とって？

[CeilingFan]

Hello all. This is my first time posting a question on this forum, so I've no idea if I'm at the right place or not.

I want to ask about the とって in それは私にとってとても面白そうに思えるんです。

I looked up on jisho and didn't find anything suitable for this context at all, so I'm really confused.

Also, the あんまり in 勉強はあんまり好きじゃない.

If あんまり means not very, and 好きじゃない means not likeable [does not like], doesn't the sentence mean 'Studying is not very unlikeable', a.k.a. 'Studying is likeable'?

 

[SomeCallMeChris]

I want to ask about the とって in それは私にとってとても面白そうに思えるんです。

In this case, 私にとって means 'in my case', 'as far as I'm concerned' or 'for me'. That kind of sense.

Also, the あんまり in 勉強はあんまり好きじゃない.

If あんまり means not very, and 好きじゃない means not likeable [does not like], doesn't the sentence mean 'Studying is not very unlikeable', a.k.a. 'Studying is likeable'?

あんまり never means 'not very'. It always means 'very', but it's often used with a negative verb. When it's used with a negative verb, it's sense of 'very' is like the sense of 'not very', as opposed to the sense of 'very not'.
This sentence essentially says 'I don't like studying very much.'
(The 'is likeable' interpretation is useful for understanding how 好き works grammatically, but is almost never a good translation. 好き is more like 'is liked by (subject)'. In this sentence, the subject is omitted but is presumably the speaker unless a previous sentence created a context where you'd think otherwise. )

 

[Glenn]

I believe the technical term for words like あんまり would be a Negative Polarity Item (NPI).

Polarity item - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[CeilingFan]

SomeCallMeChris: Ahh, then とって makes sense now. Then if you'd allow me to ask, what's the difference between ついて and とって? Are they interchangeable?

Also, sorry for my over-reliance on the dictionary, but Find words - Denshi Jisho explains that あんまり means 'not very (with negative sentence)', under explaination 2. Is the site wrong or am I missing out on something?

 

[SomeCallMeChris]

について is 'regarding' or 'about', while にとって is 'for' or 'in the case of'.
They're not at all interchangeable.
「あまり」の検索結果 - Yahoo!辞書
According to the Shogakukan Progressive dictionary (yahoo), apparently you can achieve the same effect as your sentence with a slightly roundabout phrasing using について、

私について言えばゴルフはあまり好きではありません
As for me, I don't care much for golf.

The same English would be a fair translation for, 私にとってゴルフはあまり好きではありません, but in the について case you're actually saying 'If (we're) talking about me, I don't like golf very much.'
(あんまり is of course just a sound change of あまり.)

jisho.org (or more accurately, the EDICT database used by jisho, wwwjdic, rikai plugins, etc.) isn't -wrong-, but it's trying to say the same thing that I said in what I think are confusing terms. It means to say あまり・あんまり + a negative sentence = 'not very'. Not that あまり・あんまり means 'not very' by itself in a negative sentence.

Yahoo/Progressive has a couple examples for あまり,
「あまり」の検索結果 - Yahoo!辞書

There's nothing wrong with using a dictionary, but I find it helps to check with dictionaries that have examples (yahoo, or goo, or if you can afford it you can buy online access to Kenkyuusha's 和英大辞典) or else to check examples separately from ALC, あまりの英訳｜英辞郎 on the WEB：アルク or weblio 「あまり」に関連した英語例文の一覧 - Weblio英語例文検索 or tatoeba Sentences with: あまり

Also, words like あまり・とって・ついて are usually covered as grammar points in any good Japanese textbook. I don't know what text you're learning from, but perhaps it needs replacing or supplementing with A Dictionary of Basic Japanese Grammar Dictionary of Japanese Grammar Series : Grammar : Japanese Bookstore : The Japan Shop