The Pillbug Incident
What is a pillbug?¶
For those in the audience who do not know (because I sure as hell didn't), the "pill bug" is a common name given to the Armadillidiidae family of woodlice. The pill bug has the ability to roll into a ball, earning them the alternative (perhaps more familiar) name : roly polies.
An image of a pill bug! Sorry if I grossed you out. You've probably seen or played with these as a kid, or hey... maybe I'm the only weird one here.
Despite now being aware of what a pillbug is, I'm sure that you guys are no closer to knowing what "The Pillbug Incident" could possibly be referring to, but I am going to need you guys to be a bit more patient as I talk about a seemingly unrelated topic.
Weathernews LiVE¶
Weathernews LiVE (WNL) is a private Japanese weather report channel which primarily broadcasts through the internet (as opposed to the television, because I know some of you guys forgot those exist). For example, they sometimes broadcast live and upload clips of their broadcasts on their YouTube channel.
WNL is massively popular for simply being a weather report channel, some of their clips have garnered more than 10 million views. Part of the reason why is because WNL's weather reporters are almost exclusively cute, young, females. WNL understands that the audience are watching for the personalities behind the screen as opposed to the weather news itself, and they lean into this by organizing fan meetup events, selling merchandise, etc.. Basically, these weatherwomen are being seen and treated the same way as any other idol. Japanalysis made a great video on this topic, criticizing the normalization of this type of culture. Fortunately, this hotbed of a topic is not something we'll be delving towards; although the context may be helpful.
The Pillbug Incident¶
One of the most famous WNL clips (over 18 million views at the time of writing) is the "ダンゴムシ事件" (pillbug incident), a blooper where the weather caster Rinon Ohshima (大島璃音) mistakenly refers to her colleague, the meteorologist Yamaguchi Takehisa (山口剛央), as a "pillbug", leading to a funny exchange :
The only reason I thought to write about this "incident" is because this blooper is a great way to learn about Japanese particles. Afterall, the cause of Ohshima's unfortunate blunder is the result of an incorrect particle usage.
Clip analysis¶
Clicking on a dialogue box will jump you to its position in the YouTube video
Part 1 : The Context¶
The conversation that will eventually lead to the infamous "Pillbug Incident". Ohshima started by asking Yamaguchi if he was able to find any pillbugs today despite it getting hotter (in Tokyo), to which Yamaguchi replied that he wasn't able to, and the conversation continued on from there.
To understand this bit of dialogue, you will need two pieces of context :
Firstly, the appearance of pillbugs is known to correlate with different weather conditions. For example, pillbugs prefer to live in cool, dark, and moist environments1, so you are more likely to see them during or after it rains.
Secondly, Yamaguchi is well known to be a data enthusiast, personally collecting all sorts of data ranging from insect activity to natural disasters2. Ohshima asked if Yamaguchi was able to find any pillbugs today with this context in mind.
Part 2 : The Incident¶
"Well, with that said, we've received an explanation from a pillbug as well...", said Ohshima, indirectly identifying Yamaguchi as a woodlice. Ohshima's blunder stems from mistakenly marking ダンゴムシ (pillbug in Japanese) with the particle にも.
In most cases, including this one, にも can be thought of as the particles に and も operating separately3. That is to say, ダンゴムシ is marked twice, once by に and the second time by も. Marking an object with the particle も gives it a sense of "also", "another", "yet again", etc... For example :
「私もりんごが好き」: I too like apples
「りんごもすき」: I like apples too
The particle に is more complex as it has many functions. In this specific instance に acts as :
"a particle that indicates an agent or a source in passive, causative, もらう/てまらう and other receiving constructions"
- This is the third (out of seven) functions of に according to the dictionary of Japanese grammar (DOJG)4.
Isolating the key parts of Ohshima's sentence, we get
大島 : [ダンゴムシ] [にも] [解説して] [いただきました]
いただきました is the past tense of the verb いただく, which means "to recieve". You've probably heard the phrase いただきます (itadakimasu) being used before eating a meal. In this context, いただきます basically means : "I shall humbly receive/accept the food that is in front of me".
- いただく is no different to もらう apart from being more polite (it is the 謙譲語 of もらう)
A verb can be attached to いただく via its て-form to indicate the receival of an action. In this case :
解説する (to explain) -> 解説して + いただきました : (I) received an explanation
As discussed, に marks the agent/source of the action (解説する) that is being received. Thus :
ダンゴムシに(も)解説していたきました : (I) received an explanation from a pillbug
That ダンゴムシ is also marked with a も indicates that the pillbug is part of a larger collection of things that you have received explanations from, or alternatively that the explanation from a pillbug is part of a larger series of events that happened. The second interpretation is probably more accurate.
And so that concludes the explanation behind the grammatical mishap that took the attention of more than 18 million people, the pillbug incident.
Part 3 : Wait? There's More?¶
What? You think we're done with learning about particles? We're just getting started.
Yamaguchi was quick to correct Ohshima's mistake :
"You probably meant to say 「ダンゴムシの」 (instead of にも) right?", asked Yamaguchi, understandably in disbelief after having just been referred to as a pillbug lol. The の-corrected sentence is then :
[ダンゴムシ] [の] [解説していただきました]
At first glance, it appears that we have a Noun + の + Verb construction, which strays away from the typical Noun + の + Noun that we are used to. Having a verb directly follow after the の particle is not impossible (although not super common). After searching around for a bit, I have found at least one case (probably the only case) in which this construction is possible : In attributive clauses, の marks the agent performing an action that serves as an attribute of something else5.
For example :
雪の降る夜 : A snowy night
カナエの作ったネックレス : The necklace that Kanae made
In general, we would have : Noun1 + の + Verb + Noun2, where Noun1 is the performer of Verb and this serves as an attribute for Noun2. However ダンゴムシの解説していただきました does not have a Noun2. Does this mean that the の-corrected sentence is ungrammatical? Surely Yamaguchi's correction to Ohshima's grammar mistake can't yet again be another grammar mistake, that would be too embarassing.
What we have overlooked is to understand that 解説する is a noun that has been "verbified" by the addition of する. That is to say 解説 is the noun "explanation" while 解説する is the verb "to explain". The idea is to treat「ダンゴムシの解説」as the noun "explanation about pillbugs" and observe that the addition of する turns it into the verb "to explain about pillbugs".
Putting it all togther, ダンゴムシの解説していただきました means "I recieved an explanation about pillpugs" which was probably what Ohshima meant to say.
Part 4 : Another Correction¶
"No, no, Yamaguchi-san. I meant to say 「ダンゴムシも解説していたきましたけど」and just got things mixed up.", Ohshima reveals that a rougue "に" has slipped in by accident, her intended sentence was :
ダンゴムシ**も**解説していただきました
We've already mentioned that a も-marked object is given a sense of "also", "another", "in addition", etc... This means that we can interpret the above as : "Pillbugs (among other things), I received an explanation" With regards to how the rougue "に" slipped in, Ohshima was probably thinking about saying :
ダンゴムシ(について)も解説いただきました
Which can be interpreted as "About pillbugs (among other things), I received an explanation", 「について」 meaning "about", "with regards to", etc... Ohshima then probably forgot to say the ついて part of について.