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May. 21st, 2004 09:38 amなにしろ、妹もそのろくでなしの夫も、ダーズリー家の家風とはまるっきり正反対だったからだ。
Anyhow, the Dursley family tradition was that they were complete opposites of her younger sister and that good-for-nothing husband of hers. In what probably set a new record for the number of times I rediagrammed this thing and an unprecedented amount of confusion over the whole mess, I give you a reasonably okay translation. I'm okay with the diagram, as okay as I'm going to be. Some elements of cluelessness exist. The と in ダーズリー家の家風とはまるっきり, for example. What is it doing there? No, really. I'm pretty sure its role isn't adjectival, but that's how I have diagrammed it. And, well, there's that whole だったからだ mess at the end. I split it into だった as a subordinate verb for まるっきり正反対, から as a prepositional thing (from/because/of) which somehow leaps over huge hunks of the sentence and latches onto 妹もそのろくでなしの夫も in a feat of super powers not seen outside of comic books, and だ as the terminal, main verb which goes with ダーズリー家の家風とは because that's pretty much all I had left. Diagramming by the process of elimination! Yep. And since I'm sure you are wondering (crickets chirping), how can I tell what the thing likely says if I can't diagram it? Context. Even without any grammar clue at all, we have "Dursley family tradition" and we have "sister and her worthless husband" and we have "complete opposites". Given that we know how the Dursleys regard the Potters vis a vis themselves, it does not take a rocket scientist to come up with a highly likely meaning.
Tomorrow, we will take a great step forward by moving to the second page of the book for approximately a third of tomorrow's sentence. We will not be fully on page 2 until Sunday, but I believe preparation is essential to success in these activities.
Anyhow, the Dursley family tradition was that they were complete opposites of her younger sister and that good-for-nothing husband of hers. In what probably set a new record for the number of times I rediagrammed this thing and an unprecedented amount of confusion over the whole mess, I give you a reasonably okay translation. I'm okay with the diagram, as okay as I'm going to be. Some elements of cluelessness exist. The と in ダーズリー家の家風とはまるっきり, for example. What is it doing there? No, really. I'm pretty sure its role isn't adjectival, but that's how I have diagrammed it. And, well, there's that whole だったからだ mess at the end. I split it into だった as a subordinate verb for まるっきり正反対, から as a prepositional thing (from/because/of) which somehow leaps over huge hunks of the sentence and latches onto 妹もそのろくでなしの夫も in a feat of super powers not seen outside of comic books, and だ as the terminal, main verb which goes with ダーズリー家の家風とは because that's pretty much all I had left. Diagramming by the process of elimination! Yep. And since I'm sure you are wondering (crickets chirping), how can I tell what the thing likely says if I can't diagram it? Context. Even without any grammar clue at all, we have "Dursley family tradition" and we have "sister and her worthless husband" and we have "complete opposites". Given that we know how the Dursleys regard the Potters vis a vis themselves, it does not take a rocket scientist to come up with a highly likely meaning.
Tomorrow, we will take a great step forward by moving to the second page of the book for approximately a third of tomorrow's sentence. We will not be fully on page 2 until Sunday, but I believe preparation is essential to success in these activities.
