Translating ちょっとそこまでは


Context: Weird things have been happening, people dead coming back to life for
short time. Character A has mentioned that to B, and B explains they heard
about it from books and that it might involve necromancy. Character A replies:

> わたしも、ちょっとそこまでは――

Now, I have found references that ちょっとそこまで can mean asking to step away/out
for a while, excusing oneself to go to bathroom and such. But here I don't
think this is a case. I'm FAR from certain, but I feel A is replying saying
that that idea (necromancy thing) is a bit too much or something? Am I close
orrr...

Then again if she dissagrees, why use も with わたし?




Judging from your explanation of the context,

> 「わたしも、ちょっとそこまでは・・」

would mean:

> 「わたしも、ちょっとそこまでは（ **わかりません** , **わかりかねます** , etc.）。」
>
> = "I couldn't really be sure about that." (that = necromancy)

↓

> = "The matter is beyond my comprehension."

Negative words and phrases are often left unsaid in informal Japanese and the
word 「ちょっと」 enables us to safely omit them without worrying about the listener
not understanding the speaker.

So, why use 「も」? This 「も」 is not the clear-cut "too" or "also". Instead, it is
used to imply that the speaker thinks that the listener himself (B) would
probably be also unsure about the relevance of necromancy here.

Finally, there would be no chance that this 「ちょっとそこまで **は** 」 has anything to
do with the common phrase uttered when stepping out for a while. Why not?
Because it ends with the particle 「は」, which alone suggests something was left
unsaid. You never use 「は」 at the end of the phrase for stepping out for a
minute.

