【英語論文の書き方】第45回　Think, propose, suggest, consider, believeの使い分け 論文翻訳・英文校正　研究者専門の翻訳会社　ワールド翻訳サービス

第44回は
(1) Reported about?  Approach to?　の前置詞は必要か？
(2) “Recently”を使うときの時制
(3)数を単語で書くか、あるいは数字で書くか。
Perの使い方
について取り上げました。

第45回の今回は
(1) Think, propose, suggest, consider, believe: How confident are you?　
確信が持てないことについて述べる時に使う単語ですが、一般的によくつかわれていても論文には向いていない表現があります。
また、確信の度合いによっても使い分ける必要があります。
 
(2) Romanizing long vowels when writing Japanese names, etc. in English
「オウ」や「オオ」などの、伸びる母音を英語で表現するときは？
 
(3) Don’t forget to include people’s given names in the Acknowledgments.
うっかり忘れがちですが、気をつけなければいけませんね。

*この記事は1月に書かれたものです。

Happy New Year! I hope you had an enjoyable shōgatsu with some time to relax with family and friends. In this issue, first we review the nuances of various expressions that can be used when making a statement about something that is not yet a proven scientific fact. We then examine how certain Japanese words and names can be romanized (written in Roman characters; in other words, using the English alphabet), and conclude with a brief remark about names mentioned in the Acknowledgments section.
 
(1) Think, propose, suggest, consider, believe: How confident are you?
 
When making a statement that you are not fully confident about, avoid the expression “we think,” which is generally considered to be too informal for scientific contexts. However, you can use “it is thought that” when making a statement about something that is generally accepted to be scientifically true; for example, “It is thought that the coast was formed by a seismic event in the distant past, although no evidence has yet been found to support this.”
 
Next, let’s look at the words propose and suggest. Propose is most commonly used with the word we (e.g., “We propose that. . . .”). On the other hand, although it is possible to write “We suggest that” in a scientific paper, suggest is more likely to be used with a different expression; for example, “These results suggest that. . . .” or “This suggests that. . . .” Statements using the word propose generally have a slightly more confident nuance than statements using suggest. To summarize:
More confident: “From these results, we propose that the differences in X depend on Y.”
Slightly less confident: “These results suggest that the differences in X depend on Y.”
 
Let’s now turn our attention to the expressions “we consider” and “we believe.” The word consider has quite a confident nuance, roughly equivalent to that of propose, whereas believe has a slightly less confident nuance, roughly equivalent to that of suggest. If you are even less confident about a particular statement, you could also add a word such as may or might. The examples below are presented in descending order of confidence.
More confident: “We consider that the differences in X depend on Y.”
Less confident: “We believe that the differences in X depend on Y.”
Least confident: “We believe that the differences in X may/might depend on Y.” (Note that might has a slightly less confident nuance than may.) 

The so-called long vowels in Japanese are formed in various ways. Looking at おう and おお in particular, we don’t usually directly romanize these vowels as “ou” and “oo,” respectively, when writing in English. The reason is that in some cases, when people who are unfamiliar with the Japanese language see such romanization, they pronounce the words completely differently to the correct pronunciation. For example, ou is pronounced as アオ in English in words such as sound, or as ウー in words such as you. On the other hand, oo is pronounced as ウー in words such as room.
 
Please refer to the second sentence at the beginning of this issue of Quarterly Review: “I hope you had an enjoyable shōgatsu with some time to relax with family and friends.” If you romanize 正月 as shougatsu, people who are unfamiliar with the Japanese language will probably mispronounce it as シャオガツ. Therefore, it is better to delete the u and romanize the name as shogatsu, or (following the revised Hepburn system of romanization) to add a macron ( ¯ ) over the o to indicate that it is a long vowel; that is, shōgatsu. Notice that shōgatsu (or shogatsu, if you don’t use the ō character with a macron) is written in italics because it is a Japanese word.
 
The same applies to the romanization of Japanese people’s names (except that names, being proper nouns, are not written in italics). Let’s examine the name ごとう　とおる. Strictly speaking, the correct romanization of this name is “Tooru Gotou” (written here in the Western name order, family name last, the style normally used in an English-language publication). Unfortunately, English speakers who are unfamiliar with Japanese names will usually mispronounce “Tooru Gotou” as トゥール　ゴタウ. I therefore recommend that this name be romanized as either “Toru Goto” (or, if macrons can be used in the publication concerned, as “Tōru Gotō”), so that it will be pronounced most closely to the correct Japanese pronunciation.
 
Some people use the letter h to indicate a long vowel; for example, “Tohru Gotoh.” This sometimes works well, but can cause unnecessary confusion in some cases. If the name おおえis romanized as “Ohe,” for example, it will most likely be mispronounced as オヘby English speakers. Hence, I recommend that the name おおえ be romanized as “Oe,” as seen in the most common spelling of the name of the winner of the Nobel Prize in literature in 1994, Kenzaburo Oe. Care should be taken to make sure that the use of the letter h does not create a new mispronunciation problem.
 
Of course, the final decision as to how to romanize a particular person’s name is ultimately up to that person, and each person’s individual preference regarding the romanization of their name should be respected.

While we’re on the subject of names, Japanese researchers often forget to include people’s given names in the Acknowledgments (also spelled Acknowledgements) section; for example: “The authors are grateful to Professor Sato of XYZ for his valuable advice.” Please always remember to include each person’s given name as well (e.g., “Professor Eiji Sato”).
 
Sincerely yours,
 
Bob Gavey
For World Translation Services, Inc.

第１回　if、in case、when の正しい使い分け：確実性の程度を英語で正しく表現する
http://worldts.com/english-writing/eigoronbunwriting-1/index.html
 
第2回 「装置」に対する英語表現
http://worldts.com/english-writing/eigoronbun-equipment/index.html
 
第3回　助動詞のニュアンスを正しく理解する：「～することが出来た」「～することが出来なかった」の表現
http://worldts.com/english-writing/eigoronbun3/index.html
 
第4回　「～を用いて」の表現：by と with の違い
http://worldts.com/english-writing/eigoronbun-writing4/index.html
 
第5回　技術英文で使われる代名詞のitおよび指示代名詞thisとthatの違いとそれらの使用法
http://worldts.com/english-writing/eigoronbun-daimeishi/index.html
 
第6回　原因・結果を表す動詞の正しい使い方：その1 原因→結果
http://worldts.com/english-writing/eigoronbun6-kekka/index.html
 
第7回　原因・結果を表す動詞の使い方：その2 結果→原因
http://worldts.com/english-writing/eigoronbun-kekka/index.html
 
第8回　受動態の多用と誤用に注意
http://worldts.com/english-writing/eigoronbun-writing8/index.html
 
第9回　top-heavyな英文を避ける
http://worldts.com/english-writing/eigoronbun-topheavy/index.html
 
第10回　名詞の修飾語を前から修飾する場合の表現法
http://worldts.com/english-writing/eigo-ronbun10/index.html
 
第11回　受動態による効果的表現
http://worldts.com/english-writing/eigo-ronbun11/index.html
 
第12回　同格を表す接続詞thatの使い方
http://worldts.com/english-writing/eigo-ronbun12/index.html
 
第13回 「技術」を表す英語表現
http://worldts.com/english-writing/eigo-ronbun13/index.html
 
第14回　「特別に」を表す英語表現
http://worldts.com/english-writing/eigo-ronbun14/index.html
 
第15回　所有を示すアポストロフィー + s ( ’s) の使い方
http://worldts.com/english-writing/eigo-ronbun15/index.html
 
第16回　「つまり」「言い換えれば」を表す表現
http://worldts.com/english-writing/eigo-ronbun16/index.html
 
第17回　寸法や重量を表す表現
http://worldts.com/english-writing/eigo-ronbun17/index.html
 
第18回　前置詞 of の使い方: Part 1
http://worldts.com/english-writing/eigo-ronbun18/index.html
 
第19回　前置詞 of の使い方: Part 2
http://worldts.com/english-writing/eigo-ronbun19/index.html
 
第20回　物体や物質を表す英語表現
http://worldts.com/english-writing/eigo-ronbun20/index.html
 
第21回　句動詞表現より1語動詞での表現へ
http://worldts.com/english-writing/eigo-ronbun21/index.html
 
第22回　不定詞と動名詞: Part 1
http://worldts.com/english-writing/eigo-ronbun22/index.html
 
第23回　不定詞と動名詞の使い分け: Part 2
http://worldts.com/english-writing/eigo-ronbun23/index.html

第24回　理由を表す表現
http://worldts.com/english-writing/eigo-ronbun24/index.html

第25回　総称表現　（a, theの使い方を含む）
http://worldts.com/english-writing/eigo-ronbun25/index.html
　
第26回　「研究開発」を表す英語表現
http://worldts.com/english-writing/eigo-ronbun26/index.html

第27回　「0～１の数値は単数か複数か？」
http://worldts.com/english-writing/eigo-ronbun27/index.html

第28回　「時制－現在形の動詞の使い方」
http://worldts.com/english-writing/eigo-ronbun28/index.html

第29回 　then, however, therefore, for example など接続副詞の使い方
​http://worldts.com/english-writing/eigo-ronbun29/index.html

第30回　 まちがえやすいusing, based onの使い方－分詞構文
​http://worldts.com/english-writing/eigo-ronbun30/index.html

第31回　 比率や割合の表現（ratio, rate, proportion, percent, percentage）
http://worldts.com/english-writing/eigo-ronbun31/index.html

第32回　英語論文の書き方　総集編
http://worldts.com/english-writing/eigo-ronbun32/index.html

第33回　Quality Review Issue No. 23　report, show の時制について
​http://worldts.com/english-writing/eigo-ronbun33/index.html

第34回　Quality Review Issue No. 24　参考文献で日本語論文をどう記載すべきか
​http://worldts.com/english-writing/eigo-ronbun34/index.html

第35回　Quality Review Issue No. 25　略語を書き出すときによくある間違いとは？
​http://worldts.com/english-writing/eigo-ronbun35/index.html

第36回　Quality Review Issue No. 26　％と℃の前にスペースを入れるかどうか
http://worldts.com/english-writing/eigo-ronbun36/index.html

第37回　Quality Review Issue No. 27　同じ種類の名詞が続くとき冠詞は付けるべき？！
​http://worldts.com/english-writing/eigo-ronbun37/index.html

第38回　Quality Review Issue No. 22  日本人が特に間違えやすい副詞の使い方
​http://worldts.com/english-writing/eigo-ronbun38/index.html

第39回　Quality Review Issue No. 21  previous, preceding, earlierなどの表現のちがい
http://worldts.com/english-writing/eigo-ronbun39/index.html

第40回　Quality Review Issue No. 20　using XX, by XXの表現の違い
http://worldts.com/english-writing/eigo-ronbun40/index.html

第41回　Quality Review Issue No. 19　increase, rise, surgeなど動詞の選び方
http://worldts.com/english-writing/eigo-ronbun41/index.html

第42回　Quality Review Issue No. 18　論文での受動態の使い方
​http://worldts.com/english-writing/eigo-ronbun42/index.html

第43回　Quality Review Issue No. 17　 Compared with とCompared toの違いは？
http://worldts.com/english-writing/eigo-ronbun43/index.html​
  http://worldts.com/english-writing/eigo-ronbun44/index.html​