Japanese Words & Their Uses II. Akira Miura
there a telephone around here?
One difference between denwa and “telephone” is that denwa is often used to mean “telephone call” whereas “telephone” is not.
(2) Kinoo Tanaka-san kara denwa ga arimashita.
There was a telephone call (lit., There was a telephone) from Mr. Tanaka yesterday.
In English, “telephone” is also used as a verb; in Japanese, on the other hand, suru has to be added to change denwa into a verb, that is, denwa-suru “to telephone [someone].”
(3) Yoshida-san ni denwa-shite kudasai.
Please call Mr. Yoshida.
Denwa o kakeru “to make a phone call” and derma o ireru, a fairly new coinage meaning “to give [someone] a call,” may also be used in place of denwa-suru, as in
(4) Yoshida-san ni denwa o kakete (or irete) kudasai.
Please give Mr. Yoshida a call.
When the person to whom the phone call is made is not mentioned or even implied, only denwa o kakeru is acceptable. In (5), therefore, only (a) would be correct.
(5) Uchi no ko wa
| (a) denwa o kakeru | no ga suki de komarimasu. |
| (b) *denwa o ireru | |
| (c) *denwa-suru |
Our child likes making phone calls too much.
Deru most often means “to go out, to come out, to get out.”
(1) Amari atsui kara, niwa ni demashoo.
It’s so hot; let’s go out into the yard.
(2) Nihon o deta no wa nijuu-nen mae datta.
It was 20 years ago that I left Japan.
With reference to school, deru is used as a synonym for sotsugyoo-suru “to graduate.”
(3) Daigaku o dete (or sotsugyoo-shite) kara nani o suru tsumori desu ka.
What do you plan to do after graduating from college?
Don’t equate deru meaning “to graduate” with English “get out” since “to get out of school” might mean “to leave school without graduating.”
This latter meaning would be expressed in Japanese by another verb: chuutai-suru “to drop out of school.”
(4) Ano hito wa daigaku o chuutai-shite haiyuu ni natta soo desu.
I hear he dropped out of college and became an actor. (See also dekakeru.)
Whereas, in English, “what kind” can be used alone without “of” ＋ noun, Japanese donna has to be followed by a noun.
(1) Kore wa donna shoosetsu desu ka.
What kind of novel is this?
In questions like this, dooyuu can also be used to mean “what kind.”
(2) Kore wa dooyuu shoosetsu desu ka.
(same meaning as 1 above)
When donna and dooyuu are used in te mo (or de mo) clauses meaning “no matter . . . ,” however, there is a difference between the two (Tokugawa and Miyajima, p. 294). Dooyuu in such clauses can signal only “[no matter] what kind,” whereas donna can be used to mean either “[no matter] what kind” or “[no matter] to what degree.” Compare the following:
(3) Donna (or Dooyuu) koto ni natte mo kamaimasen.
I don’t care what happens, (lit., No matter what kind of result ensues, I don’t care.)
(4) Donna (not *Dooyuu) samui toki de mo jogingo o shimasu.
I jog no matter how cold it is.
In (3), either donna or dooyuu may be used because “what kind” is the issue; in (4), however, only donna is correct because dooyuu cannot mean “how” in the sense of “to what degree.”
Doo itashimashite, with or without a preceding Iie, serves as a response to someone’s expression of gratitude. In (1) below, therefore, all of speaker B’s answers are correct.
(1) A: Doomo arigatoo gozaimashita.
Thank you very much for what you did for me.
B: (a) Iie.
(b) Doo itashimashite.
(c) Iie, doo itashimashite.
Not at all.
It is safer not to equate Doo itashimashite with English “You are welcome,” because Doo itashimashite may also be used as a response to apologies.
(2) A: Doomo gomeiwaku o okake-shlmashita.
I’m very sorry for causing so much trouble.
B: Doo itashimashite.
Not at all.
In some cases, Doo itashimashite may also be used in response to compliments (Jorden, 1, p. 3), but that particular use is very limited. It is much safer, therefore, to say just Iie, which is always a correct response to compliments. (See also arigatoo gozaimasu and iie.)
Doomo is most often an abbreviation of Doomo arigatoo gozaimasu (or gozaimashita) “Thank you very much” or Doomo shitsurei-shimashita “I am very sorry for what I have done.” Lately, Doomo seems to have started developing a wider and wider range of meaning, however. Thus it is beginning to function as a salutation in a tremendous number of situations. Some people use it in lieu of other more established greetings such as Konnichi wa “Good day!” and Sayonara “Good-by!” and, according to Maruya (p. 153), even Moshimoshi (a greeting on the phone, meaning “Hello!”). Its usage has become so broad that Maruya suggests (p. 154), though tongue in cheek, that it may someday even acquire the meaning of “I love you”!
Doozo by itself is most often used when one invites someone to do something, e.g., when a host or a hostess invites a guest to come in, or when one offers someone something such as food, a beverage, or a cigarette. (Offering something to someone is really like inviting that person to have and enjoy the item offered.)
Doozo by itself rarely functions as a request. It may, however, be attached to a request.
(1) Doozo onegai-shimasu.
Please do me this favor.
(2) Doozo okamai naku.
Please don’t bother.
English-speaking students of Japanese often make the error of assuming that doozo makes requests more polite, as does “please” in English. Adding doozo to a request, does not make it any more polite—it just intensifies it. For example, in (1) above, the politeness lies not in the word doozo, but in the verb onegai-shimasu (lit., “I humbly request”), which is the polite-humble form of negau “to request.” In fact, Japanese polite requests are uttered more often without doozo than English polite requests are made without “please.”