Wednesday, May 1, 2019

grammar - How does どうするんだ function here?


For more context, see the full text here: https://www.docdroid.net/RdEh6ZK/img-20170712-0001-new.pdf


Taken from line 3: すると、一人の男が「そんな物、怖がってどうするんだ。...」といばった。



On jisho, どうする translates into "what to do about it" http://jisho.org/search/dousuru I feel rather unsure about the implementation of this meaning here. I'd translate the sentence like this:


"Hereupon, one of the men bragged: "Such things, being afraid what to do about it?..."


I think this phrase goes in the direction of "Such things, why bother with being afraid?" or "such things, what do you do about feeling afraid". The latter would imply a question about what they do to cope with it. I would say that the first of the two interpretations is probably more fitting here, but as I said, I don't really know what to do with this どうする here.



Answer



The guy is basically bragging that he is not scared of that "thing", and in a way mock everyone who is scared.


The どうする might not be easy to understand. It technically means,



"what you gonna do about it",



but the meaning is more something like,




"how can you keep on going(living your life etc...) if you can't handle this".
"What are you gonna do if you can't even handle that".
"If you can't manage that much, there is nothing you can do(you are doomed to failure/mediocrity)"



Another easy way to understand might be to see it like this.



Oh no what shall we do!



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