72022
In this sentence:

> 神野{じんの}菜生子{なおこ}さして意外そうでもなくうなずいた

I'm having some issue in understanding `そうでもない`, and according to how I read
it it reverse the meaning of the sentence: as far as I understand, `そうでもない`
means "not really", so the sentence would mean something like "Not very/really
unexpectedly, Jinno Naoko nodded", but I'm not sure about `そうでもない` and I can't
find it on my grammars.
CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-09-23T08:22:18.490
72020
2019-09-23T08:56:56.273
35362
question
grammar meaning reading-comprehension
Meaning of そうでもない
Your translation seems okay. To break it down:

  * 意外だ: "is unexpected"
  * 意外そうだ: "looks unexpected"
  * 意外そうではない: "does not look unexpected"
  * 意外そうではなく: (ku-form of 意外そうではない) "not looking unexpected"
  * 意外そうで **も** なく: "not (quite) looking unexpected"
  * さして意外そうでもなく: "not really looking unexpected"

For the last も, see:

  * [も in 「Vのもアレなんだけど」](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/q/55970/5010)
  * [What is the difference between 「とは限らない」and 「とも限らない」](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/q/55266/5010)
  * [Usage of も in a Specific Context](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/q/51841/5010)

さして "(not) very/really" is an adverb used with a negative expression (i.e.,
[negative polarity item](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/a/16060/5010)).
CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-09-23T08:56:56.273
72022
2019-09-23T08:56:56.273
5010
72020
answer