Missing piece

[afuna_archive]

This request? is driving me mad. Because I figured out what's wrong, and I think there's a possible solution, but I don't know why I thought the problem was with the Japanese language layer.

See, process happened something like this: Check support board just before heading out for work, discover easy-looking request, check that it's not the user's customizations, figure out which layer the problem text/setting is coming from, temporarily switch layouts to confirm, and then IC with preliminary diagnosis. (Eight minutes! Not bad, since I was brushing my hair and my teeth and throwing on clothes and grabbing breakfast while waiting for the relevant pages to load :))

My problem is that the only reason I figured out what had happened so quickly was that an image flashed through my mind of someone saying something about pluralization in language layers, or maybe pluralization in Japanese. And I cannot figure out who, where, what, why. I have the feeling that I read it very recently (maybe within this past week), but it could have been posted any time before then. And it is driving me crazy that I can't figure out where the image came from.

I wasn't aware of the bug before, so it couldn't have been that, but... gah. *flails*. What is the missing piece, and where did it come from? I know I should just leave it alone, because the request itself is done, but, but. But! It's like when a passage from a book runs through my mind, and I touch and poke and prod and analyze until I can figure out which book it is. (Or when a snatch of song just starts playing through my brain, and it nags at me until I can get someone else to figure it out.)

So you lovely people on my friendslist! I have a question: Do any of you remember talking about Japanese these past few days? :D


Update:
This request (S1, pluralization, no internationalization) might have had something to do with it. I could have sworn that there was a discussion about Japanese somewhere, though.

Comments

[camomiletea.livejournal.com]

<333

I knew of it, since I've been around support/styles for a long time; but I definitely wasn't talking of this issue recently. Could you have seen something in RT? Something like this?

[afuna]

Hmm, no not that one. I've never seen that ticket before *g*. However, if the pluralization thing is fixed for comments, then it should be fixed for tags as well :D

[azurelunatic]

Oh, meep. Was there a suggestion about pluralization in other languages? For custom comments? I remember something like that flitting past me in the past month-ish.

[burr86.livejournal.com]

I think you're thinking of the suggestion to make it possible to pluralize eg "1 life / 5 lives"?

[azurelunatic]

The exact one! ...Except that Google Desktop reminds me that perhaps you and I are the only ones in this discussion who've seen it, because that one's still somewhere in the queue.

[afuna]

Hmmmm, did you maybe bring it up in channel?

[afuna]

*blinks*

I think I have it. It was an s1 request about customizing the %%text_readlinks%%. I think I need to dig it up.

[azurelunatic]

I doubt it, because that one was neither screamingly useful enough nor unintentionally hilarious enough that I would have thought to mention it.

[afuna]

*nods*

I think it really might have been this request. It has nothing to do with S2 or Japanese, and yet there's something about it that might have made me think about pluralization in general.

(I swear there is something somewhere about pluralization in Japanese -- not support related! but I can't find it *g*)

[gameboyguy13.livejournal.com]

There might have been a random Japanese discussion in #lj_support, as tends to happen when the right mix of people are around.

[afuna]

Oh! It might have been. Not necessarily on #lj_support, but I can see the possibility of a discussion on Japanese happening in the LJ of a sp0rtter.

Hmm, wasn't there also that (recent) conversation in #lj_schools about learning languages (including Japanese)? I wonder if that had anything to do with it *G*

[gameboyguy13.livejournal.com]

That's a good point. Language geekery also happens there fairly often.

[raphaelcentauri.livejournal.com]

Yep there were a couple recently. With the main focus of my holiday being "learning Japanese" I've brought it up once or twice; I was complaining a lot about particles with... someone, but I forget who, a few days ago. Then on Sunday night we were discussing learning languages with Maura.

...though I haven't mentioned this issue at all, in fact it's the first I'm aware of it myself.

[afuna]

*G*

Any chance you talked about the nonexistence of plurals in Japanese? ;)

[raphaelcentauri.livejournal.com]

Well, it's not that they're nonexistant, but there's no "s" equivalent; for instance "two apples" is pretty much said in the form and word order, "ringo o futatsu" or "apple x2",and "lots of apples" is "ringo o takusan" or "apple x'lots'"... (Here endeth the lesson)

Anyway, I don't remember addressing plurals in the chat specifically, but it might've happened, I can't be bothered to sift through all my logs. :)

[afuna]

True that, but no plurals for the purposes of using in a comments link *G*

PS. Is it "ringo o futatsu" or "ringo wa futatsu"? "o" is the object marker, so you'd need a verb, but I'm not sure whether you dropped the verb for purposes of demonstration or used the wrong particle.

[raphaelcentauri.livejournal.com]

No, "ringo o futatsu" is correct. "ringo wa futatsu" means "apples are two items" :D

[raphaelcentauri.livejournal.com]

Ohhhh, wait a minute, I see what you mean. It would indeed be a very strange thing to walk up to someone and randomly say that like that. Yes, it was just for demonstration.

If I were saying, "these two apples cost 300 yen", then yes, I would say:
"kono ringo wa futatsu 300en desu."
Or, more literally, "these apples are 300 yen for two".

Otherwise, if the apples become the object as I had fixed in my brain, like in "I bought two apples"

"Watashi wa ringo o futatsu kaerimasu"

[afuna]

"apples are two items"

- which is what I thought you were trying to say *G*

(Oh, actually what I thought you wanted to say was "ringo ga futatsu arimasu")

[afuna]

\o/

I get it now! That was what I was wondering!

(errrrr "kaimasu" I think, not "kaerimasu" (go homeXD))

[raphaelcentauri.livejournal.com]

Crap. >_<

I'll shut up now.

[afuna]

No :( Don't shut up :(