Japanese, the high-context language: Addendum
arnei hat auf deinen Eintrag geantwortet “All this translation chat has gotten me curious; would you say that...”
Theoretically, if you wanted to specifically say "I'm a cat" in japanese you could say "Watashi ha neko da", right? But although that is (probably) grammatically correct, it would also be a very unnatural way of expressing it, right?
The thing with that is, that even “watashi wa neko da” isn’t really unambiguous. Even if it’s completely correct to translate it as “I am a cat” (which is what it will probably mean in most cases), it’s by far not the only meaning that sentence can have. That’s because the particle “wa” doesn’t indicate the subject of a sentence, but its theme.
As a result, the “literal” translation of “watashi wa neko da” would be:
“Me: is cat.”
While in a neutral context this clearly means “I am a cat”, in certain situations, this sentence can mean something else entirely. For example, imagine it’s being said as a reply to the question “What’s your favorite animal?” In that case “watashi wa neko da” wouldn’t mean “I am a cat.” but “Mine is the cat”.
Likewise, if “watashi wa neko da” were said by a little girl at a pet store, you can be pretty sure she’s trying to say “I, for one, want a cat!” and not that she’s a cat herself.
It’s stuff like this that makes Japanese trailers so hard to translate. Without context, correct translation is often pretty much impossible.
