The Quotative Particle と III
In this lesson, we will expand on what we learned way back in Lesson 74 and investigate instances of と that do not fit within the confines that have been discussed thus far, most notably how the quotative と may also serve not as the quote for a citation verb but as the content (内容) of some “property (属性)” being presented (提示) for various other purposes unrelated to speech and thought.
First, consider the following examples and think about how none of them are typical examples of the quotative と.
1. 高齢者への虐待 １万８０００件余と 過去最多
Elder abuse cases hit record high at over 18,000
2. スコットランドの旅行で、ネッシー出現の最古の記録が残るウルクハート城に寄ったことは、前にお話ししました。あのあたりは一、二軒の別荘があるだけで、まことに荒涼として侘しく、他には何もありません。これが日本だったら、忽ち土産物店が軒を連ね、ネッシー饅頭、ネス湖羊羹、恐竜こけし、と並ぶことでしょう。
I have previously mentioned that, on my trip to Scotland, I visited Urquhart Castle, where the oldest recorded appearance of Nessie remains. There are only one or two villas in the area, and (the surroundings) are truly desolate and dreary, with nothing else at all. If this were in Japan, souvenir shops would be lining the streets, selling Nessie-themed manju, Loch Ness yokan, and dinosaur kokeshi dolls.
From 『黄昏のロンドンから』by 木村治美.
3. 超人気アーティストの曲に採用されたり、映画が注目されたりと、何かと話題の手話をイチから学ぼう。
Let’s learn sign language from scratch, which as become a hot topic, having been used in songs by hugely popular artists and featured in a movie.
4. 売り上げは過去最高となりました。
Sales have reached an all-time high.
Each of these examples represent atypical ways in which the quotative と denotes some substantive presentation of the predicate at hand, and if Ex. 4 particularly caught your attention, the grammar discussed in this lesson also bleeds in with と’s role as a result marker, which we covered back in Lesson 75.
Type 1: Presenting the Change X → (to) Y = Result Marker と
By viewing the result marker と as also being the quotative と, the presented element (Y) is both the result inherently stated by the predicate as well as the substance (change) of said result.
5. 基本的に同じ治療方法となりました。
(How they treated the patient) was basically the same treatment method.
6. 飲み物はお茶のみと限りました。
I limited (what they) drink to tea.
7. １０月から時給が上がると決まりました。
Hourly wages have been set to increase starting in October.
The と seen in the compound particle expression へと may also be viewed in this same light, as the change in direction is also the result of the predicate.
8. 日本が戦争できる国へと方向転換する事に強い危惧を感じる声が挙がっています。
Strong concerns are being raised that Japan is shifting in direction toward becoming a country capable of waging war.
It is this duality in function which allows, ironically, for と to be paraphrased to the particle に in both these situations, as their roles overlap in this semantic context.
9. ２０２４年は僕にとって忘れられない年｛に・と｝なりました。
2024 has become an unforgettable year for me.
10. 『自分には向かないな』と悟って違う路線｛に・へと｝方向転換すること｛に・と｝なった。
I realized that this wasn’t for me and decided to change direction and take a different path.
One notable difference at the syntactic level between this use of the quotative と and the other three usages to be discussed is that, when the quotative と also happens to indicate a result, the complement (補語) it is a part of in the sentence is obligatory, whereas for the other instances to be discussed, the complement it is a part of is secondary at best.
Type 2: Gauging a measurement
The quotative particle と, as seen in Ex. 1, may also denote substantive examples of measurements for the purpose of adding a bit of objective proof to what is often a subjectively stated remark as the predicate.
11. 室外機は１００キロと重い。
The outdoor (air conditioner) unit weighs 100 kg.
12. おまけにガソリンタンクの容量が約19リットルと、とってもたくさん入るので、ガソリンを一回満タンにするとかなりの距離が走れます。
What’s more, the gasoline tank has a capacity of approximately 19 liters, which is quite large, so you can travel quite a ways on a single full tank of gas.
13. 登録番号は13桁と長いので、記入間違いがない様、お気を付けください。
Your registration number will be 13 digits long, so please be careful not to enter it incorrectly.
14. 部屋が四畳半と狭いため、ソファーベッドの購入を考えています。
Since my room is small (only 4.5 tatami mats = 8.1 meters2), I am thinking of buying a sofa bed.
15. ただ、ミュウは体長が40㎝と小さいんです。
However, Mew is small, with a body length of only 40 cm.
For the most part, the quotative と gauges what can be given a numerical value: length, weight, monetary amount, percentage, volume, rank, grades, etc. However, it is not entirely limited to these Y elements. Consider the following.
16. メニューはサラダだけと低カロリー。
The menu is low-calorie, consisting only of salad.
17. 選手たちは早くも折り返し点と飛ばしている。
The athletes are zooming ahead, raising to get to the halfway point as quickly as possible.
18. シャツのサイズはXXLと特大。
The size of the shirt(s) is massive (XXL).
Even so, we see that Y is still a noun that can be viewed as an entity which serves as the gauge for the following predicate, but the relationship is notably more analytical.
One mistake that often arises from learners upon being exposed to sentences like Exs. 16-18 is the recurrence of overextending と to blindly connect two predicates in the sense of “and.” This is not without reason, though. Upon close inspection of Exs. 11-18, we see that Y is a dependent clause exactly how we saw it used in Lesson 74 (also yet another reason why this usage still counts as the quotative と). First, let’s look at two incorrect sentences.
19a. ダニエルさんはノルウェー出身と色が白い。X
19b. ダニエルさんはノルウェー出身で色が白い。〇
Daniel is Norwegian and is fair-skinned.
20a. セスさんはアメリカ人と英語ができます。X
20b. セスさんはアメリカ人で、英語ができます。〇
Seth-san is American and can speak English.
The semantic reason for why these sentences are invalid is that the Y component being attributed to と cannot be attributed to a scale of some sort. There is no gradient in one’s nationality.
Syntactically, we can also see that the dependent clause attempted to be formed in Exs. 19-20 are not the same in nature as the ones found in Exs. 16-18. As Exs. 16-17 particularly show, the tacking on of other adverbial components makes it all the more evident that the dependent clauses at hand are not separate thoughts but complements to the independent clause, whereas in Exs. 19-20, the dependent clause in each could just as easily been phrased as its own sentence.
The objectivity of the quotative と and the subjectivity of the predicate, as has held true thus far in our coverage of と also has a consequence in word order that may not be otherwise evident if not for mistakes. Consider the following.
21a. 株価は反落と１０００円！X
21b. 株価は１０００円と反落！〇
Intended: The stock price fell to 1,000 yen!
As a core feature of the quotative と, its objective substance must be presented first.
Back in Lesson 74, we saw the following example to demonstrate how some instances of Y may or may not represent the same action as the predicate but that, at the end of the day, that detail is not so meaningful given the synonymous outcome.
52. 鍛冶屋の作業員は、やっと修理ができたのだと喜んでいた。
The blacksmith worker rejoiced that he had finally repaired it.
“I finally repaired it!” the blacksmith worker rejoiced.
It turns out, this blurred syntactic role of と bleeds into understanding the facet of と we are looking at here. First, let’s change out [やっと修理ができたのだ] to a Y that possesses a “scale” that can be gauged.
22. 鍛冶屋の作業員は、やっと１０作目と、喜んでいた。
The blacksmith worker rejoiced that he was finally at his tenth piece.
“I’m finally at my tenth piece” the blacksmith worker rejoiced.
23. 鍛冶屋の作業員が１０作目と、絶好調だ。
The blacksmith worker is on his tenth piece, going swimmingly.
In this light, we see that the predicate is very much directly related to the substance of Y but from different angles, and that と relates them as one of the same situation… which leads into one more detail. Much like how Exs. 19-20 are ungrammatical, if the Y marked by と and the predicate describe the same thing but not the same situation, then と is ungrammatical and ought to be replaced, likewise, with the copula.
23a. このチーズケーキは、1食あたり１２００キロカロリーと、味もなかなかだ。△/X
23b. このチーズケーキは、1食あたり１２００キロカロリーで、味もなかなかだ。〇
Intended: This cheesecake is 1200 kilocalories per serving, tasting quite good.
If more calories always implies that the dish will be delicious to the speaker, then 23a could be given △, but even so, it is still quite a stretch to directly link higher calories with tasting delicious together, even though they both pertain to “eating.”
Type 3: Enumerating “Things”
This time around, we do see significant bleed over from the parallel particle と’s ability to mean “and” into how the quotative と functions, but there are, of course, noticeable grammatical differences. First, compare the following two sentences.
24. [キノコと栗とキュウリ（と）]が並んでいます。
Mushrooms, chestnuts, and cucumbers are lined up.
25. キノコ、栗、キュウリと[秋の味覚]が並んでいます。
With mushrooms, chestnuts, and cucumbers, the flavors of autumn are lined up.
Here, we see several differences, the first being where と appears. As the parallel particle (meaning “and”), we see that it follows the pattern “Noun1 と Nounn(と)” but that as the quotative particle, it follows the pattern “Nominal1, Nominalnと (※)”
※The word “nominal” is used in place of “noun” to reflect how “things” can stand for other predicate types (See Ex. 30 below).
The second noticeable difference is what constitutes the subject, conveniently denoted in []. In Ex. 24, the statement is simply about the three items being lined up, but in Ex. 25, the speaker mentions [キノコ、栗、キュウリ], but what implied meaning these three examples enumerated by the terminal と collectively provide is only made clear by looking at the predicate, at which point it becomes clear that they are being mentioned to emphasize the theme of “autumn foods.”
Ex. 25 inherently has much in common with the previous applications of the quotative と, but for it to enumerate “matters at hand” hand that prop up the substantive nature of the predicate, then there MUST be more than one example mentioned. This is inherent in the idea of “enumerating.” Meaning, the following adaptation is consequently ungrammatical.
26. キノコと秋の味覚が並んでいます。X
Intended: With mushrooms, the flavors of autumn are lined up. ???
It is also worth noting that the predicate itself implies that there are multiple referents. Also, if “things” are lined up, stating that “one thing is lined up” makes no sense to begin with. Conversely, for this enumerating power of the quotative と to have its effect of emphasizing the plurality of the predicate, explicitly stating quantity for the purpose of enumeration should not occur within said predicate, for that would result in と forfeiting its role to the predicate, but the enumerated examples marked by と may be summarized with a quantity in the predicate, in which they would go hand in hand, much like all other instances of the the quotative と. To visualize this, consider the following.
27a. お洒落な人々の間では、小粋なデザインと、豊富な色柄、そして手頃な価格と三拍子揃ったブランドとして知られている。〇
Among stylish people, it is a brand known for its triad of traits: its chic designs, a wide range of colors and patterns, and its affordable prices.
27b. お洒落な人々の間では、小粋なデザインと、三拍子揃ったブランドとして知られている。X
Intended: Among stylish people, it is a brand known for its triad of traits: like its chic designs. X
Ex. 27 utilizes the expression 三拍子揃った, an idiomatic expression which can roughly translate to “triple threat/meeting all three important conditions” as the predicate for the quotative と which precedes it. Not stating what those three key things are via と defeats the purpose of the predicate, thus resulting in 27b. being ungrammatical. In fact, this also indicates that the “amount information” must be consistent throughout the sentence. Meaning, the predicate cannot indicate a different number of referents than those enumerated by と and vice versa. This also clearly delineates the quotative と from parallel particles like や・など which do not have this requirement and oppositely imply that the “real number” of referents is larger.
Speaking of the parallel particle と, we also see how in Ex. 27 that it can coexist inside the dependent clause marked by the quotative と, indicating additional overlap between the two entities, making it clear within the mind of the speaker that whatever is enumerated is specifically what is being enumerated—nothing more, nothing less.
There are still two contingencies left to look at with this use of the quotative と:
- When a sequency is implied in the “things” enumerated with the quotative と.
- When the “things” are not nouns but other predicate types—all of which enumerate the dynamics of a “situation.”
Sometimes, there is a natural order to the “things” enumerated by the quotative と, and the logic behind that ordering becomes apparent once the full picture is provided. As obvious as this may sound as part of the process of “listing out” things in a reasonable fashion is itself a grammatical phenomenon. Consider the following.
28. 十年後、二十年後、三十年後と、年を追うと共に黒い雨の影響が現れてきた。
Ten years, twenty years, thirty years later, the effects of the “black rain” began to appear with each passing year.
29. aikoは「花火」「カブトムシ」「ボーイフレンド」と大ヒットを記録した。
aiko had big hits with “Hanabi,” “Kabutomushi,” and “Boyfriend.”
In Exs. 28-29, there is meaning to be derived from the ordering of the enumerated “things” itself. in Ex. 28, the years are going by increments of decades, and the decades themselves are not capable of being shuffled around. In Ex. 29, the hits listed are presumed to have come out in that order. Shuffling them around, though, grammatically plausible, would change the meaning of the statement and imply the reversal of their release dates.
Of course, the “things” enumerated need not be limited to noun-predicates, but when they are verbal/adjectival, we often see them enumerated with the help of the conjunctive particle ～たり, resulting in the pattern, ～たり～たりと.
30a. 冷暖房の際は、冷気が室内の下に溜まったり、暖気が上の方だけに1、と無駄が多いものだ。
When heating and cooling, there is a lot of waste involved, as cold air accumulates at the bottom indoors and warm air only reaches the top.
Due to ～たり implying multiple scenarios linked together, the prerequisite that the “amount of information” within the overarching dependent clause marked by the quotative と and the predicate can be met without necessarily going through the effort of eliminating everything, and this can be viewed as the direct consequence of meshing these two means of enumeration together.
30b. 冷暖房の際は、冷気が室内の下に溜まったり｛∅ △・など 〇｝と、無駄が多いものだ。
Intended: When heating and cooling, there is a lot of waste involved, cold air accumulating at the bottom indoors, and what not.
In Ex. 30, と appearing after ～たり can be taken as a means of pausing the speaker from having to go into every little detail, but that whatever is mentioned, even with just one example mentioned but more directly involved via ～たり, enough has been said to make [冷気が室内の下に溜まったり] equal in amount to [無駄が多い]. We see, though, that it is actually more natural to qualify と with など to make it clear that both side’s worth of problems are, in fact, “innumerable.”
Let’s also briefly revisit Ex. 3 as an example of Type 3. Here, we see that no sooner than two examples are provided as to how “sign language” is the topic of discussion, those examples are actually immediately paraphrased via the phrase 何かと, which is an abbreviated form of the phrase 何やか2やと (and whatnot), making it clear that it is an example of the atypical quotative と. Why it is so important that this phrase is paraphrasing the situations enumerated beforehand is because the “information load” of the predicate—an indeterminate yet substantial amount—would exceed it, and with that indeterminate information load being inherent in the phrase 何やかやと, it reestablishes that balance. As such, it should come as no surprise that や is imbedded in this expression, for it is the go-to particle for creating indeterminate lists.
3. 超人気アーティストの曲に採用されたり、映画が注目されたりと、何かと話題の手話をイチから学ぼう。
Let’s learn sign language from scratch, which as become a hot topic, having been used in songs by hugely popular artists and featured in a movie.
Type 4: Enumerating Complements of the Predicate
At the start of this lesson, each of the first four first examples were meant to stand for one of the non-typical means in which the quotative と can be used, but in reality, Exs. 2-3 fall under the same sub-usage we just went over. This leaves a fourth type of sentences left uncovered, and it is the most specific and complicated usage seen yet.
Instead of enumerating “things” per se, the quotative と may also enumerate “complements” of the predicate. The complements of the predicate must first be all of the same type, and what と essentially allows is collapsing separate parallel thoughts into one statement, with と marking the end of the enumeration and standing for the case particle that can be clearly deduced from the listed complement. First, consider the following.
31. 全国ツアーは、北九州・札幌・広島・那覇・名古屋・大阪と公演！
The nationwide tour will include performances in Kitakyushu, Sapporo, Hiroshima, Naha, Nagoya, and Osaka!
Complement Type: [Location + で]
32. 十五、十六、十七と私の人生暗かった
At fifteen, sixteen, and seventeen, my life was dark.
Complement Type: [Age + のときに]
From 『圭子の夢は夜ひらく』by 藤圭子.
33. 町に、医者は一軒しかない。内科、外科、小児科と一人で引き受けている。
There is only one doctor in town, and (he) is responsible for internal medicine, surgery, and pediatrics, all by himself.
Complement Type: [Direct Object + を]
From 『魔女たちのたそがれ』by 赤川次郎.
34. 3月4月と中国に入出国しましたが、出国カードが置いてありましたよ。
I entered-left China in March and April, and there were disembarkation cards placed (there).
Complement Type: [Non-Deictic Time Phrase + に]
Essentially, this use of the quotative と takes the pattern “ax+bx+cx…nx,” in which x stands for the case marking in question and a stands for the noun forming the complement with it, and turns it into “(a+b+c…+n)x,” but instead of using the case marking (x), the x is replaced by と. With counter phrases, though, we see that given their adverbial nature, no case marking is necessarily being supplanted, but that the quotative と still functions the same.
35. やがて、ひとつふたつと凧が上がったかと思う間もなく、数え切れないほどの凧が風の中に翻った。
No sooner had I thought that, at last, one, two kites were beginning to fly up, countless kites were fluttering in the wind.
This use of the quotative と can also be used in conjunction with verbal/adjectival predicates via help from ～たり. In these instances, the situations enumerated by ～たり, quite unlike in Ex. 30, do not inherently imply other instances. Instead, the impression is that the quotative と is taking the place of the verb する, which would otherwise take its place, which itself is highly grammaticalized with little to no meaning. Each “complementary” verbal clause could be stated individually with no change in meaning and with nothing else implied.
36a. トラブルが発生しても、相手はソフトウェアなので、ネジが緩んだり、ヒューズが切れたりと目に見えるわけではないのだ。
Since we are dealing with software, even if problems arise, (the issues at hand) are not things that one can see—screws coming loose, fuses blowing, the sort.
Also, similarly to the previous usage of the quotative と, though plurality is not so inherent with ～たり in this application, giving one instance as an “example” and implying other instances is unnatural but certainly not unheard of. In this scenario, keeping a form of する in the position of the quotative と could make the sentence grammatically sound, as this is what it would be replacing.
36b. トラブルが発生しても、相手はソフトウェアなので、ネジが緩んだり{と △・して 〇｝目に見えるわけではないのだ。
Since we are dealing with software, even if problems arise, (the issues at hand) are not things that one can see—screws coming loose, the sort.
37. 好きな人と何回も出かけたり{と △・ して 〇｝いい感じです。
Going out with someone you like a bunch of times, and all, feels great.
Type 3 = Type 4?
Type 4 can be viewed as a derivate of Type 3, with the primary difference being that the predicates of Type 4 stand for multiple scenarios and thoughts tied up in one utterance, which is why the predicate itself does not necessarily indicate that multiple scenarios occur (though fully enumerating them with と is both obligatory and the whole point of the grammar pattern), whereas in Type 3 the predicate is one scenario with multiple “things” constituting it. To compare, consider the following:
38. ケーキ、お菓子とたくさん食べた一日になりました。（Type 3)
Today was a day full of eating cakes and sweets.
39. １時間、２時間、３時間と待ったが、誰ひとり自販機に買いに来る人はいなかった。(Type 3)
I waited for an hour, two hours, three hours, but not a single person came to buy anything from the vending machine.
As mentioned earlier, the “things” enumerated for “Type 3” need not be limited to nouns and verbal predicates with ～たり. In fact, the predicate types of Type 3 mirror those possible with Type 4, but it is the relationship between what is enumerated and the predicate that differs. In Ex. 38, “the consumption of food for the day” is the scenario being painted by the predicate, and the complements enumerated by the quotative と qualify that statement.
Likewise, in Ex. 39, the agent is waiting, and waiting, and waiting for someone to appear (the scenario painted by the predicate), but even after 1 hour, 2 hours, and even 3 hours, no one shows up (enumerated counter expressions propping up the predicate).
40. 金利が下がる傾向にあるため、純金を３キロ、５キロと買う人がいます。
(Type 4)
As interest rates are on the decline, some people are buying pure gold (at increments) of 3kg or 5kg.
41. 映像クオリティーが高すぎたり普通にストーリーが面白かったりといい感じだった。(Type 3 or 4?)
(The show) was fantastic, what with the film quality being so freaking high and the story being pretty interesting.
In Ex. 40, some people are buying pure gold in the amount of 3 kg, while some are buying it in the amount of 5 kg, and while the action 買う is the commonality that links these two scenarios together, they are still separate scenarios that could have been discussed separately.
As for Ex. 41, we see that the show’s “quality being high” and the “story itself being exciting” are aspects (= “things”) which give the agent (speaker) such a good いい感じ (good feeling) about the show, but the sentence could fall under Type 3 or Type 4 depending on your reasoning. If [映像クオリティーが高すぎたり] brings about a good vibe, and if [普通にストーリーが面白かったり] brings about a good vibe, and collectively, the quotative と sums those up to provide context for the predicate [いい感じ] coming about from those circumstances, then it would be Type 4. If, in the context of what aspects about a show provide good vibes, then it would be Type 3, implying a duplicity of factors that are inherent to being in the state of [いい感じ].
Disambiguating Atypical Quotative と from its Typical Counterpart
Mentioned way back in Lesson 74, we learned how sometimes, the citation verb can be omitted with instances of the “typical” quotative と. In that lesson, examples of this occurring were only shown for when the citation verb happens to be the predicate of the main clause. The reason for this is that this omission (ellipsis) can also occur mid-sentence:
42. 息子が会社へ行くと（言って）、出かけたきり、戻りません。
My son has not returned since leaving “to go to his work.”
In such cases, the instance of the typical quotative と and its citation verb (predicate) form one large dependent clause. The consequence is that such examples make the typical quotative と look like the “atypical” version of the quotative と. The difference is, however, that even with the citation verb omitted, its presence can always be identified, whereas with the “atypical” quotative と, no verb is being omitted, per se, even for the complex sentences seen with Type 3~Type 4.
43a. 口を開け閉めするときだけと限った動作で痛むわけではないそうです。
It sounds as though the pain is not limited to when (the patient) opens/closes their mouth.
In Ex. 43a, と is actually the typical quotative と, as 限る functions as a citation verb. It is also possible to insert いう into the sentence anyway, with no true change in meaning, resulting in:
43b. 口を開け閉めするときだけという限った動作で痛むわけではないそうです。
It sounds as though the pain is not limited to when (the patient) opens/closes their mouth.
[Counter Phrase]と～ない
As an offshoot of Type 2, the atypical quotative と may agree (呼応) with the negative to indicate that the gauged quantity marked by ～と shall never be attained.
44. 多分50年と続くことのない景観に、一期一会。
This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity seeing this landscape that will probably not even last another 50 years.
45. あんなに宣伝したのに、応募者は30人と集まらなかった。
Despite all that advertising, not even 30 applicants showed up.
46. もう二度とあんなところへ行かない。
I’m not going to go to a place like that ever again.
47. 命は二つとない。
Life is but once.
48. 生ものは3日ともたない。
Raw foods won’t last three days.
49. 一分と待てない。
I can’t wait even one minute.
50. 色んな治療を受けても1週間ともたない。
No matter what various treatment (I) receive, I won’t even last a week.
51. 時間は一秒とかからない。
Not even a second will go by.
52. この数学問題を解くのに5分とかからなかった。
It took no more than five minutes to solve this math problem.
52. 同じものは二つとない。
There is never two of the same thing.
53. 雲一つとない青空を見上げた。
I looked up at the blue sky, not a single cloud to be seen.
54. こんな機会はまたとない。
Such an opportunity won’t come again.
55. 大失敗は二度と繰り返しません。
Great failure doesn’t repeat twice.
While this usage of the quotative と may seem similar to the particle も, と emphasizes intolerance toward the amount being any greater than stated, which is not a nuance had with も.
55. 一時間も待った。
I waited at least one hour.
56 もう一分と待たない。
I won’t even wait a minute.
57. 税金を一円と払わない！
I won’t pay even a yen in taxes!
58. 税金を10万円も払えない。
I can’t even pay ¥100,000 in taxes.
59a. 誰ひとりと知らない。
59b. 誰ひとりも知らない。
59a. Not a single person knows.
59b. No one knows.
参照
引用の助詞「と」の用法を再整理する by 山崎誠 (1993)
- In Ex. 30a, the verb of the dependent clause [暖気が上の方だけに] is ellipsed, so it does not break the overall pattern ～たり～たりと. The reason for why it is ellipsed is because it is the same as the previous dependent clause, 溜まる, and since Type 3 instances of the atypical quotative と condenses the overall sentence structure at the syntactic level, such ellipses are inherently common. ↩︎
- Abbreviated or not, the か in this expression is not the particle か. Instead, it is the pronoun か, which is directly related to the pronoun かれ. ↩︎