本当に本気の本気で?

[Androrion]

I just stumbled upon this context sentence :

今度は本当に本気の本気で日本ごをべんきょうします！

The translation is :
I’m really, really serious about studying Japanese this time.

I’m confused about the 本気の本気 part. Is this a way of insisting on 本気 ? I feel like 本当に本気で would be enough to insist on beeing really serious… Am I mistaken ?
Can someone clarify this for me please ?

[enbyboiwonder]

I’ve seen structures like that before, and I think it’s just for emphasis (that’s what my gut says), but I’m not 100% sure

[downtimes]

I would second what enbyboiwonder said. It’s for emphasis. The english translation has “really” two times to produce the same kind of effect.

[daikirai]

Reading 本当に本気の本気 out loud made me chuckle a little

I believe の as an emphasis here even maps on English, like seriously serious or most serious out of the serious.

[ekg]

I’ve seen/heard dialogue exchanges that’s like
-本当に?
-はい.
-本当に本当???
-はい.
-本当に本当に本当?!!!

escalation like that.

[Joeni]

I hear this in my head as…

Really?
Yes.
Realy?!
Yes!
REALY?!?!
YES!!

[ekg]

Yes!!!

lol I mean, doubling up doesn’t work the same way in English. But in Japanese it really is just increased emphasis. You can do it in Swedish as well.

-はい.
-はい,はい,はい!!!
//
-いいえ.
-いえ, いえ. いえ!

Ja.
Ja, ja, ja, ja, ja!

or
-nej, nej, nej, nej!
XD

Edit: Interestingly, overemphasis in your answer does give your reply a rather…not quite rude tone, but at least less polite. it’s a bit like the listener doesn’t know if you’re giving an honest answer anymore I guess. A simple はい is really just a “yes”. But, はいはいはい, seems like you’re rather dismissive, while giving your yes. Or it could be something you say when stressed out at having to do something (like getting to the door when it rings etc).

I guess, from a translation point of view, you’ll have to figure out a way to convey those extra meanings, not just translating it like “yes”. Like in the door example “I’m coming!!”, like in an annoyed tone, would make more sense.

[Androrion]

Thanks everyone for your answers !
I like the idea of thinking of 本気の本気 as “seriously serious”.
Do you think that it would be gramaticaly correct to say that something is “realy ridiculously ridiculous” with 本当に滑稽の滑稽 ?
I wonder if we can do something similar with い-adjectives ? Like… how would you say that something is really huge ? My instinct would be to say 本当にすごく大きい but could we use a の somehere instead of すごく ?

[alo]

@Androrion

Do you think that it would be gramaticaly correct to say that something is “realy ridiculously ridiculous” with 本当に滑稽の滑稽 ?

I don’t think that would work since 滑稽 is a na-adjective. 滑稽な滑稽 maybe.

@Androrion

I wonder if we can do something similar with い-adjectives ? Like… how would you say that something is really huge ? My instinct would be to say 本当にすごく大きい but could we use a の somehere instead of すごく ?

Maybe. Using emphasis like this is kind of something that you feel out. I don’t think it has strict grammatical rules.

I suppose 凄くの大きい would work.