98891
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> 大男は、チリチリに縮んだポテトチップの空き袋が転がっているの、火の気のない暖炉に目をやると、フンと鼻を鳴らしながら、暖炉に覆いかぶさるようにして何やら始めた。

I'm really struggling to parse/understand this sentence. Let's simplify:

> 大男は、袋が転がっているの、火の気のない暖炉に目をやると、暖炉に覆いかぶさるようにして何やら始めた。

My question concerns 暖炉に覆いかぶさるようにして何やら始めた. My initial TL was "he made sure to
hang over the fireplace and for some reason started". Started what?

Maybe 何やら just means 'something' and 何やら始めた is 'started to do something'.
Questions:

  1. Are 何やら始めた and なにか始めた equivalent in this sentence?
  2. Is there any good reason to choose 何やら?
  3. Would add the verb 'to do' be redundant and/or ungrammatical e.g. なにか/何やら し/やり はじめた?
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2023-03-12T11:41:02.973
98888
2023-03-12T14:11:02.087
2023-03-12T14:11:02.087
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question
grammar word-choice
Difference between 何やら and なにか
I can think of two differences between 何やら and 何か.

  * 何やら is always an adverb. 何か works as both an adverb and a noun.
  * 何やら always indicates that the speaker is wondering what it is. 何か is just "something," so it can also be used 1) when the speaker knows what it is but doesn't want to (or doesn't see the need to) reveal it, or 2) when the speaker thinks anything is okay.

For example, "He's eating something" can be translated either as 彼は何かを食べている or
彼は何やら食べている, but the latter has a stronger sense of the observer's wondering.
"I want something to eat" is 何か食べるもの, but not 何やら食べるもの. "If you win, I'll give
you (a certain) something" is (とある)何かを差し上げます, but not 何やら差し上げます.
CC BY-SA 4.0
2023-03-12T13:53:58.443
98891
2023-03-12T13:53:58.443
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98888
answer