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Earlier I wrote a post about how emotion can heavily impact Japanese linguistics. Today, I’d like to talk about how viewpoint is also incredibly important to understand since it influences the language differently than it does from others such as English and French.
Through the use of viewpoints, you can describe the same event or action in various ways. For example, if somebody stole your bag, you can say:
1) A thief stole my bag. 泥棒が私のバッグを盗んだ (dorobou ga watashi no baggu wo nusunda)
2) My bag was stolen by a thief. バッグが泥棒に盗まれた (baggu ga dorobou ni nusumareta)
3) I had my bag stolen by a thief. 泥棒にバッグを盗まれた (dorobou ni baggu wo nusumareta)
All three phrases describe the exact same event, however they they focus on three different viewpoints. In a movie, these three phrases would have the same action and actors, but the camera work would be different, the focus would be on the thief on the first phrase, on the bag on the second, and on the narrator on the third.
In English, the first phrase may feel more natural, because we tend to prefer active verbs. In Japanese, it’s more common to say in the third way, even if that phrase is a bit awkward in English. That’s because in Japanese the viewpoint is ourselves, we want the subject to be the viewpoint.
For example, we need to ask ourselves: in this case, am I telling a story about the person who stole my bag, or is it about the misfortune that happened to me? Who is the main character and the hero of the story: me or the thief, or the bag? If I want to tell a misfortune that happened to me, then in Japanese it’s more natural to say like the third way, where “I” is the subject.
It would be the same for this phrase: “my boyfriend left me.” The English speaking students are often tempted to translate literally and say 「彼氏が私を振りました」(kareshi ga watashi wo furimashita.) Although this phrase is not incorrect in Japanese, it definitely feels awkward in Japanese. We would expect 「 彼氏に振られました」(kareshi ni furaremashita) (= I have been left by my boyfriend), because the person who is talking is talking about what happened to themselves, and it’s not a story about their boyfriend.
It’s easy to understand, but also easy to forget during conversations. So, when you talk, don’t forget to ask yourself “who is the main character of the story I am telling,” and you will use the correct viewpoint in Japanese.