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Singular volitional form?

ArthurK

後輩
24 Jul 2013
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Hey! I just want to clear something up about the volitional form for myself. We all learn that 話そう/話しましょう normally means "Let's talk." But "let's talk" inherently has a plural sense. Is it true that a person can use the volitional form solely on him/herself?
e.g.

メアリさんは勇太さんに電話をかけた。

勇太:あ、メアリさん、ごめん、今ちょっと忙しいんだけど。
メアリ:分かった。じゃ、後で電話をかけよう。

Does the above sentence mean "I shall call you later"? Can she express her volition in such a way without saying "let's call you later", since she'll be doing the calling alone?

Thanks!
 
The "let US" is only there in the English. The Japanese volitional doesn't distinguish between singular and plural.
 
Quite alright. The trick is to free your mind from the anchor of "volitional = let's". The "us" is only there in the English. Haven't you noticed that Japanese doesn't make a lot of the same distinctions that English does?

Singular/plural....nope
Subject/verb agreement....nope
A/an/the....nope, nope, nope
Etc

Some things you just have to try to grasp the concept of what's going on because fixating on "what it translates to" will just trip you up and hold back your understanding.
 
Hey! I just want to clear something up about the volitional form for myself. We all learn that 話そう/話しましょう normally means "Let's talk." But "let's talk" inherently has a plural sense. Is it true that a person can use the volitional form solely on him/herself?
e.g.

メアリさんは勇太さんに電話をかけた。

勇太:あ、メアリさん、ごめん、今ちょっと忙しいんだけど。
メアリ:分かった。じゃ、後で電話をかけよう。

Does the above sentence mean "I shall call you later"? Can she express her volition in such a way without saying "let's call you later", since she'll be doing the calling alone?

Thanks!
Note that Mary's words sound so mannish.

FYI, かける is a volitional verb, so just また後で電話をかけます can convey her volition to call later (and sounds more natural than また後で電話をかけましょう.)
 
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