Well, thanks for summoning me, but I’m probably not the best person when it comes to usage nuances. On a theoretical level, there isn’t really much to say about し, as far as I know. It’s just as Kazzeon and you said: it’s a parallel conjunction “and”, and causal construction “so”.
Some (relevant?) details...
It’s one of those weak conjunctions of Japanese; I’d say it’s weakly causal, much like が is weakly concessive. Both are pretty weak, though it could perhaps be argued that し is probably more often non-causal than が is non-concessive? Anyway, you could draw a sort of loose parallel as follows:
Cause
Concession
し
が
から
けれど
ので
のに
In addition to that, Martin mentions that, in its causal sense, し can be reinforced by する｛から・ので｝, after the end of the list of reasons. する there would be an empty verb, parallel to たりする; I don’t remember ever seeing that pattern but I think it exists. A more common construction might be simply し…から or し…しで.
As for origins, the only theory I’ve read is that it comes from the old adjectival conclusive form し—as in 赤し “is red”—which would explain why it has basically no precise meaning. The borrowing wouldn’t be too anomalous, given that けれど is also borrowed from the old adjectival paradigm as a standalone particle.
First of all, I want to go Japan early. If it’s for 3 months, my parents will worry, it seems and I simply can’t go it seems because firstly a short trip is good because go early to Japan? @_@ I have no idea.
“First of all, I want you to go Japan early(/quick?). Because your parents will worry if it’s for 3 months, you simply can’t go, it seems, so it would be good if you went just for a short while for the first time, I think, since your stay in Japan will be quick.”
In case others are interested, here are answers from other people on the site:
I first would like you to come to Japan. Your parents will probably worry about you if you go for 3 months and you can’t come easily so it’s fine if you come for a short period of time first.
For now, I want you to come to Japan as soon as possible. Your parents would probably be worried if you leave for 3 months and you also probably can’t go that easily, so for the first time, just a short period is fine, come to Japan quickly.
“The place marked on this map (of Japan) is a nationally famous antenna shop located in Kotsu Kaikan.”
Antenna shops: Antenna Shops in Tokyo - Chuo, Tokyo - Japan Travel (The one located in Kotsu Kaikan is under national ownership, so it aggregates goods from multiple local governments across the country.)
If you have any specific questions about the how and why of that translation, let me know!
Where did you get the “nationally famous”? 日本各地 means just “all over Japan” according to Jisho. Also, I’m not sure what 入っている is doing here. From your translation, I’m guessing it’s the “to contain, to hold, to accommodate” meaning?
There isn’t that much unclear, when I look at the correct translation, a lot of things clear up to me just by doing that. For instance, I interpreted マークしてあるところ as “there is a place [that is also marked]” or something that might not be super wrong, but very clunky. Instead of realizing マークしてある is one thing i.e. “is marked”.
That’s a very good question. I got it from being so exhausted I read 各地 and thought 名所 for some reason when I started writing the translation.
“The place marked on this map is an antenna shop selling regional specialties from all over Japan, located in Tokyo’s Kotsu Kaikan mall. You can see more information about the store by scanning this QR code.” (Is the answer I swooped in with on HiNative.)
Embarrassing.
Edit – Also, 入っている is “to be in.” It’s the present-progressive form of 入る, as in “to enter,” but in practice, ～の中に入っている (lit. “to be in a state of being inside～”) is the natural equivalent of “to be in” in English.
I was just looking at the translation on HiNative myself
Edit: I wanna make sure I got this 100% right:
[((交通会館の中に入っている) (日本各地のアンテナショップ))です]。
Round brackets for clauses, square ones for the entire sentence.
This is how the clauses are separated? And the first one modifies the second one, right?
They aren’t really different “clauses,” but the first parenthetical there is the modifier, and the second is the thing being modified, yeah.
If you’re ever stumped trying to parse a sentence, it’s generally a good idea to try to look for verb endings, specifically because they often mark modifiers.
I get it, thanks. I think that was actually the main thing that gave me trouble in this sentence. And I think I even heard about that before, but I keep forgetting. I was just telling my friends the other day how “everything can be an adjective” in Japanese, though now that I think about it, I should’ve said “everything can be a noun modifier” or something.
On that note, looking at that user’s history, I have the sneaking suspicion I just did unpaid translation work for a hostel/tourist-facing business located near Kotsu Kaikan.
I think that’s often the case. Isn’t even things like translating personal messages unpaid translation essentially? Afaik, Gengo usually translates personal correspondence. But I think it’s good practice regardless (for me at least). I don’t think I’m good enough yet to charge.
It’s good practice, but it’s also, like … really scummy to not pay translators because you figure you can just jump onto HiNative to get what you need. For business-related projects, anyway.
Yeah, when I see the boxes you can write in maxed out and then three consecutive posts like that and the topic is health/medicine… Makes me wonder.
On the other hand, I think it’s almost, more or less fair? Like, sure, it’s free, but you might get a completely wrong translation. Imagine someone translating wrongly on purpose.
So I’ve got a message that pops up randomly in combat in an old PC-88 game, and I’m not entirely sure what it’s trying to say. I think it happens if a round of combat passes without any damage being inflicted on any of the enemies present, but I’m not certain on that.
Screenshot
Being an old game, it’s all katakana (half-width in context, but converted to full-width here for readability):
The way I’m interpreting this in proper Japanese:
And I literally just realized while writing this that I’d originally misread ツトメ as シトメ and had it in my notes as 仕留め… oops. Makes a bit more sense this way, I guess.
So, obviously, the voice of God is shouting at you with appropriate pyrotechnics; that part is obvious enough. I’m not sure exactly what it’s so insistent that you do, though. “Finish this difficult duty!”, perhaps?
I’m tempted to guess, based on the way it seems to show up when you aren’t making any progress in combat, that it’s basically the game impatiently trying to tell you to hurry up and finish the fight, but I’m not sure if the vocabulary involved supports that interpretation.
On a theoretical level, there isn’t really much to say about し, as far as I know. It’s just as Kazzeon and you said: it’s a parallel conjunction “and”, and causal construction “so”.
Thanks for answering my summons!
