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I understand that the meaning is loosely something along the lines of "Asking
me so suddenly... I don't know!".  
But I want to understand the function of も here.  
I thought for a time that it is concession e.g.  
食べてもいいよ,  
先生でもたまに勉強する、  
高くても買う！  
But in this case it doesn't make sense. Something was asked a question he
doesn't know the answer to or doesn't understand, the more time you give him,
the probability that he won't know or understand is lowered, thus the highest
probability of him not knowing is you ask him いきなり.  
But if we understand the も to be concession then it translates as: "Even if
you ask me out of the blue, I do not know/understand!".  
But asking out of the blue is harder than giving him 4 hours to think about
it.  
So I think that "Even if you gave me 4 hours to think about it, I wouldn't
have known!" makes more sense for a concession than out of the blue.  

So given that line of thought, which function does も serve here? Is it も of
emphasizing? Like 三時間も待ってたよ！  
Or is it's use as an emphasizer is limited to emphasizing quantities?  

Any help is greatly appreciated! Thanks!
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2015-09-22T05:54:18.710
28187
2015-09-22T10:09:44.210
9677
question
grammar particle-も
Is this も of concession? いきなり言われても分からない！
How about thinking it's for avoiding ては? Which highlights いきなり, when the
speaker would not know it either it's sudden or not.
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2015-09-22T07:25:07.633
28189
2015-09-22T07:25:07.633
4092
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answer
This question is really interesting. I never thought about it that way.

First of all, I'd like to suggest **〜ところで** as the equivalent conjunctive
particle:

  * いきなり言われた **ところで** わからない (= いきなり言われ **ても** 〜)
  * 急に来られた **ところで** 会えない (= 急に来られ **ても** 〜)
  * ぜんぶ頼まれた **ところで** できない (= ぜんぶ頼まれ **ても** 〜)

I tried to reverse engineer a catch-all translation that is better than `even`
or `although`, and I think it's `but`:

  * いきなり言われても〜 Tell me out of the blue, but I wouldn't know.
  * 急に来られても〜 Come unannounced, but I wouldn't be able to see you.
  * ぜんぶ頼まれても〜 Ask me to do everything, but I wouldn't be able to.

Try it out with more examples
[here](http://dictionary.goo.ne.jp/leaf/je2/54391/m0u/) and
[here](http://ejje.weblio.jp/content/%E3%81%A8%E3%81%93%E3%82%8D%E3%81%A7).

* * *

Side Note: To stretch it a bit, you can maybe even rephrase the other
sentences to fit this conceptual mould, too:

  * 食べてもいいよ → 食べたところでかまわないよ

Eat it, but I wouldn't mind.

  * 先生でもたまに勉強する → 先生であったところで勉強はする

Being a teacher, but still study.

  * 高くても買う → 高かったところで買いはする

Be expensive, but I'll still buy.
CC BY-SA 3.0
2015-09-22T10:09:44.210
28192
2015-09-22T10:09:44.210
2020-06-17T08:18:27.500
-1
888
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answer