I have completed the week’s reading and I’m managing just fine, but I do
have question about the very first sentence of the story (translation is included)
母と慕う... page 5
母と慕う彼女は親ではない.
The woman I adore as my mother is not my parent.
I have scoured the net and it was hard to find any page describing this usage (と as ‘as’). I found a couple of brief mentions eventually, but by that time I was searching for something I already knew the answer to.
The common usages of the particle 'と’ are:
Listing items (and)
Quotations
Conditional (if/when)
With someone (together with)
Comparison or contrast (and/or)
Does the usage in question (母と / as mother) fit one the above?
Or is it a different case that is less common and not as well documented?
I’m happy to just accept the "と as ‘as’ " interpretation. Just puzzled as to why I haven’t come across up to now.
Any thoughts?
is anyone going into this completely blind?
I haven’t read this or any other manga before. Totally blind.
This usage of と comes from the quotation one as far as I understand. This really won’t translate to English nicely, but you can absolutely see it as “as”.
I’m picking my friend’s brain about it a bit and she says it is the same as として, and she said it actually sounds more formal to her (which I thought would be the opposite) but it is also super common. (Although given that this sentence is in the narration instead of dialogue, more formal makes sense.)
I so far haven’t found anything on Google describing this, so my hunt continues
I agree with this. I think 母と慕う is saying Emma calls her “mother” (i.e. と呼ぶ, where the と comes from), and by doing so, she is showing deep love and affection towards her. So, the author is swapping out 呼ぶ for 慕う to show that Emma calls her “Mom” as a means of showing her love and affection, or for the purpose of doing so.
I think this may be the author writing creatively to express this concept, rather than it being a set grammar point. That may be why there are no resources explaining it.
I was also told it is like a hidden として but it also feels like what you say. It reminds me of という or といいます mentioned in Tae Kim’s guide to describe people.
fish is known as tai vs she is adored as mother. Maybe I’m reaching
Character relationship
But it also feels like the ideal translation. This also feels to me like Emma is saying ‘she’s like a mother and I adore her’ since the whole thing is describing 彼女
I’m not going into this one blind so I’m not going to comment on the plot too much. I’m glad to say I didn’t have too much trouble with the reading and the couple bits I wasn’t sure on have already been addressed.
Spoilers
I had an almost visceral reaction when Emma said good morning to Connie. Just, reading her name. And I winced when she made that comment about not getting any of the questions and that she hasn’t been able to for a while recently.
