Quote:
Originally Posted by MMM
Japanese don't see loan words as non-Japanese as much as new ways to say new things. Naturally the words adopted become "Japanese" and therefore don't always have the same meaning as their English (or other language) roots. There is no correcting, them, as they aren't wrong. Revenge might mean one thing in English, but リベンジ might be something else in Japanese.
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That makes some sense when you consider that the subtle differences (connotative meanings) are often direct results of the culture using the words. "Revenge" is a good example of this. When one regards a competition as a friendly exercise and of nto much significance, "revenge" is far too strong a term for winning against an opponent who won last time. But when the competition is one of great pride, to get revenge on an opponent who defeated you in the past is entirely accurate. Notice the correlated difference between '"won" and "defeated" as well.
When foreign terms are brought into use and you are not certain of the connotation they carry in the new syntax, I find it is best to turn to objective definitions first before common usage.