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May. 19th, 2004 10:58 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
which_chickポッター夫人はダーズリー夫人の実の妹だが、二人はここ数年一度も会ってはいなかった。
Mrs. Potter was really Mrs. Dursley's little sister, but the two of them hadn't met together even once in several years. I know that the diagram looks like hell. I'm sorry about that, but it does accurately reflect the structure of the sentence, with the possible exception of ここ, which I have diagrammed as an adverb of location. I hope that's right but I'm not dead sure. I am pretty solid on the way I diagrammed だが, even though I had to use a different color so that you could see where it hooked things up. だが is frequently used as something meaning "but" or "however" -- it joins two opposing ideas. We can see this here, since we have the "they were sisters" idea and the "they don't ever see each other" idea. See, and だが sits there in between them to sort of give you a heads-up that the sentence is changing direction or idea. Kind of handy, really.
I'm also pretty okay with setting up 二人はここ数年一度も会って as a nominal clause (See the stand thingie? Stand-thingies are for clauses.) though I'm not entirely sure if the 二人 part goes with that clause or if it has a broader application. The nested は topic markers give me fits because I'm not sure how the system of overrides works. I think this is one of those things that will clear up as I get more experience with the language, but that may just be wishful thinking on my part.
In other news, the Brood X cicadas are out and about. I took pictures of them earlier today. Here's a top view, a side view, and some empty larval casings. The Brood X cicadas are a once-in-seventeen-years event, so they're worthy of notice. Also, even though they're pretty good-sized and have spooky orange eyes, they're totally harmless and only last in their adult form for about two months. Enjoy them while they last!
Mrs. Potter was really Mrs. Dursley's little sister, but the two of them hadn't met together even once in several years. I know that the diagram looks like hell. I'm sorry about that, but it does accurately reflect the structure of the sentence, with the possible exception of ここ, which I have diagrammed as an adverb of location. I hope that's right but I'm not dead sure. I am pretty solid on the way I diagrammed だが, even though I had to use a different color so that you could see where it hooked things up. だが is frequently used as something meaning "but" or "however" -- it joins two opposing ideas. We can see this here, since we have the "they were sisters" idea and the "they don't ever see each other" idea. See, and だが sits there in between them to sort of give you a heads-up that the sentence is changing direction or idea. Kind of handy, really.
I'm also pretty okay with setting up 二人はここ数年一度も会って as a nominal clause (See the stand thingie? Stand-thingies are for clauses.) though I'm not entirely sure if the 二人 part goes with that clause or if it has a broader application. The nested は topic markers give me fits because I'm not sure how the system of overrides works. I think this is one of those things that will clear up as I get more experience with the language, but that may just be wishful thinking on my part.
In other news, the Brood X cicadas are out and about. I took pictures of them earlier today. Here's a top view, a side view, and some empty larval casings. The Brood X cicadas are a once-in-seventeen-years event, so they're worthy of notice. Also, even though they're pretty good-sized and have spooky orange eyes, they're totally harmless and only last in their adult form for about two months. Enjoy them while they last!
