use of という when not naming something


I have been having trouble wrapping my mind around ”という” which seems to be
very widely used in Japanese. I think I understand when it means "saying that"
or "it is called", but sometimes it seems to have another nuance.

This morning i stumbled on another sentence where this ”という” completely throws
me off :

> でもそれは後悔という切実な形をとることもなく

Is the ”という” here used to put emphasis? How does it work? Every time I come
across it and even if I understand the rest, this ”という” makes me miss the
whole meaning of the sentence.




There is indeed a nuance to という, in that it can be used to equate two nouns,
as if in apposition. You can view this as an extension of the "it is called"
translation that you have internalized. More specifically,

"悔という形"

can hyper-literally be parsed as "the form that is called regret". But in the
more nuanced sense, it can be translated as "the form, regret", or "the form
that is regret", or most idiomatically in this context, "the form of regret".

Additionally, if you're having trouble parsing this sentence, it might be
because the nouns that という equates are separated by 切実な:

> 悔という形: "The form called regret" "The form that is regret" "The form of
> regret"

> 悔という切実な形: "The serious form of regret"

> 後悔という切実な形をとることもなく: "... without taking on the serious form of regret"

