I've often found 方 to be quite abstract sometimes, and I've been thinking
about it more when I saw this:

> ……杉山さんって、こういう感じの方なんですね……

To me it looks like the sentence would mean exactly the same thing if I took
out の方 - "I can say with confidence that it feels like Sugiyama san"

Is this true or is 方 actually changing something here?
CC BY-SA 3.0
2017-02-12T20:17:15.857
43458
2017-02-15T10:46:46.120
19838
question
syntax
Can 方 be taken out of some sentences without changing the meaning?
The situation could be the following.

>
> 杉山さんは、もう約束{やくそく}の時間{じかん}を３０分{ぷん}も過{す}ぎているのに、今{いま}私{わたし}に、SMSで「今日{きょう}は行{い}けなくなった」とだけ知{し}らせてきましたよ。杉山さんって、こういう感{かん}じの方{かた}なんですね。

"方" in "杉山さんって、こういう感じの方なんですね" always "方{かた}," because
"〇〇さんって、こういう感じの方{かた}なんですね" or "〇〇さんって、そういう感じの方{かた}なんですね" is a common phrase
expressing criticism against a person without making a firm critic statememt.

If you'd like to make it clear, you can say "〇〇さんって、失礼{しつれい}な方{かた}なんですね" or
"〇〇さんって、礼儀{れいぎ}を知{し}らない方なんですね."

> You can say "杉山さんって、こういう感じなんですね" insted of "杉山さんって、こういう感じの方なんですね."

Both are interchangeable. I feel the first sentence skip "の方" or "の人{ひと}."

* * *

ちなみに、人についての話題で"方{ほう}"を使う例は以下です。

オフィスにて、In the office,

> "杉山さんの机の上は書類だらけだ。杉山さんはアバウトな方{ほう} or 方{かた}なんですね。"  
>  Mr. Sugiyama has a pile of papers on his desk, he is not fussy about
> anything, isn't he?

This example sentence is just confusing. We can read "方" as not only "方{かた}"
but also "方{ほう}."

If you read "アバウトな方{ほう}," in your mind there are two groups of person. One is
the group of people who are fussy, the other is the gruoup of people who are
not fussy. So you can say "He is a person who is not on fussy side.
"side=方{ほう}" ←I'm not sure this is an appropriate English or not."
CC BY-SA 3.0
2017-02-13T00:28:15.083
43466
2017-02-13T02:11:14.820
2017-02-13T02:11:14.820
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answer
First, let's clarify two things:

  1. The 方 in “こういう感じの **方** ” is read かた, which is the polite way of saying _person_.
  2. The 〜ね at the end is important in understanding the tone of this sentence. 〜なんです is a confident/declarative statement, while 〜なんです **ね** effectively dampens the assertiveness in the tone. Think of the difference between saying “It's a friendly cat” versus something like “You could say it's a friendly cat” or “So it's a friendly cat, huh?”.

Back to your example,

>   1. 杉山さんって、こういう感じ **の方** なんですね  
>  _Sugiyama-san is this kind of person, huh._
>   2. 杉山さんって、こういう感じなんですね  
>  _Sugiyama-san is like this, huh._
>

Since the topic is clearly Sugiyama-san, a person, you can remove the の方
without altering the basic meaning of the sentence.

The only difference is that, in sentence #1, there is more information to be
gleaned about the **relationship between the speaker and Sugiyama-san**. Since
the speaker is referring to Sugiyama-san using the polite [方]{かた}, you can
infer that there is quite a bit of polite distance between the two people. I
would say that this distance is greater than what can be assumed from just the
use of 〜さん.

So while sentence #2 could be about any kind of two people, you can assume
from sentence #1 that the speaker and Sugiyama-san are **not** two classmates
in high school, for example.
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2017-02-15T10:46:46.120
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2017-02-15T10:46:46.120
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answer