から / わけ / 考える / 全体

Hi,

1. This is a reading comprehension question:

本文の内容から考えて、運転が快適にできない場合、車の流れがスムーズにならない場合はどんな場合か考えてみてください。

My translation: "Considering the contents of the text, please try to think what kind of conditions make pleasant driving impossible or disrupt the smooth flow of traffic."

Is this OK? What is the purpose of から in 本文の内容から考えて? Is it just that it's the particle that goes with 考える in this sense?


2. ～。そういうわけで、行けなくなったんです。

This is an example sentence intended to illustrate the use of わけ. There is no further context or explanation. Does it mean "For this reason (i.e. the reason given in ～), I am unable to go."?

3.

A 「どうして女性のお客を対象にしたサービスを考えるのですか」
B 「それは、女性がお店に来れば男性も一緒に来るかあ 轣Aまず女性を対象にサービスを考えるわけです」

A: "Why do you pay attention to the service given to female customers?"
B: "If women come to the shop/bar/restaurant then men will come with them, so first I pay attention to service given to women."

Is this OK?

Does 考える here mean something like "pay attention to" or "think about carefully"?

Sometimes I feel I miss the nuances of these little fillers like それは. Here does it literally mean "regarding / as for that" (i.e. regarding your question / what you've just said)?


4. This is a note on the use of ～と/～たら/～ば/～から・・・わけだ

因果関係の全体を確認して述べる

I'm assuming this roughly means "States a cause-and-effect relationship", but I don't see where 全体 fits.

から "from"
"...from the content of the text...."

Mike Cash said:

から "from"
"...from the content of the text...."

Click to expand...

Thanks Mike, I understand that から is commonly translatable as "from", but in this case "thinking/considering from the contents of the text" is not right in English. I do not necessarily expect dumb word-for-word translations to always work smoothly, but even so I still have an uncertainty about exactly what the combination ～から考えて means.

Forcing things into direct literal translations often yields less than satisfactory results.

"....based on the text...."

I favor functional translation over direct translation.

2. Yes.

3. Consider "consider" for 考える. Everything else you have right, unless I missed something.

4. 因果関係の全体を確認して述べる -> cause-effect relationship's whole (obj) confirm (then) state. So it's "state something after having confirmed the whole of the cause-effect relationship," basically.

By the way, about から, I believe it basically marks a starting point of any type, so in 本文の内容から考えて, it's like "with the content of the text as a starting point, consider..." Does that help at all?

2)
行けなくなった means "I had been going to go but became unable to go (for the reason given in ～)".
It's the past tense and has different nuance to just 行けなかった.

Thanks guys.

Glenn said:

4. 因果関係の全体を確認して述べる -> cause-effect relationship's whole (obj) confirm (then) state. So it's "state something after having confirmed the whole of the cause-effect relationship," basically.

Click to expand...

Hi Glenn, do you mean that the object of 述べる is different from the object of 確認して (i.e. not 因果関係の全体)?

Yes. The object of 述べる would be whatever it is you're using と／たら／ば／なら〜わけだ to talk about.

Can I check with a concrete example? The first example in the textbook is:

なるほど。これを押すと下から商品が出て来るわけだ。

I translate this as "Right. When you press this, the product comes out at the botton." (i.e. presumably is dispensed from the bottom of a vending machine).

Does 因果関係の全体を確認 refer to physically confirming that pressing the button (or whatever) has that effect, and 述べる refer to making the statement これを押すと下から商品が出て来るわけだ?

You seem to be mostly understanding it right, although I might translate that sentence something like, "I see. So when I press this the merchandise comes out from the bottom, eh?" but that's probably splitting hairs (somehow it just feels different to me). I agree that it's after the person pushed the button that the utterance was made, although I'd say that what 述べる is referring to is everything up to but not including わけだ.