language help

an explanation of うなぎ文(all in Japanese)
うなぎ

FrustratedDave said:

Along the same lines of (僕はうなぎだ) ,what about ,

"僕はビルだ"

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In a family conference to discuss the inheritance from their father

長男：俺は会社を貰うよ。
長女：じゃああたしはこの家にするわ。
次男：なら僕はビルだ。

In this case, the second son can't omit 僕は in his words, since just to say ビルだ is unclear who the subject is or who the one to inherit the building is.

I'm pretty sure I'd read that years ago (I used to frequent his message board), but it was nice to see it again because now I remember where the "...humans don't keep quiet to cut out unnecessary things. We open our mouths to say things that are necessary. We don't not say things the listener knows; it's more basic that we say things they don't know. That some ulterior motives get relayed when we say things that are clear is because of that."* I actually thought I had read it in English.

It was also nice to see the Japanese 主題標識 (topic marker) and 属格標識 (genetive marker). I think that's the first time I've seen them and knew what they meant.

*My translation of ... 我々人間は不要なことを省くために黙るのではない。必 要なことを言うために口を開くのだ。聞き手が知ってい ることを言わないことではなく、聞き手が知らないこと を伝えることのほうが基本的である。明らかなことをあ えて言うと何らかの別の意図が伝わるのはそのためだ。

Toritoribe said:

an explanation of うなぎ文(all in Japanese)
うなぎ
In a family conference to discuss the inheritance from their father
長男：俺は会社を貰うよ。
長女：じゃああたしはこの家にするわ。
次男：なら僕はビルだ。
In this case, the second son can't omit 僕は in his words, since just to say ビルだ is unclear who the subject is or who the one to inherit the building is.

Click to expand...

I can see in this case it would the the best choice. I was talking about Glens example.


As for the reason I threw this "僕はビルだ。" into the thread...
I was saying "I am Bill" Or in my case ,"I am Dave." , sorry just had to throw in the red herring. Katakana is a pain...LOL

I was actually wondering which one you meant when I read that.