14043
(Background: similar circumstances as [this
question](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/questions/14016/what-
does-%e3%80%8c%e3%81%a4%e3%81%91%e3%80%8d-mean-as-slang); the speaker is a
sleazy low-level gangster commenting on sex workers in his employ.)

「駄目な人間は、駄目なものだな。まったく、愛想が尽きるよ。ほかじゃ、鼻もひっかけないような大年増に、きまりの組合費だけで、シマを分けてやっているんだぜ。せっせと稼いで、足を洗うことでも考えたらどうなんだい。いまさら、ヒモに可愛がってもらえるような柄かって…」

Breaking it up by sentence, here's what I've got (subject/topic marked in
bold):

  1. 駄目な人間は、駄目なものだな -- Hypothetical/general about **people** on the whole.
  2. まったく、愛想が尽きるよ -- The **speaker** complains that his **_incredible_ benevolence** is wasted on such human failures.
  3. ほかじゃ、鼻もひっかけないような大年増に、きまりの組合費だけで、シマを分けてやっているんだぜ -- ?? I think the speaker is saying, "If things were different, they'd [ **the sex workers** would] be under some matron who'd go easy on them and only take the [mob] family cut off the top, and let 'em split the rest."
  4. せっせと稼いで、足を洗うことでも考えたらどうなんだい -- ?? "How about they [ **the sex workers** ] put their backs into making money and think about getting out of this [criminal] trade, huh?"
  5. いまさら、ヒモに可愛がってもらえるような柄かって… -- ?? "[do **the sex workers** actually] Think they've still got what it takes to get favors from a pimp anymore?"

5a. Alternatively, "Do **I** look like the kind of pimp they can squeeze
favors out of?"

I'm mostly unclear on 3 and 5.

**The question is** , how do you know (especially for the native speakers)
what the subject of the sentence is as it changes from sentence to sentence?
Initially what threw me for a loop was the cascade of increasingly unclear
clauses (the speaker is monologuing, which doesn't help). (I've seen this
before, but never so intensely as here in the efficient prose of 阿部公房)
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question
grammar parsing
Who is doing what in these related sentences, and how do you know?
1) General observation. "People ain't no good if they ain't no good."

2) OK, except it does not say "incredible" in the original.

3) TBH, I do not know if you attempted at an extremely free translation or you
simply did not understand the original. It is difficult to comment on
something like this (particularly, if the former is the case).

My own TL (mostly literal) : "I'm talking about the old broads nobody else
would take no notice of and I even give them a territory for the minimum union
dues!"

4) Excellent.

5) Great.

My answer to your question at the bottom would be "context and collocation" .
You would just have to read extensively and become able to predict what words
or phrases are likely to follow.
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answer