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As part of a larger block of text, my JLPT textbook has this sentence:

>
> 私{わたし}たちは、コトバに対{たい}して一種{いっしゅ}のぬぐいがたい軽視{けいし}、軽{かる}く見{み}る傾向{けいこう}が一般{いっぱん}にあるといっていいかもしれません。

I'm specifically confused about the `コトバに対{たい}して一種{いっしゅ}のぬぐいがたい軽視{けいし}` part.

First, I think the `ぬぐい` in `ぬぐいがたい` is from `拭{ぬぐ}う`, as in, "to wipe away"
or "to eliminate". So, it's something like "when facing words we eliminate one
type"...?

For the whole sentence, it comes across to me as something like, "All of us,
when facing words it's easy to eliminate one type with contempt, maybe you
could say we generally tend to look at them lightly." Which doesn't really add
up to something sensible. I went with "contempt" for `軽視{けいし}`, though other
definitions are "disdain" or "make light of", but no matter how I translate
it, I can't see how it fits.

One type of what? One type of words? Why would we wipe them away?

What exactly does this sentence mean?
CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-06-24T07:21:58.073
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2014-06-24T07:41:32.617
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question
grammar words jlpt
What is the "one type" being "wiped away" in this sentence?
ぬぐいがたい means “difficult (reluctant) to wipe away”, and it refers to the 軽視。
一種の (“one type of”) is used like the English phrase “a certain…”

So, taking just the core of the sentence:

私たちは、コトバに対して一種のぬぐいがたい軽視がある。

“We have, towards words, a certain disdain which is difficult to wipe away.”
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2014-06-24T07:37:38.987
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2014-06-24T07:37:38.987
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answer
コトバに対して[一種の[ぬぐいがたい軽視]] (or in other words)、軽く見る傾向がある

The ぬぐいがたい is 拭う (to wipe) + 難い (difficult to~). So when we say ぬぐいがたい軽視 we
are talking about that 軽視 being something that it is difficult to wipe away.
Next, do not think of 軽視 as contempt. The words immediately following are
rephrasing it. 軽視 is just to treat something with little importance, or in
other words, 「軽く見る」. I do not believe (someone please correct me if I'm wrong)
that 軽視 has any sort of enmity or ill will in it that you might find with a
word like "contempt."

So コトバに対して一種のぬぐいたい軽視 would be a sort of undervaluing or disregard of words
that is difficult to "wipe away," if we use the metaphor of the original.
Ultimately the passage this is from is probably making a point about the
importance of words.
CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-06-24T07:41:32.617
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2014-06-24T07:41:32.617
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answer