Agehama talk

Gekkoe: Apparently (according to the translation of Hikaru No Go I watched) this is the Japanese term for the lid of the goke (stone bowl) which you use for holding your prisoners during a game. I was a bit surprised that there wasn't an entry for it here. Perhaps it's not a term used much in English?

John F.: Totally wrong. Agehama/hama/ageishi are terms for captured stones that have been removed from the board. A lid is futa. I do hope we are not going to get people actually saying futa in English. Goke is bad enough.

Gekkoe: Ah, well I make no claims at being a skilled Japanese speaker. I was just conveying the translator's note from about 5 minutes into the first episode of Hikaru No Go which stated that, "agehama is the container for the stones that were captured during the game." Guess that's what I get for believing the translator's notes... :/

Bill: It's like the old joke in linguistics. It sounds like the translator pointed to the lid (which, during play, had captured stones in it) and asked, "Nan desu ka?" (What is that? or What are those?) ;-)

John F. I suspect a variation of the old "I am a fish" problem. I.e. the sentence was some variation of "agehama wa futa desu."

Gekkoe: Hmm, that'd do it. With my small understanding of Japanese I'd read that sentence as, "The agehama is a futa." I take it the actual meaning is a bit different...

John F. Japanese is highly elliptical and this is a well known case.

The idea is: As for X, it's a case of (supply verb from context) Y:

• For agehama we use the lid.

• Me? I'll have the fish [to eat].

In go terms this is about the same as learning your first snapback.