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Was talking with a Japanese friend the other day and had a great conversation trying to nail down the meanings of over by, out near, up there, down by, etc, usi
by Sir_Cmpwn 9y ago
Was talking with a Japanese friend the other day and had a great conversation trying to nail down the meanings of over by, out near, up there, down by, etc, using local landmarks.
The Japanese equivalents are ここ、そこ、あこ, meaning respectively "here", "there (nearer)", and "there (further)". There's also これ、それ、あれ, meaning "this", "that (nearer)", and "that (further)". These distances can be both spatial, temporal, and metaphorical. The distinction between them seems relative in scale - if you ask for something to be passed to you at the dinner table, the things furthest from you are あれ and the things closest are これ (the latter is close enough you could reach it yourself). The neighboring town is そこ and the next town over is あこ.
- glandium 9y agoあこ is an archaism. あそこ is used instead these days.
- Sir_Cmpwn 9y agoMaybe it's regional? I've heared あこ used by native speakers many times.
- Sniffnoy 9y agoI think the archaic English equivalent is "here", "there", "yonder"?
- philsnow 9y agoI always thought the close one is used for things that are closer to the speaker than the listener, the middle one is used for things that are more or less in between the speaker and the listener, and the 'far' one is used for things that are far away from both the speaker and the listener. can any native speakers say whether there is any sense of that, or does it not have anything to do with the listener?
- glandium 9y agoNot native, but essentially, ここ is here, as in something close to the speaker, そこ is there, as in something close to the listener, and あそこ is there, as in something that is neither close to the speaker nor close to the listener. Now imagine a variant of https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9m-kbBamg_U https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9m-kbBamg_U with the 3 words.