Usage of ばかり in とばかり思って


Can somebody please explain for me the meaning of ばかり in とばかり思って, as far as I
can guess through the examples it means something like "そう思ったんだけど、実際に・・・・・・".

>   1. 僕たちはずっと、彼らは一生安泰だとばかり思っていたんだけど、君の話によると、見た目より大変だな。  
>  We always thought they had it made, but from what you say, it's harder than
> it looks.
>
>   2. 彼はつい最近入った新人だとばかり思っていた。  
>  I thought of him as being a fairly recent newcomer.
>
>   3. 「いえ、ただ、こちらの晩餐会で振る舞われた料理のことは、皆が絶賛していたものですから。 だからあなたも真剣に取り組んでいるものだとばかりーー」
>
>

>
> Well, it's just that, everyone highly prised the food which was on this
> banquet. And that is why I thought that you're putting all your efforts into
> it, but--

Incidentally, I found one more sentence with some sort of interesting (at
least for me) ばかり usage -「あたしは、形とばかり並べられた陶器のティーセットに手を伸ばす。」, I understand that
the meaning would be something like "the teacups was lined up **just for
show** ", but what is the point of putting と before ばかり in this case?




You have kind of answered your own first question but I would like to add a
few words.

「Aだとばかり思っていた」 means and implies that the speaker made a premature judgement
about something to form an impression or opinion that is based only on
fragmentary information. Later on, he realized that there was more to the
story and had to re-form his opinion.

> 「Aだと **ばかり** 思って **いた** 」

is virtually synonymous to:

> 「Aだと **しか** 思って **いなかった** 」

Your example #3 is cool because it shows that the 「思っていた」 part sometimes gets
omitted. Verbs such as 「思う」、「言う」、「感じる」 often get omitted, which makes
sentences end abruptly with the quotative particle 「と」.

To answer your last question, 「～～とばかり」 is a common phrase used to add emphasis
to the ～～ part. The 「と」 is quotative. The speaker is implying that whoever had
laid out the tea set would have wanted to say "Form is important." I myself
would have added a 「に」 after the 「ばかり」.

See meaning #6 in
[http://kotobank.jp/word/%E8%A8%B1%E3%82%8A?dic=daijisen&oid=14657800](http://kotobank.jp/word/%E8%A8%B1%E3%82%8A?dic=daijisen&oid=14657800)




You have kind of answered your own first question but I would like to add a
few words.

「Aだとばかり思っていた」 means and implies that the speaker made a premature judgement
about something to form an impression or opinion that is based only on
fragmentary information. Later on, he realized that there was more to the
story and had to re-form his opinion.

> 「Aだと **ばかり** 思って **いた** 」

is virtually synonymous to:

> 「Aだと **しか** 思って **いなかった** 」

Your example #3 is cool because it shows that the 「思っていた」 part sometimes gets
omitted. Verbs such as 「思う」、「言う」、「感じる」 often get omitted, which makes
sentences end abruptly with the quotative particle 「と」.

To answer your last question, 「～～とばかり」 is a common phrase used to add emphasis
to the ～～ part. The 「と」 is quotative. The speaker is implying that whoever had
laid out the tea set would have wanted to say "Form is important." I myself
would have added a 「に」 after the 「ばかり」.

See meaning #6 in
[http://kotobank.jp/word/%E8%A8%B1%E3%82%8A?dic=daijisen&oid=14657800](http://kotobank.jp/word/%E8%A8%B1%E3%82%8A?dic=daijisen&oid=14657800)

