Parsing

English translation: Or/And

06:00 Mar 28, 2008

Japanese to English translations [PRO]
Science - Biology (-tech,-chem,micro-) / germination/imbibition

Japanese term or phrase: Parsing

In the following sentence, what does や　signify?
Are both the terms before and after や　affected by the 吸水30分後の?
In other words, are there any hard and fast rules about
や
と
・
、
?

すなわち，吸水30分後の吸水率**や**種子から漏出されるタンパク質の漏出度が無処理区に比べ1/2に抑えられた。

Thanks in advance.

CalumR KudoZ activity Questions: 59 (none open) Answers: 132 Japan
Local time: 12:59

English translation:Or/And

Explanation:
I think when we learn Japanese with the medium of English we translate and into と and vise versa. But it is seen in practical Japanese that や is often used in the sense of and. Of course we learn that や　refers to or but you can as well see that depending on the context it could mean or or and. Or/and. It is true that と　is never used in the sense of or. I mean either or.
Any usefullness in it!

Selected response from:

bishan sharma
Local time: 09:29

Grading comment

This basically confirms what I suspected - that you have to rely on the context. Oh dear. Thanks for your answer!
4 KudoZ points were awarded for this answer

Summary of answers provided

3 +2

Or/And

bishan sharma

3 +1

すなわち，吸水30分後の([吸水率]や[種子から漏出されるタンパク質の漏出度])が無処理区に比べ1/2に抑えられた。

dosanko

Discussion entries: 7

Answers

3 hrs confidence:

peer agreement (net): +2

Or/And

bishan sharma
Local time: 09:29
Native speaker of:

Japanese,

English
PRO pts in category: 4

Grading comment

This basically confirms what I suspected - that you have to rely on the context. Oh dear. Thanks for your answer!

4 hrs confidence:

peer agreement (net): +1

すなわち，吸水30分後の([吸水率]や[種子から漏出されるタンパク質の漏出度])が無処理区に比べ1/2に抑えられた。

Explanation:
I would parse like this based on the context.

すなわち，吸水30分後の([吸水率]や[種子から漏出されるタンパク質の漏出度])が無処理区に比べ1/2に抑えられた。

It sounds like some sort of treatment has been applied to the sample, which caused factors such as the absorption rate and protein leakage to change. I would assume that they check these factors 30 minutes after the test and compare to the original factors. So it makes sense that they are comparing all of the factors at the same point in time (30 minutes) to the unprocessed sample.

But, as Cathy T suggests, I think the phrase is ambiguous as to whether the time statement applies to only the immediately following phrase, or to the entire list. So the only way to be sure is from context (or if you have the luxury of asking the writer...)

Good question about ・ and 、 in this type of structure. In some cases these can be used to forcibly specify the scope of modifying phrases. However I couldn't think of a natural sounding way to implement them here.

In this case, I would say that the conjunctive や also implies that there are similar factors which are not written.

dosanko
Japan
Local time: 12:59
Native speaker of:

English

Notes to answerer

Asker: This basically confirms what I suspected - that you have to rely on the context. Oh dear. Thanks for your answer, and for the additional point about the similar factors when using や.

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