ビールと言いたい... / 私に私わせて / になって / 今日の会計 / 見て歩く

[eeky]

Hiya,

1. Two teachers are having lunch; one has just suggested having a beer.

ビールと言いたいところだけど、今日はこれから授業だから やめときます。

I'm guessing this means something like "A beer sounds good, but I'd better not because I have a class later".

a) I'm not sure about ビールと言いたいところだけど. Does it literally mean "The fact is that I'd like to say 'beer', but ..."?

b) How do we parse やめときます? Something to do with やめる?


2. Said when discussing the payment of a restaurant bill:

私に私わせてください。

What does this mean? How is it pronounced?


3. ２０世紀になって、科学は非常に進歩しました。

Translation given: "Science has advanced greatly since the beginning of the 20th century".

I don't quite see how we get the sense "since the beginning of". Does that all stem from になって? How would you translate this?


4. 今日の会計はわたしがします。

Translation given: "I'll pay today."

This may seem like hair-splitting, but I'm interested to know whether 今日の qualifies the whole of 会計はわたしがします as the translation given suggests, or whether it just qualifies会計, and the sentence therefore more literally means "I'll pay today's bill", as I translated it.


5. わたしは奈良から京都にかけて、お寺を見て歩きました 。

Translation given: "I visited temples from Nara to Kyoto ."

I thought this meant "I walked to see temples..." Does 見て歩く simply mean "visited", with no sense of walking?

 

[Toritoribe]

1. Two teachers are having lunch; one has just suggested having a beer.
ビールと言いたいところだけど、今日はこれから授業だから やめときます。
I'm guessing this means something like "A beer sounds good, but I'd better not because I have a class later".
a) I'm not sure about ビールと言いたいところだけど. Does it literally mean "The fact is that I'd like to say 'beer', but ..."?

ところ＝場面

"Now is the situation that I'd like to say 'beer', but ..."

b) How do we parse やめときます? Something to do with やめる?

the contraction of やめておきます
Contraction (grammar) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

2. Said when discussing the payment of a restaurant bill:
私に私わせてください。
What does this mean? How is it pronounced?

私に払わせてください

3
3. ２０世紀になって、科学は非常に進歩しました。
Translation given: "Science has advanced greatly since the beginning of the 20th century".
I don't quite see how we get the sense "since the beginning of". Does that all stem from になって? How would you translate this?

～に入って/が始まって

"The 20th century began, and..."

4. 今日の会計はわたしがします。
Translation given: "I'll pay today."
This may seem like hair-splitting, but I'm interested to know whether 今日の qualifies the whole of 会計はわたしがします as the translation given suggests, or whether it just qualifies会計, and the sentence therefore more literally means "I'll pay today's bill", as I translated it.

The latter. The former is for 今日、会計はわたしがします.

5. わたしは奈良から京都にかけて、お寺を見て歩きました 。
Translation given: "I visited temples from Nara to Kyoto."
I thought this meant "I walked to see temples..." Does 見て歩く simply mean "visited", with no sense of walking?

Yeah, "walked to see" is correct.

 

[eeky]

ﾅ私に払わせてください

Dammit ... that was my mistake. No wonder I couldn't understand it!

Thank you!

 

[eeky]

ところ＝場面
"Now is the situation that I'd like to say 'beer', but ..."

I think I often have problems with ところ because early on in my studies I got it into my head that it was often just a grammatical nominaliser (like の, say) with little actual meaning beyond something like "the fact that". Does it ever function like の, or does it always refer to a more concrete idea of time, place, situation, etc.?

 

[Elizabeth]

5. わたしは奈良から京都にかけて、お寺を見て歩きました。
Translation given: "I visited temples from Nara to Kyoto."
I thought this meant "I walked to see temples..." Does 見て歩く simply mean "visited", with no sense of walking?

I don't think necessarily walking in order to see temples in particular. But strolling around looking at them in those two cities. The author may not have wanted to give the implication of walking the old road from Nara to Kyoto on a temple pilgrimage.

 

[Toritoribe]

I think I often have problems with ところ because early on in my studies I got it into my head that it was often just a grammatical nominaliser (like の, say) with little actual meaning beyond something like "the fact that". Does it ever function like の, or does it always refer to a more concrete idea of time, place, situation, etc.?

In this case, it's not the nominalizer. I think "the fact is that..." is a fairly good translation for this case, but that's from the structure ～ところだけど. As for the nominalizer ところ, "situation" would be more close to the original meaning than "place".

I don't think necessarily walking in order to see temples in particular. But strolling around looking at them in those two cities. The author may not have wanted to give the implication of walking the old road from Nara to Kyoto on a temple pilgrimage.

Yeah, probably that's the reason why "visited" is used here instead of "walked". But 見て歩く connotes "to walk from a temple to the near-by temple if they are close enough". If I rarely walked, I would use 見てまわりました instead.

 

[Elizabeth]

Yeah, probably that's the reason why "visited" is used here instead of "walked". But 見て歩く connotes "to walk from a temple to the near-by temple if they are close enough". If I rarely walked, I would use 見てまわりました instead.

I meant there are two possible interpretations in English : Walked in order to see the temples directly and more naturally walked around looking at temples (with a mind possibly towards other attractions as well).

But probably 彼らの目的はお寺を見ることです。
歩くのは手段です。is the stronger nuance.

Because you can't say it clearly in Japanese like お寺を見るために歩いた ...