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  3. Cinema, Film, TV, Drama

文法的にはめちゃめちゃだし

English translation: It didn't follow the grammar at all

11:21 Dec 1, 2019
Japanese to English translations [PRO]
Art/Literary - Cinema, Film, TV, Drama
Japanese term or phrase: 文法的にはめちゃめちゃだし
Dear ProZ members,

I'm translating a monologue explaining the evolution from pidgins to creole languages. The speaker says that when slavery was legal people from various African places had to work together without understanding what the others were saying. Then they started acquiring a broken version of the language spoken by their masters. And then this sentence arrives:

文法的にはめちゃめちゃだし文学的技巧など持ちようもなかった
(Grammatically they were a mess, and they could have no literary technique.)

I was wondering: is the subject of this sentence the broken version of the language or the slaves themselves?
I'd say the slaves, given that a "literary technique" is something possessed by an individual, not a language. And yet めちゃめちゃ sounds more natural to me if referred to a thing, and not to people.

Any hints?

Thank you very much!
Riccardo91
Italy
English translation:It didn't follow the grammar at all
Explanation:
The subject is the creole for 文法的にはめちゃめちゃだし. It didn't follow the grammar of the original language from which the creole evolved, and there was no way the language allowed people to use rhetorical techniques.
Selected response from:

Port City
New Zealand
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3 KudoZ points were awarded for this answer



Summary of answers provided
3It didn't follow the grammar at all
Port City


  

Answers


22 hrs   confidence: Answerer confidence 3/5Answerer confidence 3/5
It didn't follow the grammar at all


Explanation:
The subject is the creole for 文法的にはめちゃめちゃだし. It didn't follow the grammar of the original language from which the creole evolved, and there was no way the language allowed people to use rhetorical techniques.

Port City
New Zealand
Native speaker of: Native in JapaneseJapanese
PRO pts in category: 6
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