に
I’m not sure if I’ve encountered this に before? It isn’t really ringing any bells, at least.
(I misread “Scond” in note 1 as “Second” and was very confused at first, haha.)
According to note 1, if the structure is “Scond, {V / Adj}inf・nonpast {でしょう / だろう} に”, the entire sentence expresses the subjunctive past (i.e. a supposition that is counter to the current situation). “Scond, {V / Adj}inf・past {でしょう / だろう} に” expresses the subjunctive past perfect (i.e. a supposition that is counter to the past situation).
In both situations, the entire sentence expresses the speaker’s regret. But if the subject of the Scond is the second or third person, it expresses the speaker’s sympathy for the second or third person. If Scond is not there, the entire sentence expresses sympathy.
The sentence-final particle に always follows でしょう / だろう.
" Scond, {V / Adj}inf {でしょう / だろう} " can be rephrased as “Scond, ~ { V / Adj} inf のに”. The でしょう / だろう に version indicates uncertainty, whereas the のに version does not.
Not going to go looking for examples in Tokyo Joshi Pro Wrestling because I don’t want to try searching through the にs.
に当たって / 当たり
This structure is used to indicate time when one faces something formal. The compound particle is primarily used in written Japanese. When a verb precedes it, it’s often a Sino-Japanese する verb, because the Sino-Japanese verb is also suitable for written Japanese.
The tense of the verb is always nonpast regardless of the tense of the final predicate. The nonpast tense expresses an incomplete aspect of an action indicated by the verb.
The difference between に当たって and 当たり is a matter of style. The former is more formal than the latter.
There is also a prenominal form: ～に当たって の N.
時 is a basic noun which indicates the time when someone or something will do/does/did something, or the time when someone or something will be/is/was in some state. 時 cannot be replaced by に当たって / 当たり when the preceding verb is past. 時 can be used to express any time, be it formal or informal, whereas に当たって / 当たり is used only in formal style.
に当たって / 当たり and 前に are semantically very close. Both only allow Vinf・nonpast because an action indicated by the verb is incomplete. The difference is that に当たって / 当たり means "before something significant takes place’, but 前に means “before something takes place”.
There is another time expression ～(の)際(に) / に際して which is used to indicate a special occasion on which someone does something. The difference between this and に当たって / 当たり is that the latter indicates an occasion in formal sentence, but the former indicates a special occasion. Practically all uses of ～(の)際に / に際して can be rephrased by に当たって / 当たり as long as the sentence is formal.
I couldn't find any に当たって / 当たり examples in TJPW that were this structure, but I did find a 際! This was from after Nao Kakuta challenged Mizuki for the Princess of Princess championship on 2023.04.15:
Hard mode: here’s the video (the part below starts around 3:41). This is extra hard mode because the 際 in question is in the (heavily paraphrased in the transcript and hard to hear in the video) question from an interviewer. I can’t actually hear if he says it in the video or not, but either way that’s how the transcriber chose to represent the question.
角田「（有明の際の自身と同じく、誰かの心を動かすことはできた？）できてたらいいな。でも、自分の挑戦で間違いなく女子プロレスをまた見る気持ちになったって言って来てくれる人がいるっていうのは、紛れもない事実だから。これからも継続していったら、きっとそういう人が増えていくのかなって思います」
(Were you able to move someone else’s heart just as yours was moved at Ariake?)
Kakuta: “I hope so. But there are people who came to tell me that my title challenge made them want to watch women’s wrestling again. That’s an undeniable fact. If I keep going, I think there will be more and more people like that.”
に反して / 反する
(Side note: the way key sentence B was formatted was confusing to read at first…)
て in に反して may be dropped.
に反する modifies the word which follows.
When に反して connects two propositions, the propositions are in opposition. In this case, it can be paraphrased as にひきかえ or と逆に. に対して can also replace に反して when に反して connects two propositions in opposition. The difference is that when に反して is used, the connected propositions are in opposition, but when に対して is used, the connected propositions are contrastive but not necessarily in opposition.
Here's an example from the TJPW press conference on 2023.03.20, right before their first show in America last year! This was building up to the tag title match where Miyu Yamashita and Maki Itoh defended their belts (er, well, failed to defend them) against Mizuki and Yuka Sakazaki:
Here’s the link to the video of the whole presser, and here’s the official transcript.
Further context is that before this, Miyu called Itoh her “business partner”, which upset Itoh, and then Miyu tried taking it back.
――山下選手は訂正できただけで成長したことになる？
Interviewer: “Just because Yamashita was able to correct herself means that she has grown?”
坂崎「それはそうですよ。だって山下実優ですよ？ 前はちょっとワッて言われると、ワーって返してたんですけど、今はこうやってそうじゃないですよって言えてるので」
Sakazaki: “That’s right. Because she’s Miyu Yamashita, you know? Before, if someone complained to her about something, she’d respond back with more fire, digging in her heels, but now she’s capable of saying ‘it’s not like that’ like she just did.”
――山下選手は成長の自覚がある？
Interviewer: “Yamashita, are you aware of this growth?”
山下「……そうですね。一緒にいる相手だし、いけなかったものっていうのは認めなきゃいけないのかなって思います」
Yamashita: “…Yes. We are partners together, and I think I have to admit the things I did wrong.”
坂崎「だってビジネスパートナーの概念を変えるみたいな言ってたし」
Sakazaki: “She said something about changing the concept of ‘business partner.’”
山下「言った後に携帯で検索したところ、これはいけないことを言ってしまったと正直思いました。でも、あまり私が一回言ったことを曲げるというのは私の信念に反してはいるのかなと思うんですけど、やっぱり伊藤はベストパートナーなんで。そこはしっかりここで、はっきりアメリカに行く前に訂正しておきたいなと思います。ごめんなさい」
Yamashita: “After I said that, I looked up the word on my phone and I honestly felt that I’d said the wrong thing. It goes against my convictions to change what I once said, but Itoh is truly my best partner. I want to amend this here and make it very clear before we go to the U.S. I’m sorry.”
伊藤「結果を出さないことには意味がないと思ってるので、別に結果が出せたらビジネスでもなんでもいいんですよ。でもやっぱり、結果が出せなかったらベストでもなんでもないと思ってるので。必ず結果で見せてほしいし、見せたいなと」
Itoh: “I think there’s no point if we don’t get results, so if we can show results, then ‘business’ or whatever is fine. But if we can’t get results, then calling me your ‘best’ partner means nothing. I want her to show me that growth by getting results; I want us to show it.”
山下「見せます！」
Just for fun, I'll throw in a couple に対して examples, too. This was from the press conference about a year after the last one, also for the tag titles! This time Suzume and Arisu Endo were challenging Yuki Aino and Ryo Mizunami:
Here’s the video, and here’s the official transcript.
――私には持ってない武器がある、とは具体的に何？
――The weapons they have that you don’t, what do you specifically mean by that?
愛野「私は2人みたいに素早く動いたし、飛んだり跳ねたりできないというところは、一番わかりやすい私にない武器かなと思っています。2月の大阪大会で悔しくも引き分けだったんですけど、最後に見せた鈴芽の粘りとかは、私の想像ですけど鈴芽は動けなかったんじゃないかなと。それでもあそこまで負けないために粘れるというのが、これはすごいなと思いました」
Aino: “Quick movements like what the two of them are capable of, flying and leaping around the ring, I think those are the most obvious weapons that I don’t have. There was that frustrating draw at the Osaka show in February, and when it comes the tenacity that Suzume showed at the end—just from my perspective at the time I thought there was no way she could still move, but toughing it out to the extent that she did so that she wouldn’t lose, I thought that was amazing.”
――逆に王者組に対して自分たちにない武器は？
――Conversely, can you talk about weapons that, in contrast to the champion team, you don’t have?
遠藤「やっぱり最初の入場の時の盛り上がりは、ちょっと悔しいけどまだちょっとあれかなって思っています」
Endo: “Of course, well, regrettable as it may be, I think that our getting the crowd excited during our entrance may not be all there.”
鈴芽「やっぱりプロレスにおいて一番シンプルでわかりやすくてカッコいいパワーは私たちにはないものなので。私たちは逆にそんなカッコいい力に対してどうやって闘うかを日々考えて育ってきたので、それをパワーを持っている方に認めてもらっているのはすごく嬉しいことだと思います」
Suzume: “Power, the most straightforward, easiest to understand, and coolest thing in wrestling, we don’t have that. Instead, we’ve spent our development thinking every single day about how we’re going to fight against such cool power, so I’m really happy to get acknowledged by those who possess that kind of power.”
(Might need to wait for someone else to post before I can keep going, haha)
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. I’m hoping to catch up soon, though!
