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Help with a sentence.

GenjiMain

後輩
29 Jul 2018
100
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Hi all, was wondering if I could get some help with understanding a sentence, particularly the usage of the を particle in the sentence: 今度の会合は形式を重んずるあまり
内容が乏しくなってしまった。

From my understanding, 形式 = content and 重んずる = to respect/to be formal. Am I to interpret 形式を重んずるあまり as "the content was so formalised that..." or something like this?

Thanks in advance.
 
形式 means "form", and 重んずる is more likely "to prize/appreciate/have a regard for~/make much of~". Thus, it means "because members of the meeting had a regard for forms too much" or along the line.
 
From an English perspective, the use of 'to prize/appreciate' here seems really weird. I think most English speakers would just normally say 'emphasise'. Is the use of 重んずる perfectly normal here from a Japanese perspective? If so, why is it more appropriate than some other word like 'emphasise' or something like that?
 
形式を重んずる Its almost an idiomatic expression. Just remember it as a set phrase without trying to parse each word.
 
Is the use of 重んずる perfectly normal here from a Japanese perspective?
Of course.

If so, why is it more appropriate than some other word like 'emphasise' or something like that?
It's like 形式を強調する sounds odd in Japanese. Words between different languages are often not one-to-one correspondence. The appropriate word can be different in different situations.
 
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