☆NihonJack⇔日本ジャック☆コミュの"Questions Solved": Which sounds more natural?

a) They left a number of questions unsolved.
b) They left unsolved a number of questions.

Thank you for any help.

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a もしくは　They left a number of unsolved questions.

と思います。

One difference I feel is universal: the final word of a sentence always has the most power and forms a mental image. So you can put the emphasis on "unsolved" or "questions". The other is that in b) the less-common placement of "unsolved" puts additional power on "unsolved". So in sense b) has more power because the active words are emphasized. Which is why a) sounds more conversational.

[3] mixiユーザー 11月15日 15:28

I would say both sound perfectly natural. b) is a less straightforward, more sophisticated style, so it would tend to be written or used in a formal speech.

[4] mixiユーザー 11月15日 16:13

It is interesting how people have different views of the same piece of language. I suppose it gives support to the view that much more of our communication is by non-verbal means! Text can only go so far....

I wonder how these sentences would be said?

I would say a) 'straight' with little emphasis on any of the words - matter-of-fact

b) might be said in different ways, I think.

They left (pause) unsolved (pause) a number of questions.
They left unsolved a NUMBER of questions.

I agree that b) sounds more literary.

[9] mixiユーザー 11月15日 19:05

Everyone, great input into Daisy's questions! I think it definitely does show that we all use the language somewhat differently. This is true in Japanese, too, as I've found many times one person teaches me something that another person tells me is completely incorrect ;-)

Daisy, one thing that may also be helpful to get an idea of if something is actually used or not is to google using quotes like this:

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&safe=off&rls=GGLJ%2CGGLJ%3A2006-40%2CGGLJ%3Aen&q=%22unsolved+questions%22

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&safe=off&rls=GGLJ%2CGGLJ%3A2006-40%2CGGLJ%3Aen&q=%22questions+unsolved%22

[10] mixiユーザー 11月18日 00:52

Thank you for your help, everyone.
I understand that both are natural and b) is more formal.

>アダム
the final word of a sentence always has the most power and forms a mental image.

That’s a new idea to me since I learned conclusion mostly comes first in English unlike Japanese. I’ll try to read English sentences more carefully, focusing on the final word of them.

It’s interesting to see different people have different opinions.

>yaban

Can’t ‘question’ mean problem? I didn’t realize it because both ‘question’ and ‘problem’ are translated as 問題in Japanese, with which we use the verb ‘solve’ (解く).
If ‘question’ can mean ‘problem', I think you can say ‘solve a question.’

However, I’m not sure if about 80,000 entries of ‘unsolved question’ in google’s result means it is a correct usage, 酢七面鳥. Google is convenient, but I don’t really count on its results when I study.
I found more than 100,000 of 「頭痛が痛い」when I searched it, which is totally wrong.(It may as well you say “My headache is painful.”)

All your opinions are helpful and interesting. Thank you again.

[12] mixiユーザー 11月18日 08:13

a is right b is not i cant see my self saying b that would be just weird

[13] mixiユーザー 11月18日 09:02

I agree,

while both are fine, B feels a bit awkward to me and I probably wouldn't say that, unless i really wanted to emphasize "unsolved".

[14] mixiユーザー 11月18日 15:12

Hi Daisy,

Point well taken, but if you can find a reputable source that uses the particular phrase (such as the New York Times, which does in an article title in this case), you can at least have some confidence that it is correct usage.

Great discussion guys!

[15] mixiユーザー 11月18日 15:58

I can see this being said or written but I have to agree that on second reading it seems an unusual way to use unsolved:

problems and mysteries are usually 'unsolved'

questions are usually 'unanswered'

But language, being used (and abused) by countless millions, is a fluid thing and we wouldn't want to condone such rigid and cliched use that only allowed 'question' to go with 'answer' and 'problem' with 'solved'.....would we?

[16] mixiユーザー 11月20日 01:15

Thank you for more information, all.

As to whether it’s OK to say ‘unsolved questions’, I found a dictionary says
‘question’ can mean “a subject or problem that needs to be discussed or dealt with [= issue],” with an example sentence: Several questions have still not been resolved.
　I can’t link the result, so please input the word in the pop-up window that appears after you click ONLINE in this dictionary site.
http://www.ldoceonline.com/
What do you think of this dictionary? I use it very often. It’s easy for average learners like me to use.

But it seems questions should be answered in most cases.
I’ll be more careful about what each word really means.
Anyway, I understand b) is not very common.
Thank you, everyone.

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