Wednesday 3 June 2015

meaning - "No, your taste is (not) good"


I am currently reading the "よつばと!" ("Yotsuba&!") manga, and in the first story (vol 1 page 13) there is an exchange about going to buy greeting gifts (for moving into the neighborhood):




よつばの父: 変なもん 持ってくんなよ


ジャンボ: 俺はプリンが 好きなんだ


よつばの父: いや おまえの 嗜好はいい



An english version translates this exchange as:



Yotsuba's Dad: Don't bring back something weird


Jumbo: I like pudding


Yotsuba's Dad: Don't base it on your personal preference, neither




But I'm having a bit of trouble understanding the last line:



いや おまえの 嗜好はいい



From what I can tell, this line appears to say "No (I disagree), your taste is good", but given the context (and the above translation, which fits with the apparent context) I would actually expect him to be saying "No, your taste is not good". Yet the sentence appears to be in the affirmative, not the negative?


Does the use of いや here somehow implicitly negate the rest of the sentence (which is something I haven't seen in other cases)? Is this an idiomatic thing? Implied sarcasm? Or am I just missing something obvious?


Any help would be much appreciated.



Answer




「いや おまえの 嗜好{しこう}はいい




「いい」 already has the meaning of "not needed" all by itself without any context.


In this context, the negative 「いや」 should also help one understand that 「いい」 would be used for its negative meaning.


See definition 3-㋑ in goo辞書, which says:



㋑十分過{じゅうぶんす}ぎる。その必要{ひつよう}がない



This usage of 「いい」 is actually very common, especially in spoken language.


No one has mentioned this so far, but the 「の」 is a big hint here as well. That is because to say "You have good taste.", we would say:


「お前趣味いい。」



This sentence can only mean "You have good taste." and we would use 「趣味{しゅみ}」 far more often than than 「嗜好{しこう}」 to say this.


No comments:

Post a Comment

readings - Appending 内 to a company name is read ない or うち?

For example, if I say マイクロソフト内のパートナーシップは強いです, is the 内 here read as うち or ない? Answer 「内」 in the form: 「Proper Noun + 内」 is always read 「ない...