53574
Sometimes when I am looking at videos or scripts of Japanese games to practice
my translation skills, I occasionally come across unfamiliar kanji usage where
words usually written in hiragana are written in Kanji. For example, instead
of "ため", "為" or "あなた" "貴方" and finally "また" to "又". I don't really understand
its purpose.

For the record these Kanji I have found in two games meant for high school age
readers. My question is, why are these kanji used when in most settings they
are not used? What sort of effect on the reader does it produce?

Finally, I noticed in some of these cases, they write in kanji words that are
not usually in kanji, but then proceed to write other words that use kanji a
fair bit such as おまえ or わかる in hiragana. Why would it be written towards one
extreme but then ignore other words?

I know there are similar questions about Kanji usage but not exactly what I am
looking for. So I apologize if this has been answered.
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2017-09-30T20:21:05.050
53566
2017-10-02T09:54:26.007
2017-10-02T09:54:26.007
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question
kanji nuances
Why would someone write "為" , "貴方" and "又" rather than use ため、あなた、また?
According to modern writing guidelines for plain formal text (like news
articles), ため (a formal noun) and また (a lexicalized adverb/conjunction) should
be normally written in hiragana. But a creative writer may use 又 and 為
intentionally to make the text look stiff, old, dignified, etc. Some novelists
like to use these difficult kanji all the time. Sometimes these kanji may be
used simply to reduce the number of characters so the sentence can be put in
the text box. However, there are also times when lazy and untrained writers
use these kanji just because their IME happened to produce them. Anyway, these
kanji are not particularly difficult for high school students who are familiar
with creative writings. You don't have to care too much.

Regarding 貴方, it's really common in creative writings and I would say you
shouldn't care. Most of the times, it's just up to the writer's personal
preference. If you're really sure someone is using あなた and 貴方 distinctively,
maybe the latter may look a bit more courteous, gentle, mature, etc.
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2017-10-01T02:17:38.033
53574
2017-10-01T04:44:25.340
2017-10-01T04:44:25.340
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53566
answer