「『NだのNだの』の意味」
The Meaning of "N dano N dano"
The purpose of this paper is to analyze the meaning of "N dano N dano".
This dano has been said to list two or more items (nouns) as inexhaustive examples. But sometimes the sentences that use this dano sound semantically unnatural even when they are grammatically correct. Although one of the studies points out that dano add some "negative" nuance to the sentence, this analysis is not sufficient to explain why in some instances an unnaturalness results.
To solve this problem, I describe the meaning of dano as follows:
(1) Dano lists two or more items (nouns) as examples in an inexhaustive way.
(2) Those items are not so valuable or realistic as the good examples.
This analysis is consistent with the following observation.
(3) Watashi wa ima gakko de nihongo dano sugaku dano benkyo shite imasu.
(I'm studying Japaneses, mathematics and others at school now.)
(3) sounds unnatural unless the speaker thinks that Japanese and mathematics are not such valuable or realistic examples as the subjects which the speaker is in fact now studying. (4) below is more natural if the speaker does not wish to evoke this evaluative attitude towards their examples.
(4) Watashi wa ima gakko de nihongo ya sugaku nado o benkyo shite imasu.