Grammatical/syntactical implication of なお


I've encountered the below sentence, and although I kind of understand where
it's going, I find it hard to comprehend, especially how it ends.

> その弱い人間が切り刻まれようが突きされようがそれでもなお生き続けるってことがどんなことなのか。。。

So he says that "These weak people, even if they are like cut and pierced and
stabbed etc., even more it seems they keep on living"? And the ってことがどんなことなのか
evades me. Maybe there is some interaction with なお which is a peculiar
particle by itself. If I had to guess, I would interpret the last part as
"what a thing that is? To keep on living with all the above things happening".
But it seems really hit or miss and I believe I might be missing something.




First things first, there seems to be a typo in your quoted text. I googled
and found a source with the correct version:

> 貴様の言うとおり人間は弱いよ。すぐ死ぬ。その弱い人間が切り刻まれようが突き **刺**
> されようがそれでもなお生き続けるってことがどんなことなのか…貴様も少しは味わってみろよ。([source](https://sekihi.net/stones/23959))

So the part you extracted seems to be a subordinate clause that's connected to
the following line.

I can't find a duplicate target specifically on なお to point you to, so I am
going to make an attempt at an answer. Surprised this seemingly hasn't been
asked before.

> なお  
>  an adverb that indicates that an action or state is still going on or the
> degree of something increases; a conjunction indicating that an additional
> comment follows what has just been said in the preceding sentence (source:
> _A Dictionary of Advanced Japanese Grammar_ , Seiichi Makino, Michio
> Tsutsui, Japan Times, 2008)

The meanings that なお effects include: "still", "even more", "all the more",
"additional" or "additionally", "and", "furthermore". Here it is used to
describe an **intensified** degree, and this usage often occurs with a verb or
an adjective.

Another grammar point that might be worth mentioning—although you didn't ask
about it in your question—is ～ようが、～ようが. It's verb volitional form + が／と／とも.
These occur either in pairs or alone. This phrase has a pretty big variety of
different forms. It can be used with verbs/nouns/形容動詞/形容詞, but since you seem
to have gotten the general idea, I won't get into detail on that. The meaning
is as you say, "even if", or "doesn't matter if", namely, what's stated after
it is true despite all the things being stated in the ようが phrase.

ってこと ＝ ということ

どんなことなのか with a question/unknown marker か and an explanatory or explanation-
begging の

For のか please see [this
answer](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/a/18994/30454)

The part you are asking about roughly means:

> Humans, weak just like you've said, even if mangled, even if stabbed, still
> go on living regardless. You know what that's like? You should get a taste
> of that!




First things first, there seems to be a typo in your quoted text. I googled
and found a source with the correct version:

> 貴様の言うとおり人間は弱いよ。すぐ死ぬ。その弱い人間が切り刻まれようが突き **刺**
> されようがそれでもなお生き続けるってことがどんなことなのか…貴様も少しは味わってみろよ。([source](https://sekihi.net/stones/23959))

So the part you extracted seems to be a subordinate clause that's connected to
the following line.

I can't find a duplicate target specifically on なお to point you to, so I am
going to make an attempt at an answer. Surprised this seemingly hasn't been
asked before.

> なお  
>  an adverb that indicates that an action or state is still going on or the
> degree of something increases; a conjunction indicating that an additional
> comment follows what has just been said in the preceding sentence (source:
> _A Dictionary of Advanced Japanese Grammar_ , Seiichi Makino, Michio
> Tsutsui, Japan Times, 2008)

The meanings that なお effects include: "still", "even more", "all the more",
"additional" or "additionally", "and", "furthermore". Here it is used to
describe an **intensified** degree, and this usage often occurs with a verb or
an adjective.

Another grammar point that might be worth mentioning—although you didn't ask
about it in your question—is ～ようが、～ようが. It's verb volitional form + が／と／とも.
These occur either in pairs or alone. This phrase has a pretty big variety of
different forms. It can be used with verbs/nouns/形容動詞/形容詞, but since you seem
to have gotten the general idea, I won't get into detail on that. The meaning
is as you say, "even if", or "doesn't matter if", namely, what's stated after
it is true despite all the things being stated in the ようが phrase.

ってこと ＝ ということ

どんなことなのか with a question/unknown marker か and an explanatory or explanation-
begging の

For のか please see [this
answer](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/a/18994/30454)

The part you are asking about roughly means:

> Humans, weak just like you've said, even if mangled, even if stabbed, still
> go on living regardless. You know what that's like? You should get a taste
> of that!

