Monday, November 25, 2019

particle も - も in 「Vのもアレなんだけど」


I've read Need help with translating 今更聞くのもアレなんだけど and Meaning of a sentence with Aが言うのもなんだけど and other considerations, and understand that in a construction like 聞くのもアレなんだけど, アレ and なん are functioning as filler words in place of words that the speaker is too abashed to use. However, what I don't understand is the usage of も in these phrases. How would 今更聞くのアレなんだけど differ from 今更聞くのアレなんだけど? The latter I would translate directly as "Asking now is a little weird, but..." while I would translate the former as "Asking now is also a little weird, but...." However, the answer given in Need help with translating 今更聞くのもアレなんだけど seems to translate 今更聞くのアレなんだけど as "Asking now is a little weird, but..." (no "also"). Why is that the case? What does も do in these constructions?



Answer




The も is neither "also" nor "even".


The も is used in the sense of definition #12 in 明鏡国語辞典:



も 🈩〘副助詞〙
⓬ さりげなくとりたてて、文意をやわらげる。
㋐《多く、文末表現に使って》一歩引く気持ちで、その判断をやわらげる。
「自由に発言すること可能だ」「もう帰っていいんだぜ」「彼だって素直になることある」「その件なら知らなくない」「そんな感じがしないでない」「乞われれば応じしよう」「やむをえないと考えするが…」



These threads might be of help: What is the difference between 「とは限らない」and 「とも限らない」 / Usage of も in a Specific Context


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