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I'm reading Murakami Haruki's ノルウェイの森 and, although I've come across many
sentences I haven't been able to grasp too clearly, I recently came across one
that was also funny to pronounce. Can anyone help me make sense of why
Murakami might have written the following sentence as he did?

> 私がここを出てったって待っててくれる人もいないし、受け入れてくれる家庭もないし、たいした仕事もないし、殆ど友だちもいないし。

I understand the general meaning/feeling of that sentence, but cannot seem to
understand why he would have written 「出てったって待ってて」.

From what I can gather it should be something like: 出て行ったって待っていて but that
raises a question, what's that extra って doing next to the 行った? Normally that
would imply that someone else referred it to the speaker (eg. 出て行ったと言って待っていて)
but this does not seem to be the case here.
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2014-04-06T13:07:25.643
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2021-11-10T00:53:43.503
2021-11-10T00:53:43.503
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question
meaning て-form
Making sense of 「出てったって待ってて」
You're right that it's shortened from 出て行ったって待っていて. There are two parts to the
sentence:

> (私がここを出てったって) + (待っててくれる人もいないし... etc. etc.)

The first part means "even if I leave here". This type of construction is
formed by taking the past (た) and adding って. For an i-adjective like たかい, it
would be たかくたって. You can also make it with nouns or na-adjectives by adding
だって or だったって. From "A Dictionary of Basic Japanese Grammar":

> -tatte (conjunction) even if someone did something or something were in some
> state (the desired result would not come about) or even if someone or
> something is in some state.

The second part is 待っててくれる人もいないし, which means there isn't (or won't be, or
wouldn't be) anybody waiting for me. So together, it means something like
"Even if I went out, there's nobody waiting for me." Then the sentence goes on
listing a bunch of other reasons not to leave.
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2014-04-06T13:39:06.753
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2014-04-06T13:39:06.753
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answer
> 「私{わたし}がここを出{で}てったって待{ま}っててくれる人もいない **し** 、受{う}け入{い}れてくれる家庭{かてい}もない **し**
> 、たいした仕事{しごと}もない **し** 、殆{ほとん}ど友{とも}だちもいない **し** 。」

That is 100% correct and natural-sounding; It simply employs colloquial
contractions. This sentence is written very informally as you could tell just
from the use of multiple し's.

出てった ＝ 出ていった

って ＝ とて (とて means the same thing as としても = " **even if** ".) This is **not**
the quotative 「って」, which has been discussed here many times.

待ってて ＝ 待っていて

> 私がここを出てったって待っててくれる人もいないし

= "Even if I left here, there would be no one waiting for me..."
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2014-04-06T13:43:50.400
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2021-08-12T10:10:22.463
2021-08-12T10:10:22.463
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answer