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"ジョンは明日." translation?
The following is from the Obenkyo Android app, in the section about the topic particle:
アリス: 今日は試験だ。(Today is exam)
ボブ: ジョンは? (What about John?)
アリス: ジョンはあした。(John is tomorrow/as for John, the exam is tomorrow)
The translation for the last sentence seems off to me. In the first sentence, "today" is the topic, so it seems like she was discussing her schedule "today". In the second sentence, the topic changed to John, but it didn't seem like Bob was asking when John was taking exam. To me, it seemed like he was asking when Alice would be meeting John, which is tomorrow.
Alice: Today is an exam day./As for today, there's an exam.
Bob: What about John?
Alice: As for John, I'll deal with him tomorrow.
Would it also be correct to interpret it this way, considering there's not a lot of context in the passage above?
Jan 6, 2017 11:16 AM
Answers · 2
Each sentence has it's own topic. The "general" topic is not "today", but "exams".
Therefore, within the undeclared general topic of exams, in the subtopic of "today" "I have an exam" (where "I" is implied not explicitly declared). You could even say that the real subtopic of the first sentence is "I". In the last line, the subtopic is "John", "he has exam tomorrow" (where again a lot of things are implied such as "exam").
This dialog, for me, makes totally sense.
January 6, 2017
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Language Skills
Chinese (Mandarin), English, Filipino (Tagalog), French, Japanese, Korean
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Chinese (Mandarin), French, Japanese, Korean
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