この人ときたら / こうなったら / カートがいうこと

Hi,


1. One of a pair of twins is talking to his mother.

僕フレッドじゃないよ。ジョージだよ。まったく、この人ときたら、これでも僕たちの 母親だってよく言えるな。

I don't understand the last part of this very clearly.

a) Is この人 the mother?

b) Does これ refer to the incident where the mother got the boys' names mixed up?

c) Does 言える have an identified subject, or is it just "people in general"?


2. こうなったら他に手はない。

This is supposed to mean "There was nothing else for it" (i.e. the speaker was forced to do a certain thing).

I understand that 他に手はない is an idiom, and I assume that こうなったら is こう + なったら (conditional of なる), but I don't understand why it is なったら, conditional. It doesn't seem to fit the meaning.


3. カートがいうことをきかない

On purely grammatical grounds (i.e. not semantic) is there any way to tell whether the subject of いう is カート and the subject of きかない is the speaker, or the subject of いう is the speaker and the subject of きかない is カート?


4. ぶつかる ----------- スーッ・・・・おや、まだ走っている・・・・ハリーは目を開けた。

"-----------" is meant to be a very long dash (I don't know how to type it properly).

As far as I can tell, the first part of this is supposed to mean that he didn't crash into the ticket barrier. How does ぶつかる ---- スーッ・・・・おや mean that? And what is スーッ?

1) a) b)
Yes.

c)
The former. この人 is the subject. ～ときたら indicating the topic, implying complaint.

2)
～たら conditional can be used for an actual fact.
e.g.
いるんだったら返事くらいしろよ。

3)
Grammatically, both interpretations are equally valid.

4)
ぶつかる is Harry's voice in mind that he will no doubt crash soon if this situation goes on. スーッ is an onomatopoeia expressing something is moving smoothly, and おや shows that he got a feeling of strangeness (in this case, he didn't crash unexpectedly).

Thank you. By the way, do you know whether a long dash character exists in standard Japanese computer font? If you wanted to type the following on a computer, what character would you use for the dash?

――――――
――――――

This symbol "―" is called 全ダッシュ. There are gaps between the symbols in Arial font(the upper one), but no gap in Century Gothic font(the lower).

僕フレッドじゃないよ。ジョージだよ。まったく、この人ときたら、これでも僕たちの 母親だってよく言えるな。

Just out of curiosity do you get these from an online blog or テレビドラマ etc ? It is very rare as far as I have experienced that you hear この人ときたら or the like from people really talking to one another, never mind in relation to your own mother. :?

Elizabeth said:

僕フレッドじゃないよ。ジョージだよ。まったく、この人ときたら、これでも僕たちの 母親だってよく言えるな。

Just out of curiosity do you get these from an online blog or テレビドラマ etc ? It is very rare as far as I have experienced that you hear この人ときたら or the like from people really talking to one another, never mind in relation to your own mother. :?

Click to expand...

That sentence is from the Japanese version of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (book).

I thought that この人 was probably meant in a derogatory sense?

Yes, it's pretty derogatory, but more because of the sentiment here than the grammar, I would say.

Yeah, the derogatory sense is from the tone of the whole sentence such like まったく, これでも, よく言えるな, and especially, ～ときたら. この人 also sounds too stiff and formal for their mother, and the speaker is used this word in that nuance here, but it's relatively neutral, I think.