お父さんは飲みながらずっと料理を作ってたけど

[theseus_]

context:
今日は午後からお父さんの飲み友達と15人くらい集まってバーベキューをしました。お父さんは飲みながらずっと料理を作ってたけど、みんなが美味しそうに食べてるのが嬉しいそうです。それは私が子供の頃から変わっていません。今も友達がたくさんいるようで安心しました。

My translation:
Today, I and my father's drinking buddies about fifteen people gathered to have a barbecue from the afternoon. My father drank as he cooked the food all the time, he seemed glad that everyone seemed to eat well. It has remained unchanged since I was a child. It seems that he also had many friends now, so I'm relieved.


1) Was "けど" used to connect two clauses, and not for an adversative? Or does it indicate "though the author's father was busy cooking all the time, but he was so glad to do it."？

2) There were two "そう" in "みんなが美味しそうに食べてるのが嬉しいそうです", I guess they all mean "it seem that...", but I fell it is unnatural to translate this way. Should there be a better way to understand them?

3) Does "15人くらい" refer to "drinking buddies" or "the author and drinking buddies"? Does it include the author herself?

4) Does "のが" mark the object of "嬉しい"?

 

[Flaminius]

1) けど and が are adversative clauses links, but they do not necessarily express strong adversity. The father was cooking throughout the party. One may expect him to be frustrated for not eating what he cooked. Notwithstanding the expectation, he was quite satisfied because he could make his buddies happy. This is the underlying assumption that the author takes for granted when they used the adversative construction.

If you are unwilling to read into too much in the text, you can follow the logic from back to start, as it were. In colloquial Japanese (much to the dismay of prescriptivists, in which I take special delight as a descriptivist), adversative clauses links are used to introduce background information for the main clause. In other words, the speaker presents the first clause as what the listener must construe as relevant to the second one:

私は東京の出身ですが、あなたはどこ出身ですか?
The first half is self-disclosure by the speaker that urges the listener to reciprocate in the second half.

明日、私は日帰りで出張がありますが、お土産はなにがいいですか?
The first half is the reason the second half is uttered.

Seen in this light, お父さんは…ずっと料理を作ってたけど is presented as the reason the father was happy with understanding that this is somewhat peculiar condition that makes someone happy (adversative).




Let's deal with peripheral questions:
2) The first sō is "seem", or what one perceives or speculates, but the second one is the reportative sō. When used at the end of a sentence, it marks the sentence as what one has heard from someone else, the father in this text.
3) This is an adverbial the modifies 集まって. This is used to measure the size of the party, including the author and the father.
4) Yes.

 

[gengo]

context:
今日は午後からお父さんの飲み友達と15人くらい集まってバーベキューをしました。お父さんは飲みながらずっと料理を作ってたけど、みんなが美味しそうに食べてるのが嬉しいそうです。それは私が子供の頃から変わっていません。今も友達がたくさんいるようで安心しました。

My translation:
This afternoon about 15 of my dad's drinking buddies got together for a barbecue. My dad was drinking and cooking the whole time, but he seemed happy that everyone looked like they were enjoying the food. It's been like that ever since I was a kid. I was glad to see that he still has so many friends.

 

[theseus_]

1) けど and が are adversative clauses links, but they do not necessarily express strong adversity. The father was cooking throughout the party. One may expect him to be frustrated for not eating what he cooked. Notwithstanding the expectation, he was quite satisfied because he could make his buddies happy. This is the underlying assumption that the author takes for granted when they used the adversative construction.

If you are unwilling to read into too much in the text, you can follow the logic from back to start, as it were. In colloquial Japanese (much to the dismay of prescriptivists, in which I take special delight as a descriptivist), adversative clauses links are used to introduce background information for the main clause. In other words, the speaker presents the first clause as what the listener must construe as relevant to the second one:

私は東京の出身ですが、あなたはどこ出身ですか?
The first half is self-disclosure by the speaker that urges the listener to reciprocate in the second half.

明日、私は日帰りで出張がありますが、お土産はなにがいいですか?
The first half is the reason the second half is uttered.

Seen in this light, お父さんは…ずっと料理を作ってたけど is presented as the reason the father was happy with understanding that this is somewhat peculiar condition that makes someone happy (adversative).

Many thanks for the detailed explanations!

2) The first sō is "seem", or what one perceives or speculates, but the second one is the reportative sō. When used at the end of a sentence, it marks the sentence as what one has heard from someone else, the father in this text.

So I guess the first one is "様態", and second one is "伝聞". Does the second sō necessarily mean that "the author heard from her father that he was happy", but not the author saw the fact by herself?

My translation:
This afternoon about 15 of my dad's drinking buddies got together for a barbecue. My dad was drinking and cooking the whole time, but he seemed happy that everyone looked like they were enjoying the food. It's been like that ever since I was a kid. I was glad to see that he still has so many friends.

Very thanks for the translation, it is of great help to me.

 

[Flaminius]

Does the second sō necessarily mean that "the author heard from her father that he was happy", but not the author saw the fact by herself?

You are right about 様態 and 伝聞. If the author wants to express her own judgment, the text should read, 嬉しそうです.