I was going through new lessons today and run into the following example sentence for 私自身 (“Personally”):
私自身は、そんなにきょくたんなことじゃなければ、何でも良いと思っています。
As for me, as long as it isn’t too extreme, I think any kind of diet is okay.
However I don’t see the word “diet” anywhere in the japanese version of the sentence. My attempt at translating the sentence would be:
As for me, if it isn’t too extreme, I think anything is okay.
Am I missing something…? As far as I’ve seen so far in WK example sentences, they tend to be self-contained, so I am not sure if “diet” is something taken for granted from some context that is not being shown in the example.
I don’t think you’re missing anything, that sentence could be about a lot of things. Though it is a bit weird to me as well that they included the context in the translation.
The そんな part is referring to a previously mentioned statement about diet.
without the English translation there would be know way to know this.
そんな
pre-noun adjectival
• such (about the actions of the listener, or about ideas expressed or understood by the listener)
• like that
• that sort of
→ See あんな
→ See こんな
→ See どんな・1
UPDATE
I think it’s actually こと in the OP sentence that is referring to a previously mentioned matter.
As for me, If its’s not such an extreme diet, anything is good, I feel.
私自身は、そんなにきょくたんなDIETじゃなければ、何でも良いと思っています。
The “diet” was mentioned previously in the conversation.
I’ve sent multiple emails about little typos and issues like that to hello@wanikani.com, and they’re usually pretty prompt to email back and say they fixed it
Maybe I’m miss understanding what your saying? But it seems like そなに can also refer to a pre mentioned statement or qoute. although the に is connecting these to wordsそんな And 面白いもの into a phrase そんなに面白いもの. the function of そんな remains the same? It seems like そんなに is two words combined into one. rather then a new word created with a separate meaning to the words on there own?
Maybe I’m missing your point?
友だちが徹夜で麻雀をやっているのを見ると, そんなに面白いものかなと思う. When I see my friends playing mah-jongg through the night, I wonder what makes it so fascinating.
UPDATE
I just realised that the の is referring to the quoted statement. so I Think I maybe misunderstanding the function of そんなに。
そんな (and the other derivatives) , as you mentioned in your post, are pre-noun adjectivals, which means they modify a noun with the meaning “such X” or “this/that kind of X”. They also have referencing properties in regard to what was mentioned earlier in a conversation but also to things that may not have been explicitly mentioned. In the case of そんなに, however, the に changes the classification (from adjectival into an adverbial). This property is similar to how な-adjectives change class when followed by に;
きれい⇒きれいに (clean->cleanly)
Even looking at your example:
The そんなに isn’t referring to anything that was said before but really indicates the speaker’s comparison of the extent of how interesting Mahjong to other activities they feel deserves that kind of attention.
Perhaps you’re confusing そんな (and its derivatives) with the nouns (それ, etc.)?
I’m not sure what you’re talking about here, but I think you may understand what I’m talking about with regard to そんなに
Glad to see that I am not the only one who thinks it is a bit off.
Regarding the そんな debate, my limited understanding is that そんなに is indeed acting like an adverb in this case. This adverb is modifying きょくたん (extreme), that’s why the translation says “too extreme”.
A more literal translation would be “that extreme”, and certainly in that sense そんな refers to some previous unknown context. However, “that” would refer to something that explains how extreme, not about what is extreme; as such, it cannot refer to a “diet”.
I feel that, if anything, こと is the word that is hiding the missing “diet”. If we replace it there, we would have:
そんなにきょくたんなダイエットじゃなければ
which would translate as “as long as it isn’t such an extreme diet” or “as long as it isn’t that extreme of a diet”. Not 100% sure though =._.=
No problem, I find this discussion quite interesting
Thanks! I will try email emailing them about this. Just wanted to make sure I wasn’t missing anything before I did that.
