英語検定ライティング準１級（第145回）

文語体「主語を無生物に変える時の話」

英文を書く際に無生物主語を使うと英語らしくなる。だが文語体の硬い表現になるので、エッセイを書くのには適さない。自分の主張を強く押し付けたい場合は最適なのかもしれない。
When we write a sentence in English, we could eliminate something Japanese with an inanimate subject.
But this technique makes our sentences a little solid, so it isn’t proper when we write an essay or poem.
In contrast, it might be appropriate or effective when we want to impose our intensive arguments on others.

会話に使われることはほぼない。どうして彼は心変わりをしたのだろう。この主語を彼から無生物に変換するとこうなる。何が彼の心を変えたのか。これは会話では使いにくいはずだ。
An inanimate subject is unlikely to be utilized in our conversation because it isn’t casual.
Why did he changed his mind ?
I want to convert “he” into something inanimate.
What made him change his mind ?
The latter expression could be extremely difficult to use in our conversation, we assume.

午前中に初めて誰かにコメントを書いてみた。もちろん英語で。短い詩を書いていた人がいたので、ちょっと試しに。文体が詩なので、無生物主語は使わなかったように記憶している。
It was the first time for me to write a comment to other’s contents in the morning, which was written in English.
I happened to find a short essay written by one of my followers, so it was a little trial.
Its writing style was a kind of poem, so I didn’t use an inanimate subject, probably.
If someone likes my comment in English, I would do the same in my free time.

長い日本語の文章を英訳するのは時間的にも精神的にも負担がかかる。短時間で書けそうなものがあれば、空き時間に書いてみてもいいかも。最終的には連続小説もやってみたいかな。
It is burdensome and troublesome for me to translate a long sentence in Japanese into English in the mental or temporal viewpoint.
When I can afford to write such a comment, I’m willing to do so in my free time, and finally I want to translate a long novel series into English someday.

無生物主語を使うメリットは文体が固くて格好いいところだろう。彼はくたくたで何もできなかった。彼を主語にしない場合はこうなるのかな。彼の疲労は彼が何かをするのを邪魔した。
There are a few advantages when we write a sentence with an inanimate subject : we can change a little soft sentence into a cool and short one.
This is an easy example.
He did nothing because he was so tired.
We might stop using “he” as a subject.
His fatigue prevented him from doing something.
The latter is a little long, we apologize.