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I hear the sentence from the song『星のかがやきよ ZARD』

君だけは変わらないでいて欲しい

I think there are 2 ways to interpret it:

  1. I only want you to remain unchanged. (The person whom I want to remain unchanged is only you.)
  2. I want that only you remain unchanged. (I want that the person who remain unchanged is only you).

There is slight difference between them. In 1, "only" is associated with "want", which indicates: maybe other people will change, but I don't care.
However, in 2, "only" is associated with to "remain unchanged", which indicates: I want you remain unchanged and I want others to change.

That's to say, whether だけ in the sentence is associated with 欲しい or 変わらない will lead to different interpretations.

Considering the context, I think the first interpretion is correct. But does the second also make sence if we only consider the meaning of the single sentence?

shepherd
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  • I can't explain the logic, but 君だけが変わらないでいてほしい can mean #2, while the original one cannot. – rk03 Oct 06 '23 at 16:42
  • @rk03 Maybe が will make だけ to associate with 変わらない which is closer, while は makes it to associate with the farther 欲しい？ – shepherd Oct 07 '23 at 03:50
  • @shepherd が doesn't affect だけ. だけ is bound to 君. が works on the noun phrase 君だけ. – A.Ellett Oct 07 '23 at 03:56
  • @A.Ellett Yes, but the association I said is just the difference to understand the sentence: 君だけが(変わらないでいて欲しい) or (君だけが変わらないでいて)欲しい – shepherd Oct 07 '23 at 04:02
  • 君はほしい sounds weird if you mean "you want".　君がほしい means "I want you". In this sentence 君 is only the subject of the verb 変わらない – A.Ellett Oct 07 '23 at 04:04
  • When I say 君だけは associates with 欲しい, I am not saying "you want", but the person I want is only you, and I want the person what? to remain unchanged. When I say 君だけが associates with 変わらない, I mean "the thing I want is 「君だけが変わらない」". The difference between them is just what I said in the question. – shepherd Oct 07 '23 at 04:28
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    @shepherd Considering 君だけが変わらないでいる and 君だけは変わらないでいる mean basically same thing (both implying "all others have changed"), your model seems reasonable. (君だけが変わらないでいる)+ほしい 君だけは(変わらないでいる+ほしい). And as an answer to your original question, the sentence you presented is employed only to express #1 in any context as far as I can imagine. – rk03 Oct 07 '23 at 04:38

1 Answers1

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This can't be #2. The sentence isn't constructed correctly for that. #2 would have to be rendered along the lines of (if sticking with the current word choice)

変わらない君がほしい

And it seems to me that 君がほしい sounds overly sexual.

ほしい expresses a desire, not a wish. If you would want to express a wish you need to use ねがいor のぞみ. Neither of those ideas are in the provided sentence.

I'm not sure about your sentence #1. The subject of the sentence is "I". We know that because of the form of ほしい. The structure of てほしい expresses the speaker's desire that someone do something for them.

So, I would suggest rendering this sentence as

I want you alone to [remain] unchanged.

"remain" here is my attempt to capture what's happening with 変わらないでいる. But no where in this sentence is the idea of "never" expressed (though certainly suggested).

A.Ellett
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  • Thanks! I have edited my question using your suggestion. So you are saying: だけ in the original sentence is associated with 欲しい but not 変わらない, right? – shepherd Oct 07 '23 at 03:46
  • だけ isn't associated with either 欲しい or 変わらない. だけ is associated with 君. The question is then who wants? And, who doesn't change? I want. You don't change. In fact, ONLY YOU don't change. That you don't change is what I want. – A.Ellett Oct 07 '23 at 03:53
  • Sorry, I think you didn't get my points. the single sentence "only you don't change" indicates "other people will change", so if you say "That only you don't change is what I want", it means #2 in my question, which indicates "I want other people to change". – shepherd Oct 07 '23 at 03:58
  • @shepherd Nothing is being said about other people. Other people may or may not change. It's not saying anything about what I want concerning others. It's just addressing what I want concerning you. – A.Ellett Oct 07 '23 at 04:01
  • I think it's possible you're attempting to read too much into these lyrics. There just saying "I want only you not to change." How you interpret that and what that says about others is not directly addressed in this one sentence. – A.Ellett Oct 07 '23 at 04:02
  • Ok, If I say "I want that only you will get the money", doesn't it indicate "I don't want other people to get the money"? – shepherd Oct 07 '23 at 04:09
  • Actually, "only you remain unchanged" indicates "other people don't remain unchanged", right? But If I add the "I want", does it still indicate about other people? That's what I want to ask. – shepherd Oct 07 '23 at 04:13
  • @shepherd It says nothing about other people. It just says 'at least you won't change'. I feel you can't really use 'only' to translate the sentence. – sundowner Oct 08 '23 at 03:53
  • @sundowner Thanks! But what if the sentence is "君だけは変わらないている"? Doesn't it imply about other people? – shepherd Oct 08 '23 at 04:17
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    A most natural interpretation of the phrase in question is Other ones may or may not change, but I want at least you to remain unchanged. In terms of the speaker's wishing, it says nothing about other ones. – sundowner Oct 08 '23 at 09:03
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    As for 君だけは変わらないでいる, it is the same. It is rather 君だけが変わらないでいる that means Everything else changed but you remain the same. That should be understandable (mostly) from は and が difference What's the difference between wa (は) and ga (が)?%e3%81%af-and-ga-%e3%81%8c?noredirect=1&lq=1 – sundowner Oct 08 '23 at 09:05