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確かに妻が「ついていてほしい」と言った看護婦さんは、仕事の仕方が他の人とは[一味]{ひとあじ}違っていることに気がついた。

I'm a bit confused about は and が in this sentence and I can't guess which one is the subject or object.

  1. I tried parsing the sentence like this:
    妻が/////「ついていてほしい」と言った看護婦さんは

妻 が is the subject

「ついていてほしい」と言った看護婦さんは -> it's like the person who said 「ついていてほしい」 is 看護婦(？)(？)

Or:

  1. 妻が「ついていてほしい」と言った/////看護婦さんは
    妻が「ついていてほしい」と言った adverbially modifies 看護婦

A nurse that my wife wants to take care of her.

Which one is correct?

Eddie Kal
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Devina Muljono
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  • It's 2. 妻が「ついていてほしい」と言った modify 看護婦. It means a nurse that my wife want her to take care of someone. – Yuuichi Tam Sep 10 '16 at 14:09

1 Answers1

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確かに???に気がついた。
Admittedly, I noticed ???.

Someone may say this 確かに modifies 違っている, but I think it's easier to think this 確かに as a sentence adverb. The main topic of the whole sentence is 私 (i.e., 妻's husband), which is omitted. ??? is a fairly long noun sentence, where 看護師 is the topic.

確かに[看護師さんは仕事の仕方が違っていること]に気がついた。
Admittedly, I noticed [that the nurse was different in her way of working].

"AはBが違う" literally means "As for A, B is different" or more naturally, "A is different in B".

確かに[看護師さんは仕事の仕方が他の人とは一味違っていること]に気がついた。
Admittedly, I noticed [that the nurse was somewhat different from others in her way of working].

は in 他の人とは is contrastive (and thus optional). 一味 is a nuanced word meaning "small but significant", "somehow", etc.

確かに妻が「ついていてほしい」と言った看護婦さんは、仕事の仕方が他の人とは一味違っていることに気がついた。
Admittedly, I noticed that the nurse whom my wife wanted to look after [me/you/our son/etc] was somewhat different from others in her way of working.

妻が「ついていてほしい」と言った adjectivally (not adverbially) modifies 看護師 as a relative clause. (lit. "the nurse about which my wife said 'I want her to be with [you/me/our son/etc]' ")

So-called thematic は can appear in a noun clause like this (e.g, 彼は学生だと思う = I think he is a student), but not in a relative clause which modifies another noun (e.g. [×]彼は食べたケーキ [○]彼が食べたケーキ). That's why が is used after 妻 and は is used after 看護師.

naruto
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  • So the subject in this sentence is 看護婦？ but how do you know that 看護婦 is the subject and 妻 adjectivally modifies 看護婦 is it because と言ったーた(？) and "whom my wife wanted to be with me"(me refer to 私->主人？) its not "whom my wife want to be with"? – Devina Muljono Sep 11 '16 at 01:49
  • @Devina Muljono The subject in this sentence is 私, the hidden topic. ..違っていることに、（私は）気がついた。 – marasai Sep 11 '16 at 01:54
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    Admittedly , I(主人) noticed that the nurse whom my wife wanted to be with me(主人) or me(妻)？ was somewhat different from others in her way of working. – Devina Muljono Sep 11 '16 at 01:59
  • @DevinaMuljono See the edit in my answer as to why I thought 妻 is not the topic of the sentence. I assumed the context where the ill person is the husband himself (=the speaker of the sentence in question), but it can be anyone who is ill in this context ("with our daughter", "with our boss", ...) – naruto Sep 11 '16 at 02:21