THE POSTPOSITION.
Uso
JLie
da
it
to
that
'ia 1 ^ 1 '} He Sa > TS that {t is a lie<
Hontd da -to omoimasu.
Truth is that think.
think
it is true>
A : . B. Originally therefore the sense was : " It is a lie. He says that." " It is truth. I think that." The conversion of the demon- strative pronoun 'into the conjunction came about gradually in the case of to, as in the case of its English equivalent " that."
In the above, and in most similar phrases, English idiom generally prefers to omit the word " that ; " but to can never be omitted in Japanese. The following are instances of to meaning literally "that," but being not capable of expression in idiomatic English :
Otnae sau no na wa,
t'on .T/*-. '* name as- for,
nan to hi ka ? (S aidto a com-
mon person.)
what that say ?
" Tokyo Maru " to mosu
- ' Tokyo JMaru " that gay
fune.
What is your name ? more lit. As for the name of Mr. you, what do people say that it is ?
A vessel called the " Tokyo Maru," more lit. A vessel of which people say that it is the " Tokyo Maru" (Compare p. 50).
Similarly in such onomatopoetic adverbs as hatto, kitto, patatto, etc., where the to (strengthened into tto) is, pro- perly speaking, a separate word, thus :
HaHto" 1 omoimashtta*. I started, more lit. I
thought 3 that 2 it is ha* !
Nochi-hodo 1 kitto* main- I will certainly 2 come 3
later-on 1 .
PataHto* ochimashita It fell 3 flop 1 .
