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I am learning Japanese from a book. The excerpt of a dialogue is given as
follows.

> Q: 夏休みに国へ帰りますか。
>
> A: いいえ、夏休みには帰りません。冬休みに帰ります。

My question is how do we know what the questioner wants us to answer? In my
mind, I will answer as follows.

> Q: 夏休みに国へ帰りますか。
>
> A: いいえ、夏休に国へは帰りません。論文を書きます。

More precisely, in the first answer, "夏休み" is followed by "は". But in the
second answer (my answer in mind), "国" is followed by "へは". I think it is
related to emphasizing but I don't know what the questioner what to emphasize.
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2015-04-28T08:38:35.043
23996
2015-04-28T20:30:03.957
2020-06-17T08:18:27.500
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question
grammar
How do I know what the questioner wants me to answer?
it's the tone of the last KA.  
If the tone is rising, he wants you to answer. If it's down , he's just
talking to himself like "So, you're going back to your country hmmmm.."
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2015-04-28T08:45:56.827
23997
2015-04-28T08:45:56.827
9949
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answer
It's not clear based off the context which the person asking the question
means, due to simple ambiguity. By the rest of the conversation, it may be
more clear, but it's not inherently obvious if, say, they tried starting a
conversation with "夏休みに国へ帰りますか", if they are talking about when you want to
return to your country, or were asking what you're doing over your summer.

To make this clear, you could simply add は in the appropriate place.

> 夏休みには国へ帰りますか。

It's obvious here that they're asking "are you going back to your country _in
summer specifically_ ", therefore making the more likely conversation:

> Q: 夏休みに国へ帰りますか。
>
> A: いいえ、夏休みには帰りません。冬休みに帰ります。

I feel that this is actually the more natural of the two conversations. The
fact that the questioner mentioned going back to your country, it just seems
less likely that they're asking what you're doing over summer, which would
probably have just been better asked by a 夏休みに何をする／どう過ごしますか etc.

Overall, you can't be certain without knowing the tone or ammending the
grammar for clarity, but it seems much more likely that they're asking when
you're going home rather than what you're doing over the summer, based off
context, and the way in which the questioner is asking.
CC BY-SA 3.0
2015-04-28T20:30:03.957
24004
2015-04-28T20:30:03.957
2020-06-17T08:18:27.500
-1
9185
23996
answer