Re: rhetorical form [was: Re: [Lingo] you have got to be kidding]

["Josh Glover" <jmglov@example.com>]

On 26/06/07, Mattia Dongili <malattia@example.com> wrote:

> On Tue, Jun 26, 2007 at 01:37:59PM +0900, Josh Glover wrote:
>
> > 'cept you cannot use 「ようです」 here.
>
> /me kindly asks why

「冗談のようです」 means "seems like it is a joke", and it is just not
frequently used in conjunction with 冗談.

Maybe if someone says 「この俺様は外人が大嫌いだぞ！」 in a drunken fit, you could
later ask your mate, 「あれは本当のことだった？」 and maybe get 「いや、冗談のようだった」 as a
response. But chances are your mate would just say, 「いや、冗談だったかも。。」

But in this context, it feels fairly artificial.

> why not -ね?
> It give me the impression that the -ね form implies a "right?/aren't
> you?" that gives the idea of the answer I expect.

「ね」 is described this way in introductory grammar textbooks, but it is
not that strong. Really, it is used to request agreement from your
conversation partner, but you would not ever use it to ask a *real*
question.

e.g. this is a common use of 「ね」:

マッチヤ：今日はいい天気ですね。
太郎：ですよね。

But if you were really asking for an answer to "aren't you? / isn't
it?", you need to use a stronger question particle:

マッチヤ：今日はいい天気ですか。
太郎：ま、天気予報によると、雨が降るかもしれません。

--
Cheers,
Josh