Saturday, December 1, 2018

questions - Is んじゃないの rhetorical? And other conversation nuances


B: says that no one ever became ill just because they didn't ask for good health on a tanzaku. And then:



A: 「じゃあ、たんざくに書いたくらいで金持ちになる人もいないんじゃないの
A: Well, no one ever became rich just by writing on a tanzaku either (did they?)
B:「いいんだ。こまかいことを言うな」



I can't work out if んじゃないの is a real question or a rhetorical question.



Because of that I can't understand the reply. Is こまかいことを言うな "Don't say trivial things" or "Don't ask trivial things"?


In fact I'm not sure about the whole of B's reply. Is いいんだ supposed to be consoling as in "It's all okay. Don't worry about trivial problems", or is it more like. "It's fine! Stop asking stupid questions".



Answer



Conclusion first: It is rhetorical.



「~~人もいないんじゃないの」



always means:



"There is no one who ~~, right?"




I used "right?", but this 「(ん)じゃないの」 is closer to the French "n'est-ce pas?" in both meaning and feeling. It is used much more to make a statement than to ask a question even though the sentence is usually uttered with a rising intonation at the end.



「~~人もいないんじゃないの」≒「~~人もいないでしょう」≒「~~人も/はいない



「んじゃないの」, therefore, does not really change the meaning of the sentence. It only helps obtain the listener's agreement. The expression contains 「ない」, but it is NOT a negative expression.


If I said 「このピザうまいじゃない。」, the only thing it can mean is "This pizza is yummy!", but I have encountered quite a few Japanese-learners who thought it meant "This pizza is not yummy." What they need to understand is that the negative form of 「うまい」 is 「うまない」 and not 「うまいじゃない」.


Moving on to B's reply...



Is こまかいことを言うな "Don't say trivial things" or "Don't ask trivial things"?




It is the former. As I explained above, A is not asking a question in the first place.



Is いいんだ supposed to be consoling as in "It's all okay. Don't worry about trivial problems", or is it more like. "It's fine! Stop asking stupid questions".



It is the former, precisely.


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