chin.billy.leung
Emphasis, emphasis and more emphasis Yesterday I came across this one: 쉽지만은 않은 blah blah blah What draws my attention is the use of 만. Normally to put emphasis on a negative a 는/를 after 지 would suffice, but here the addition of 만은 seems to double the weight on the whole negative. I am wondering if there is a scale (gradation) of emphasis that forms the basis for this? Also would it just be OK to say 쉽지만 않은 ***? Is that 은 redundant? Or it is there to force more emphasis again?
Dec 4, 2016 1:44 PM
Answers · 4
쉽지만 않다 is not a correct expression. the ~는/은 attached to “~지” in that sentence is used to compare something. It almost always is compared to “one’s expectations.” 쉽지 않다 is antonym of 쉽다 쉽지만은 않다 (= 항상 쉽지는 않다 = 항상 쉬은 것은 아니다) is antonym of 항상 쉽다(= 쉽기만 하다.) 그것은 쉽지 않다. = It is not easy. 그것은 쉽지는 않다. = (despite what you expect,) it is not easy. 그것은 쉽지만은 않다 = It is not always easy.
December 4, 2016
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