Re: [Lingo] 悪党ども、海賊ども

[steven smith <sjs@example.com>]

Birkir A. Barkarson wrote:
> Josh Glover wrote:
>> The way this tends to work in Japanese (except for highly technical
>> writing) is that you try--for aesthetic reasons--to keep kana and
>> kanji pretty balanced. So if the context is kanji-dominated, you would
>> go with the kana version of とも・ども, and vice versa.
>>
>> Same deal with things like ください 対 下さい
> 
> So far it has been my impression that the kana vs kanji problem has more
> to do with your position than aesthetics.  Using kanji for words that
> are often written in kana can be construed as you wanting to imply you
> are more educated or of an otherwise higher social standing than the
> person you are addressing. As in "I know that the kanji for this phrases
> is this, don't you?". Like using 何処 for どこ、can go from being overly
> formal to just being a smart-ass.  Both of which might be appropriate
> depending on context.
> Looking at the ください vs 下さい it should be clear that ください might
> be a request while 下さい would be closer to being a command (again, how
> close would depend on context). While aesthetics can certainly play a
> part in the kanji vs kana choice one would probably be better served
> being aware of other factors as well. :)
> 
> BAB
> 
I know part of it is aesthetics, part of it is the feeling
of the message and there is a bit of the smart-ass in it.
My instructor mentioned long ago that getting a letter from
a friend who said 有難う　example.com of ありがとう was not a
good thing, but in business correspondence, the kanji is
normal.  But even my instructor can't explain when to use
each.  Such an interesting language -- everything depends on
context.  Just hearing all the possibilities actually helps.

It seems like in wwwjdict, many are marked as uk (usually
kana) but in my Canon Word Tank, you have to guess based on
the example sentences -- unless I'm missing something.  In
the case of these two words -- they don't even show in the
dictionary at all, although there are lots of …共 words.

Thanks everybody.

Steve S.