What does という mean in this sentence


Context: I asked a guy on one forum to explain what does かん mean in the
following sentence:

三びょうかんいきを止めてください。

And then he answered:

3秒の間、つまり3秒という時間だけ 息をとめてください。ということでしょう。

What does という mean in that sentence?

There are actually two という's in that sentence. I think that the first という mean
'as many as'; the second という should be translated with こと. So, ということ means 'It
means' or something? Please correct me.




I will start from afar to explain in slightly more details about という
expression. It's not completely alien for English speakers, but it's a bit
tricky, because usually we don't pay much attention to it.

In any language there are more concrete items and more general concepts about
what it represents. For example, word flowers in "Take care of these flowers"
represent something factual, very specific in front of our eyes. But flowers
in "One of the most expensive spices are flowers called Saffron" represent the
kind. The reason why it's even used here is because speaker isn't completely
sure that all listeners would understand what Saffron is, especially when
people were talking about spices to begin with. So we mention the kind, what
generally it is, and more specific unit on which we want to focus. There are
many similar situations when we want to talk more abstract ideas, what
something represent. For example, when we say "the fact that X happened
means...", we want to shift from factual occurrence to more abstract idea that
such thing can mean generally. For example, "The fact that she remembers your
birthday or your preferences means that she's paying attention to you (she
likes you or she cares about you)".

In Japanese という is essential for it. It can be used in several slightly
distinctive situations:

  1. Xと言った "(Someone) said X"
  2. 姫という酒場 "Bar called Princess"
  3. サフランという花 "Flowers called Saffron"
  4. 自分の娘と会わないということは考えられない "I can't imagine not seeing my daughter"

It's not inclusive, there might be other usages, but it has a gradient to show
the idea. In the first example いう is used directly, so there are no nuances.
But in the second example people have a small problem. If we say "Let's go to
the bar", then it might be not obvious which exactly bar we mean. Similarly if
people aren't aware about such bar, then "Let's go to the Princess" doesn't
even make any sense. We need some tool to combine both, specific name and what
it represents and such tool in Japanese is という. Third example is very similar
to it, but in my opinion it has slightly different flavor. While giving names
for places, books, movies and other things can be informative, sometimes
people want to explain something or give their interpretation of it. Similarly
we can try to find out such explanation or confirmation, if such thing exist
and it's what we think. Very often it's used in pair with こと, so we get ということ
for different kinds of explanations and interpretations. I decided to mention
the forth example, because it's the peak. It's so abstract that it exist only
theoretically, person can't believe that such thing is even possible and it's
always going to be used with という.

ということでしょう from your example is very simple, because it's purely №3. Person
tries to explain what it is and gives his own interpretation. But I'm not sure
about 3秒という時間. It might be similar to №2, but it's different. In 姫という酒場 we
can't change it, something like 姫の酒場 would produce completely different
meaning, but 3秒の時間 is possible. There are many different wordings too, we can
use 3秒間 or 3秒間の, so there should be a reason why person wants to use という
variation. My guess is that sometimes people use という by feeling, the idea of
という is that we can think about some broader unit being split on different
categories. When we say 姫という酒場, we understand that there are many different 酒場
and we want to focus on one of these. Therefore if people feel that it's not
simply a time of some activity, but a category instead, they would tend to use
という for it. For example, if we are talking about breathing techniques, then
holding your breath for 3 seconds could be a variation of it. But it's purely
my speculation and can be completely wrong.




I will start from afar to explain in slightly more details about という
expression. It's not completely alien for English speakers, but it's a bit
tricky, because usually we don't pay much attention to it.

In any language there are more concrete items and more general concepts about
what it represents. For example, word flowers in "Take care of these flowers"
represent something factual, very specific in front of our eyes. But flowers
in "One of the most expensive spices are flowers called Saffron" represent the
kind. The reason why it's even used here is because speaker isn't completely
sure that all listeners would understand what Saffron is, especially when
people were talking about spices to begin with. So we mention the kind, what
generally it is, and more specific unit on which we want to focus. There are
many similar situations when we want to talk more abstract ideas, what
something represent. For example, when we say "the fact that X happened
means...", we want to shift from factual occurrence to more abstract idea that
such thing can mean generally. For example, "The fact that she remembers your
birthday or your preferences means that she's paying attention to you (she
likes you or she cares about you)".

In Japanese という is essential for it. It can be used in several slightly
distinctive situations:

  1. Xと言った "(Someone) said X"
  2. 姫という酒場 "Bar called Princess"
  3. サフランという花 "Flowers called Saffron"
  4. 自分の娘と会わないということは考えられない "I can't imagine not seeing my daughter"

It's not inclusive, there might be other usages, but it has a gradient to show
the idea. In the first example いう is used directly, so there are no nuances.
But in the second example people have a small problem. If we say "Let's go to
the bar", then it might be not obvious which exactly bar we mean. Similarly if
people aren't aware about such bar, then "Let's go to the Princess" doesn't
even make any sense. We need some tool to combine both, specific name and what
it represents and such tool in Japanese is という. Third example is very similar
to it, but in my opinion it has slightly different flavor. While giving names
for places, books, movies and other things can be informative, sometimes
people want to explain something or give their interpretation of it. Similarly
we can try to find out such explanation or confirmation, if such thing exist
and it's what we think. Very often it's used in pair with こと, so we get ということ
for different kinds of explanations and interpretations. I decided to mention
the forth example, because it's the peak. It's so abstract that it exist only
theoretically, person can't believe that such thing is even possible and it's
always going to be used with という.

ということでしょう from your example is very simple, because it's purely №3. Person
tries to explain what it is and gives his own interpretation. But I'm not sure
about 3秒という時間. It might be similar to №2, but it's different. In 姫という酒場 we
can't change it, something like 姫の酒場 would produce completely different
meaning, but 3秒の時間 is possible. There are many different wordings too, we can
use 3秒間 or 3秒間の, so there should be a reason why person wants to use という
variation. My guess is that sometimes people use という by feeling, the idea of
という is that we can think about some broader unit being split on different
categories. When we say 姫という酒場, we understand that there are many different 酒場
and we want to focus on one of these. Therefore if people feel that it's not
simply a time of some activity, but a category instead, they would tend to use
という for it. For example, if we are talking about breathing techniques, then
holding your breath for 3 seconds could be a variation of it. But it's purely
my speculation and can be completely wrong.

