もう捕まるものも捕まらんかもしれん / も / 一角獣

[eeky]

Hi,


1. お前たち二人がバカ騒ぎしてくれたおかげで、もう捕ま るものも捕まらんかもしれん。

As far as I can tell, the last part ought to mean "we'll be lucky to catch anything now", but I am not sure how the Japanese means that. To me it looks like "maybe now the thing that is caught isn't caught", or something like that. How does it work?


2. おまえさんならこやつもそう簡単には脅せまい。

a) What function does も have in this sentence?

b) Is this another case where the insertion of は adds emphasis?


3. In most places in this book ユニコーン is written in katakana, but occasionally it is written as 一角獣 with ユニコーン as furigana. Is there any significance to this, e.g. in terms of different connotation?

 

[Toritoribe]

1)
～ものも～ない is an idiom, meaning the situation that should normally happen / occur changes to the opposite one.
e.g.
嫌いな人と食べると、おいしいものもおいしくない。

捕まえられるはずだったのにもう捕まえられなくなった makes sense, maybe?

2) a)
even

b)
I think it's more likely contrastive. It's not "easily", but not "impossible" either.

3)
Hmm, there might be some difference in the usage, but it would be hard to answer it without reading the book. Generally, 一角獣 would sound more literary or archaic than ユニコーン, jimo.

 

[eeky]

Thanks Toritoribe.

(Up to page 376 now!!)

 

[Toritoribe]

So, you've done 80% of the work!

 

[eeky]

80% of this book maybe, but about 0.1% of the work of learning Japanese!

 

[Elizabeth]

1)
～ものも～ない is an idiom, meaning the situation that should normally happen / occur changes to the opposite one.
e.g.
嫌いな人と食べると、おいしいものもおいしくない。

That was an education. I always learned it ～たものも～ない as a single structure after the past tense to convey the speaker's dissatisfaction or disagreement about someone or something else.

 

[Glenn]

Can you give an example of that? I'm not familiar with that pattern that I'm aware of.

 

[Toritoribe]

Agreed. I can't think of the examples of "the past form ものも～ない" as the same meaning of "the present form ものも～ない"...

 

[Elizabeth]

Agreed. I can't think of the examples of "the past form ものも～ない" as the same meaning of "the present form ものも～ない"...

Then that is my misunderstanding. Sorry this is late. I have been traveling. To extend the above example I was thinking of something like

嫌いな人と食べて、おいしいと思ったものもおいしくな かった。
↑ＯＫ

嫌いな人と食べると、おいしいものもおいしくない。
↑ＯＫ


当時売れたものも、売れなかったものも様々です。

Some of them sold and some of them didn't.
↑ものも = Ones, thing, some, etc...