All rules

Topic far from its predicate

topic-predicate-distanceon by default (info)Japanese

A Japanese sentence that makes the reader wait long for its verb

Example

How to fix

Move the topic next to the predicate, or take what stands between them into its own sentence.

Why it matters

A Japanese sentence puts its predicate last, so after a topic (会議は) the reader waits for everything in between before learning what the topic does. chaff counts the characters from the first noun followed by は to the end of the sentence, where Japanese puts the predicate; it is an approximation, not a parse. Anything quoted in 「」 is not counted.

What it does not flag

Sentences with no topic (noun + は), quotations in 「」, and distances up to the limit are not counted. When the topic gets its own predicate in an earlier clause (〜ではありませんが, 〜であって; 〜ではなく, 〜であるため, 〜は〜で with no comma between, 〜であるならば, 〜にあるところ or 〜ており followed by a clause with its own subject; a passive report 〜だと言われているが), the count stops at that clause's end. When a は that sets the time or the case (今夜は, 当日は, 〜ときは) is followed by another topic, the count starts from that topic. Not used on English documents.

Turning it off or relaxing it

This page is built from the rule's definition file:packages/chaff/rules/topic-predicate-distance.yaml