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particle ending "no"

英語 translation: look at context, grammar and honorific terms

グロッサリエントリー(下の質問から派生)
日本語の用語またはフレーズparticle ending "no"
英語訳look at context, grammar and honorific terms
入力者 Luciano Eduardo de Oliveira

01:04 Feb 22, 2008
日本語から英語への翻訳 [Non-PRO]
Art/Literary - 言語学 / general usage
日本語の用語またはフレーズ particle ending "no"
When Japanese sentences end with "no", sometimes the particle is used in place of a "?" to make the sententence interrogative.
However, at other times it is used to soften a statement, and no question is being asked.

Is there any trick to distinguishing between the two in the absense of any other punctuation?
faith
look at context, grammar and honorific terms
説明：
You have to look at the context and the use of honorific terms. If you have Kaisha, hontou ni yameru no?, it makes no sense for it to be a statement about yourself because of the use of hontou ni, so this no is a colloquial question. Whereas when you say Doyoubi wa konsaato ni ikitai to omotte iru no, because there's a -tai to omotte iru, it can only be about the speaker, so it softens the statements (and it's usually used by women, by the way).

Remember that there's also the no you use to indicate a mild command, but you're not asking about this one.
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Luciano Eduardo de Oliveira
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5 +2look at context, grammar and honorific terms
Luciano Eduardo de Oliveira


  

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6分   自信度： Answerer confidence 5/5 ピアによる賛成(ネット数)： +2
look at context, grammar and honorific terms


説明：
You have to look at the context and the use of honorific terms. If you have Kaisha, hontou ni yameru no?, it makes no sense for it to be a statement about yourself because of the use of hontou ni, so this no is a colloquial question. Whereas when you say Doyoubi wa konsaato ni ikitai to omotte iru no, because there's a -tai to omotte iru, it can only be about the speaker, so it softens the statements (and it's usually used by women, by the way).

Remember that there's also the no you use to indicate a mild command, but you're not asking about this one.

Luciano Eduardo de Oliveira
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母国語： ポルトガル語
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この回答に対するピアコメント(および回答者からの返答)
賛成  festinalente: My one vote for your excellent explanation!
1時間
賛成  Timothy Miller: Yup, I second this explanation of the two uses. If spoken, then intonation can also be used to distinguish them. But if you are referring to the written language, you have to extrapolate the meaning from the context.
4時間
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