Do you find this use of 信じてもらえなくなる to be odd?


On the following reddit thread:

[http://www.reddit.com/r/LearnJapanese/comments/21l6aa/meaning_of_自分も信じてもらえなくなるってことだ/](http://www.reddit.com/r/LearnJapanese/comments/21l6aa/meaning_of_%E8%87%AA%E5%88%86%E3%82%82%E4%BF%A1%E3%81%98%E3%81%A6%E3%82%82%E3%82%89%E3%81%88%E3%81%AA%E3%81%8F%E3%81%AA%E3%82%8B%E3%81%A3%E3%81%A6%E3%81%93%E3%81%A8%E3%81%A0/)

the following sentence was posted, with a number of people trying to interpret
it:

> 1.人の親切や発言を信じられなくなったらそれは自分も信じてもらえなくなるってことだ

I could not understand the point in question well enough to translate the
sentence, but then a native speaker stated that perhaps there was a typo or a
"creative use" of Japanese, and offered the following version as a more
typical sentence, though different in meaning:

> 2.人の親切や発言を信じられなくなったら、それは自分も信じられなくなるってことだ

This sentence I was able to attempt to translate as :

> A. Once you start losing the ability to believe in other people's words and
> kindness, you won't be able to believe in yourself.
>
> B. If you get to the point where you lose the ability to believe in other
> people's words and kindness, you won't be able to believe in yourself.

A translation attempt for the original was the following:

> 1.人の親切や発言を信じられなくなったらそれは自分も信じてもらえなくなるってことだ
>
> If you become unable to trust in other people's words and kindness, they
> won't be able to have trust in yours either.

Do you believe the original sentence to be flawed or unnatural? If not, does
the translation make sense?

If the first sentence is too unnatural or flawed to bother with translating,
then how are the translations for the revised second sentence?

If the original sentence makes sense, can someone explain the use of
信じてもらえなくなる clearly?

Thank you, and apologies for the large number of questions and rambling nature
of post.




One could argue that the sentence in question may not be logical, but it is
certainly a sentence that follows all the grammatical rules that I can think
of. In that sense, it "makes sense" even if some people might not agree with.

On that regard, I don't find your second sentence any better. It is a
grammatically correct sentence that contains the same kind of logical leap.

It seems to me that there's a confusion between a discussion about the
translation (which belongs to this site) and a discussion about whether the
sentence is right (which is more of a moral question that has nothing to do
with the language it's written in.)

I think the meaning of 信じてもらえなくなる is clear enough. Your translation looks OK,
though I'd be tempted to translate it to something bit more axiomatic, like
perhaps this:

[code]

    Those who cannot trust the words and kindness of others will lose their trust in return
    
[/code]




One could argue that the sentence in question may not be logical, but it is
certainly a sentence that follows all the grammatical rules that I can think
of. In that sense, it "makes sense" even if some people might not agree with.

On that regard, I don't find your second sentence any better. It is a
grammatically correct sentence that contains the same kind of logical leap.

It seems to me that there's a confusion between a discussion about the
translation (which belongs to this site) and a discussion about whether the
sentence is right (which is more of a moral question that has nothing to do
with the language it's written in.)

I think the meaning of 信じてもらえなくなる is clear enough. Your translation looks OK,
though I'd be tempted to translate it to something bit more axiomatic, like
perhaps this:

[code]

    Those who cannot trust the words and kindness of others will lose their trust in return
    
[/code]

