Page 50 - Makino,Tsutusi.DictionaryOfIntermediateJGrammar

SPECIAL TOPICS IN INTERMEDIATE JAPANESE GRAMMAR
When the speaker wants to get back to the former topic, he can signal his
desire to recover the old topic. Some of the standard ways to signal it are as
follows:
(17) a. 5 7 3 X 7 7%- 7:Cf FS [highly informal]
(A while ago I/ you said X, but)
b. S9$OSTT7F/ 593OXO~&T-$7F
(Let me get back to the topic 1 X that we were talking about a
while ago.)
7:
C. El2 t.$kEif Z t Tt7F [very formal, polite]
BE rOkTTlf P [formal, polite]
(Regarding what I told you a while ago)

E. Avoidance of Decisive Expressions
To a far greater degree Japanese language uses indecisive expressions espe-
cially when the speakerlwriter expresses his own opinions. The strategy that
Japanese native speakers use to make their statements less forceful and more
humble is the use of an indirect expression at the end of the sentence. Suppose
that the speakerlwriter wants to state "Japanese people avoid using decisive
expressions," he could say or write very straightforwardly as in (18) or indi-
rectly as in (19) and (20).
(18) ~$~li@rg&if& (L)~
(Japanese avoid using decisive expressions.)

(19) a. El$AlkAZBBlf &a) {Tdi / Ce) h rl3-@A&,
(Isn't it the case that Japanese avoid using decisive expressions?)
b. H$Alil$fZB%$lf&O {Tdi/C?I GLlTLdrjjS-.,
(I wonder if Japanese wouldn't avoid using decisive expres-
sions.)
/
C. El$AcrtFfiZB;@cf &O I~l.3 Eel ablt:s 5 a,
(I wonder if Japanese wouldn't avoid using decisive expres-
sions.)
d. El$AliBifZQBGf &O {TI& / Ce) 8756 5 a,
(I wonder if Japanese wouldn't avoid using decisive expres-
WI