A Lesson on Starting and Ending Points/Limits/Range (起点・終点・限界・範囲) for 中・上級 Students

KyleGoetz · (#1 (**permalink**))

Edited to make corrections suggested by masaegu. Thanks!

Once again, from the same book and translated by me.

２級〜をはじめ
〜からして
〜から〜にかけて
〜にわたって
〜を通じて／通して
〜だけ
〜かぎり
１級〜を皮切りに
〜に至るまで
〜を限りに
〜をもって
〜というところだ

===〜をはじめ（として）・〜をはじめとする===
When you want to show a representative of a group.

Examples:
ご両親をはじめ、家族の皆さんによろしくお伝えください。
Beginning with your parents, please tell everyone in your family hello for me.

わたしは日本に来てから、保証人をはじめ多くの方のお世話になって暮らしています。
Since I came to Japan, everyone starting with my sponsors onward have taken good care of me.

東京の霞が関には国会議事堂をはじめとして国のいろいろな機関が集まっている。
In Tokyo's Kasumigaseki, myriad agencies starting with the Diet Building are clustered.

===〜からして===
Shows a representative of a group, but limited to negative situations.

Examples:
わたしはあの人があまり好きではない。下品な話し方からして気に入らない。
I do not really like that person. Starting with his base speaking style, I do not like him.

この店の雰囲気は好きになれない。まず、流れている音楽からして私の好みではない。
I do not like this store's atmosphere. For one thing, I do not like the music flowing through the place.

===〜から〜にかけて===
Between ~ and ~, and used for continuous change.

Examples:
このスタイルは１９７０年代から１９８０年代にかけて流行したものだ。
Ths style that which was popular from the 70s to the 80s.

朝、７時半から８時にかけて、チンさんが訪ねて来ました。
In the morning between 7:30 and 8, Mr. Chin came to visit.

Note: Use this with continuous things that stretch from start to finish. For example, you CANNOT use it for:
ア駅からイ駅にかけて、わたしのアパートがあります。
Instead, you should use it with
ア駅からイ駅にかけて、たくさんアパートが並んでいます。

===〜にわたって／〜にわたる===
Used when talking about something related to the entire scope of ~.

Examples:
今度の台風は日本全域にわった被害を及ぼした。
The recent typhoon caused damage all around Japan.

理事会の決定については、すべての学部にわたって学生の不満が広まった。
According to the conclusion of the board of directors, student dissatisfaction has spread to all the academic departments.

===〜を通じて／通して===
"Throughout ~"
NOTE: The difference between 通じて and 通して: 〜通して is often used with positive, willful phrases.

Examples
人類の歴史を通じて、地球のどこかで常に戦争が行われていた。
Throughout human history, a war was always happening somewhere.

この地方は一年を通じてほとんど同じような天候です。
Throughout the year, the weather in this region is the same.

一年を通して彼は無遅刻、無欠席でがんばり、皆勤賞をもらった。
Through hard work, he had perfect attendance and no tardiness the entire year, and he received the perfect attendance award.

===〜だけ===
"Everything within the scope of ~"

Examples:
わかっているだけのことはもう全部話しました。
I have already talked about everything I understand.

「ここにあるお菓子をどうぞ好きなだけお取りください。」
Please take all the candy here you'd like.

「あしたはできるだけ早く来てください。」
Please come as early as you can tomorrow.

===〜かぎり===
"To the limit of ~"
Feel free to use this one in everyday conversations, too.

Examples:
戦後このあたりは見渡すかぎり焼け野原だった。
After the battle, this area was scorched fields everywhere the eye could see.

さあ、いよいよあしたは入学試験だ。力のかぎりがんばってみよう。
Well, finally tomorrow is the entrance exam. Try to use all the power within you.

===〜を皮切りに（して）・〜を皮切りとして===
"Starting from ~"

そのバンドは東京公演を皮切りに、各地で公演をすることになっている。
It has been decided that band will start out performing publicly in Tokyo, and then do so other places.

彼の発言を皮切りにして、大勢の人が次々に意見を言った。
Beginning with his remarks, many people subsequently voiced their opinion.

===〜に至るまで===
"up to ~"
Used when you want to say some range stretches all the way up to some upper limit. It emphasizes this limit.

Examples:
警察の調べは厳しかった。現在の給料から過去の借金の額に至るまで調べられた。
The police investigation was severe. They investigated everything from his current salary to his past loan amounts.

身近なごみ問題から国際経済の問題に至るまで、面接試験の質問内容は実にいろいろだった。
The contents of the interview examination questions were myriad, ranging from the familiar problem of trash to problems about the international economy.

===〜を限りに===
Indicates that ~ has up to now continued, but will cease to continue starting now.

Examples:
今日を限りに禁煙することにしました。
I've decided to quit smoking starting today.

今回の取引を限りに、今後Ａ社とはいっさい取引しない。
Starting with this next business dealing, I will no longer deal with Company A.

===〜をもって===
Similar in meaning to 〜を限りに, but used in ceremonial/formal sentences.

Examples:
「これをもちまして第十回卒業式を終了いたします。」
This concludes the 10th Graduation Ceremony.

今回をもって粗大ごみの無料回収は終わりにさせていただきます。
Free pickup for large garbage items is discontinued starting now.

===〜というところだ===
"~ at the most"
Since it is similar to せいぜい〜だ、最高でも〜だ、〜以上ではない, the gist is that you do not think ~ is a very large number.

このクラスの毎回のテストの平均点は７５点といったところだろうか。
The average score on the test in this clss is probably 75 at the most.

「毎日の睡眠時間？そうですねえ、６時間といったところです。」
"How much sleep I get a day? Let's see, six hours at the most."

masaegu · (#2 (**permalink**))

Quote:

Originally Posted by KyleGoetz

Note: Use this with continuous things that stretch from start to finish. For example, you CANNOT use it for:
ア駅からイ駅までにかけて、わたしのアパートがあります。
Instead, you should use it with
ア駅からイ駅までにかけて、たくさんアパートが並んでいます。

The word まで cannot be placed in there.

Quote:

この地方は一年を通じてほとんど同じような天候です。
Throughout the year, the weather in this region has been the same.

"Is", not "has been".

Had there been another この placed in front of the 一年, your TL would have been perfect.

Excellent lesson series by you BTW. I almost wish I were a Japanese-learner!

KyleGoetz · (#3 (**permalink**))

Quote:

Originally Posted by masaegu

The word まで cannot be placed in there.

You're right. The book does not have まで there in their sample sentence. I think maybe, out of habit, I typed 〜から〜まで without thinking, and then added on the にかけて for whatever reason. Thank you for your catch, and I will edit my original post to reflect your correction.

Quote:

"Is", not "has been".

Had there been another この placed in front of the 一年, your TL would have been perfect.

Thank you for the correct. I'm glad that my translations are good. The past year I've been pretty open on here about my efforts to study more kanji, and that's really all I have done this past year. The fact that reading this type of book is getting easier and easier for me reflects what I've been saying: American schools need to emphasize more kanji, because the slow pace of kanji acquisition really is a huge hindrance to progressing from mid- to advanced-level Japanese.

Quote:

Excellent lesson series by you BTW. I almost wish I were a Japanese-learner!

Thank you. There's a total of 30 lessons and I've only posted the first three (I split one of them up into two posts, though, due to length and a moderate change in topic).

I only wish there were more of these books. I've looked around, but the only ones I have found by ALC are either for simpler Japanese (and thus not for me) or are multi-lingual but cover the same material I'm covering now—so, again, not for me).

But I really am getting to the point where there's not much more for me to study grammar-wise. It's just vocab, kanji, and reading to pick up on the nuances that you can't formally teach.

This book may, sadly, be the last time I can formally study Japanese grammar.

The nice thing is that I have the best Spanish grammar book in the English language sitting on my bookshelf, a wife from Venezuela, and piss poor Spanish in my head!

jesselt · (#4 (**permalink**))

Kyle, I would love to look at all of these when I have more time during the summer - could you perhaps link all the threads together when you are finished, so I could find them all easily?

KyleGoetz · (#5 (**permalink**))

Quote:

Originally Posted by jesselt

Kyle, I would love to look at all of these when I have more time during the summer - could you perhaps link all the threads together when you are finished, so I could find them all easily?

I was thinking about this.