Volitional form at the end of the sentence

killerinsidee · 11 Sep 2014

I've ran into this a few times while reading a game manual and I'm not really sure what it's supposed to mean. Few examples: 「会得するのはたいへんむずかしいが、努力を惜しまずとりくもう。」、「ただし体力の消耗がはげしいのであまり長時間は維持できないことを覚えておこう。」、「魔法使いたる者、いつもいろいろな選択肢を頭に入れておこう。」

I can pretty much rule out the normal volitional usages "let's, I will", they don't make much sense here. Only thing I can think of is that "とする" is omitted after it, i.e., it's the vol. + とする "attempt/try" construct.
There are similar things I've read in there. Like ～ように。as an imperative of sorts from the ようにする construct, i.e., ように + (omitted) する/しなさい/しろ/せよ, etc. (e.g. あまり遅くまで出歩いていないように。). Unless I'm wrong about this one?

I would appreciate any help with this.

Toritoribe · 11 Sep 2014

The volitional form also can be used as a soft imperative. This form is often used in textbooks/manuals (since it sounds softer than normal imperative or ～ように, e.g., とりくめ, とりくみなさい or とりくむように).

killerinsidee · 11 Sep 2014

Thanks for the reply.

So it's an imperative here? I can see it work in the first 2 sentences, but not so much in the 3rd one, though. Wouldn't it be more like "Wizards always (try to) keep multiple options (for doing something) in mind."? Just because there's a subject (魔法使いたる者) and lack thereof (i.e., only implicit -you-) in the previous 2 sentences. I could be wrong, but In the first 2, the manual is "telling you" with a light imperative, as you said, but the 3rd seems to be describing what wizards tend to do. Any thoughts?

Also, just to confirm, is the stuff I said about ～ように。 correct?

Mike Cash · 11 Sep 2014

頭に入れておこう means "remember" and is just phrased differently from the previous bit in order to avoid repetition.

killerinsidee · 11 Sep 2014

So that would mean that 魔法使いたる者 is referring to the reader "you" instead of some other wizards? Like "Wizard, always remember/keep in mind various options (for using something) " ?

Mike Cash · 11 Sep 2014

That's right.

Toritoribe · 11 Sep 2014

As Mike-san quoted, unlike just 魔法使い, 魔法使いたる者 means "you are a Wizard, so you should~" there. たる is the attributive form of a classical auxiliary verb たり, and gives a nuance something like "（あなたは）魔法使いなんだから、(当然～べきだ)".

killerinsidee · 11 Sep 2014

Yeah, I was looking into that たる usage earlier, specifically in comparison with the other classical 連体形 form なる (e.g. 勇者なる者). Thanks for the info.

I like these small nuances, it makes the language much more fun. Unlike the boring English.

Toritoribe · 12 Sep 2014

killerinsidee said:
Also, just to confirm, is the stuff I said about ～ように。 correct?

The imperative ～ように is indeed the shortened form of ～ようにしなさい, but the volitional form itself works as imperative, not the omission of something.

Volitional form at the end of the sentence

killerinsidee

先輩

Toritoribe

松葉解禁

killerinsidee

先輩

Mike Cash

骨も命も皆此の土地に埋めよう

killerinsidee

先輩

Mike Cash

骨も命も皆此の土地に埋めよう

Toritoribe

松葉解禁

killerinsidee

先輩

Toritoribe

松葉解禁

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