video but I do not wish there to be any problems with the Japanese. It is impossible for me to know if DeepL has made mistakes as my Japanese is poor. I do not want to ask people to correct DeepL translations but in this case, if there are any issues with the translation I would be grateful for any assistance in making sure it is correct.

 

[Toritoribe]

DeepL gave me the following for "The mosquito witch Ku embracing the vampire seagull Da."
蚊の魔女クーが吸血鬼カモメ・ダを抱きしめる。

As mdchachi-san mentioned, while "The mosquito witch Ku embracing the vampire seagull Da." is not a sentence but a noun phrase, the given translation 蚊の魔女クーが吸血鬼カモメ・ダを抱きしめる。 is a sentence. It actually means "The mosquito witch Ku embraces/will embrace the vampire seagull Da."

"The mosquito witch Ku embracing the vampire seagull Da." is 吸血カモメのダを抱きしめる蚊の魔女ク or ダという吸血カモメを抱きしめるクという蚊の魔女. (Notice that it's という, not というの. の is unnecessary.)

光の姫ひかりの旅行 - The pricess of light Hikari's holiday

Sorry for nitpicking, but 旅行 is trip, and holiday is 休日.

吸血ウサギのカの冠

I misread it as 吸血ウサギのちから(= 力)の冠 since 吸血ウサギのカ (= "ka") is very unusual. I wouldn't get it correctly unless it's already explained. 吸血ウサギ・カ and カという吸血ウサギ can avoid this confusion. Even if I misread katakana カ as kanji 力, it's clear that Chikara is the name, not "power" here.

 

[mdchachi]

Sorry for nitpicking, but 旅行 is trip, and holiday is 休日.

In the U.S. we don't use it like this but if they are using "holiday" in the British sense then it's correct. And the OP is from the UK I believe.

holiday

1. a time when you do not have to go to work or school: 2. a long visit to a…

dictionary.cambridge.org