Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Language/2022 August 18

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August 18

ambiguous Japanese sentence

"水族館は、海の生き物を水槽に入れ、人が来て、魚やタコなどが見物する場所です。" Is this sentence properly ambiguous in Japanese? In a way that is suitable for humour? Or if the sea creatures are doing the sight seeing they would have to marked with は? Or is it correct to say it is NOT at all ambiguous because the sea creatures are not marked with を?

Duomillia (talk) 01:14, 18 August 2022 (UTC)

I would have expected 魚やタコなどを見物する, but my knowledge of Japanese is shallow.  --Lambiam 12:30, 18 August 2022 (UTC)

That centers on 魚が見物する場所 "a place to watch fish / where fish go sightseeing", which seems theoretically ambiguous (though I can't be sure), but as so often in Japanese, context disambiguates.

は is always optional, at least in colloquially, and it can replace either を or が. — kwami (talk) 21:46, 18 August 2022 (UTC)