Can のろけ話 be used in a platonic sense to refer to closeness amongst female friends?

OlympusRoyalMon · 4 Mar 2020

I was reading a novel where a girl is talking about her friend who is another girl and someone says uses this phrase : のろけ話
Which I know translates to mean to speak fondly of significant other, but these girls are described as being just good friends in the novel. So I was wondering, can this be used to show extreme closeness/admiration between platonic friends or is it mean to maybe imply that one person likes the other? The thing is, the novel just calls them bestfriends, like it uses the term shinyu, which is what the girl explicitly calls her friend. I myself am unsure as I know media has girls be close/call each other cute and it is not romantic.

I have a screen here:

(http://imgur.com/a/kvGsTAn)

Toritoribe · 5 Mar 2020

The sentence is なんだかのろけ話聞いてるみたい, thus, the speaker doesn't say it's のろけ話. She is just saying as if it's のろけ話, i.e., although they are actually friends, the girl's words sound like as if she(= the girl) is talking about her lover.

OlympusRoyalMon · 5 Mar 2020

Toritoribe said:
The sentence is なんだかのろけ話聞いてるみたい, thus, the speaker doesn't say it's のろけ話. She is just saying as if it's のろけ話, i.e., although they are actually friends, the girl's words sound like as if she(= the girl) is talking about her lover.

I see, so then. I'd like to ask this: . So I was wondering, can this be used to show extreme closeness/admiration between platonic friends or is it mean to maybe imply that one person likes the other? The thing is, the novel just calls them bestfriends, like it uses the term shinyu, which is what the girl explicitly calls her friend. I myself am unsure as someone said japanese media has girls be close/call each other cute and it is not romantic. Does it sound the like the author is implying anything or just using to show closeness?

Toritoribe · 5 Mar 2020

You misunderstand something. What the girl is talking is not のろけ話 after all.

OlympusRoyalMon · 5 Mar 2020

Toritoribe said:
You misunderstand something. What the girl is talking is not のろけ話 after all.

Wait, what do you mean? I am confused, could you explain it? But the listener/speaker says it like that correct?

SomeCallMeChris · 5 Mar 2020

OlympusRoyalMon said:
But the listener/speaker says it like that correct?

.... who says what like what, exactly?

The describer of the conversation does not say the conversation is a のろけ話 as Toritoribe-san already explained.

Toritoribe said:
the speaker doesn't say it's のろけ話. She is just saying as if it's のろけ話

If you're asking whether a manner of speaking that sounds similar to のろけ話 indicates some hidden feelings, that's not answered in this sentence.

If you're asking something else, you'll need to be clearer.

OlympusRoyalMon · 5 Mar 2020

SomeCallMeChris said:
.... who says what like what, exactly?

The describer of the conversation does not say the conversation is a のろけ話 as Toritoribe-san already explained.

If you're asking whether a manner of speaking that sounds similar to のろけ話 indicates some hidden feelings, that's not answered in this sentence.

If you're asking something else, you'll need to be clearer.

But the describer says it sounds like のろけ話, right? I mean in general, if a manner of speaking sounds similar to のろけ話, then isn't it an implication? Or can it be platonic because it is just a metaphor/simile?

SomeCallMeChris · 5 Mar 2020

OlympusRoyalMon said:
Or can it be platonic because it is just a metaphor/simile?

Yes, this.

It is, as far as we know from this sentence, just a simile being used to remark on the tone of the conversation.

This is not really a Japanese language issue. It's the same as in English if you say, "She gushed about her as if they were lovers." You don't think they are actual lovers. In some circumstances you might wonder a little, but that's not the meaning of the sentence.

It happens all the time that a pundit says "Senator A gushed about Chairperson B like a girl with a crush" or such, which is also similar. In those cases you know almost for certain that there's no actual romantic interest. In fiction, whether anything deeper is there or not is something you'll have to find out elsewhere, this kind of comparison doesn't say and is often used only to indicate the extent of someone's enthusiasm about another person.

OlympusRoyalMon · 5 Mar 2020

SomeCallMeChris said:
Yes, this.

It is, as far as we know from this sentence, just a simile being used to remark on the tone of the conversation.

This is not really a Japanese language issue. It's the same as in English if you say, "She gushed about her as if they were lovers." You don't think they are actual lovers. In some circumstances you might wonder a little, but that's not the meaning of the sentence.

It happens all the time that a pundit says "Senator A gushed about Chairperson B like a girl with a crush" or such, which is also similar. In those cases you know almost for certain that there's no actual romantic interest. In fiction, whether anything deeper is there or not is something you'll have to find out elsewhere, this kind of comparison doesn't say and is often used only to indicate the extent of someone's enthusiasm about another person.

I mean, but if you used a metaphor like that, doesn't it imply romantic interest at the very least then? How does it sound from this case? Granted, later the girl calls her a best friend/shinyu

bentenmusume · 5 Mar 2020

Your questions here always have this tone like you're trying to get the right answer about whether or not some fictional characters are romantically attracted to each other.

This makes having these conversations very frustrating, because on the surface you appear to be asking about questions about the Japanese language, but what you really want to know is tell me if this Japanese expression means, 100%, without question, whether or not these characters are in love.

These questions cannot be answered definitively, because they are open to interpretation, just like in real life, where it is not possible to know 100% just from the words someone uses or their actions whether or not they are attracted to someone else.

To specifically answer your question, no, a metaphor or simile does not imply that the thing in question is exactly what it's being compared to. If I say "He was so eager to play his new video game, he ran home like he was Usain Bolt" it doesn't mean that the person in question is actually the fastest man in the world. Like Chris said, if you said "Senator A gushed about Chairperson B like a girl with a crush", it doesn't mean that Senator A literally has a crush, or is even necessarily a girl.

But again, you need to stop thinking that these questions of yours have one right answer, or are even about the Japanese language at all.

OlympusRoyalMon · 5 Mar 2020

bentenmusume said:
Your questions here always have this tone like you're trying to get the right answer about whether or not some fictional characters are romantically attracted to each other.

This makes having these conversations very frustrating, because on the surface you appear to be asking about questions about the Japanese language, but what you really want to know is tell me if this Japanese expression means, 100%, without question, whether or not these characters are in love.

These questions cannot be answered definitively, because they are open to interpretation, just like in real life, where it is not possible to know 100% just from the words someone uses or their actions whether or not they are attracted to someone else.

To specifically answer your question, no, a metaphor or simile does not imply that the thing in question is exactly what it's being compared to. If I say "He was so eager to play his new video game, he ran home like he was Usain Bolt" it doesn't mean that the person in question is actually the fastest man in the world. Like Chris said, if you said "Senator A gushed about Chairperson B like a girl with a crush", it doesn't mean that Senator A literally has a crush, or is even necessarily a girl.

But again, you need to stop thinking that these questions of yours have one right answer, or are even about the Japanese language at all.

Sorry, overthinking is getting to me. I want to make sure if I'm interpreting the novel right or what is likely.
This is my last question, so I guess I should have asked: is a metaphor like this uncommon to describe female friendships I guess

Toritoribe · 5 Mar 2020

No. It's not uncommon at all. It can be used even for a close relationship between males, brothers and sisters or parents and children in an appropriate context.

OlympusRoyalMon · 5 Mar 2020

Toritoribe said:
No. It's not uncommon at all. It can be used even for a close relationship between males, brothers and sisters or parents and children in an appropriate context.

Thanks so much. So maybe like a little joke? haha, though for family, might sound a little weird

Can のろけ話 be used in a platonic sense to refer to closeness amongst female friends?

OlympusRoyalMon

後輩

Toritoribe

松葉解禁

OlympusRoyalMon

後輩

Toritoribe

松葉解禁

OlympusRoyalMon

後輩

SomeCallMeChris

先輩

OlympusRoyalMon

後輩

SomeCallMeChris

先輩

OlympusRoyalMon

後輩

bentenmusume

原点回帰

OlympusRoyalMon

後輩

Toritoribe

松葉解禁

OlympusRoyalMon

後輩

Similar threads