3148
Using あまりに（も） in a sentence with 過ぎる, is it redundant because they both mean
too much/excessive?

In the following example stolen from Lukman (thank you), does the sentence
change if you drop the あまりに Ex: 料理にあまりに時間がかかりすぎる。 Cooking takes up too much
time.
CC BY-SA 3.0
2011-09-15T07:40:00.047
3146
2011-09-15T08:04:39.980
97
question
grammar
Using　あまりに（も）　in a sentence with <verb stem>過ぎる, is it redundant?
あまりに(も) strengthens the degree of exceeding, but probably it does not make
much difference. One important property of this kind of adverbs is to
compensate the head-finalness of Japanese. In Japanese, the head of a phrase
comes at the end of it. Therefore, as is often pointed out, you cannot tell
whether a clause is going to be negated or not, interrogative or not, etc.
until you reach the end of the clause. You cannot position the head in the
front, but adverbs can be positioned in the front, and if a particular adverb
shows concord with a particular head, then that will give you a clue before
you reach the end of a clause. In case of あまりに, it often matches すぎる (but not
necessary require the existence of it)

> 料理にあまりに時間がかかりすぎる

so the moment あまりに is pronounced, you can tell that the clause will have the
meaning of exceeding. Similarly けっして concords with negation, and はたして with
interrogative.

> 料理はけっしておいしくない
>
> 料理ははたしておいしいのか

They function as giving clues to what type of sentence it is going to be
before the end is reached.
CC BY-SA 3.0
2011-09-15T07:59:25.710
3148
2011-09-15T08:04:39.980
2020-06-17T08:18:27.500
-1
3146
answer