I have been trying for ages to understand the reason という is used so
frequently. In other words, what does it add to the sentence and what
connotations does it have in Japanese? I understand the meaning of each word
individually in many of the set phrases it belongs to, but if you were forced
to name who it is doing the いう'ing, would it be the speaker, Japanese society
or just some abstract entity?

All I've found are silly and questionable English translations like:

> 今日のテーマは愛 **という** 事だ  
>  "Today's lesson is the thing they call love"

The problem for me arises when I see just how often stuff like ということ appears
in conversation, even twice in a sentence, like:

> 彼が金を貸してくれた **ということ** は私は彼に信用されている **ということ** だ。

Why isn't it just

> 彼がお金を貸してくれた **こと** は

I was hoping someone could give me a (hopefully in-depth) understanding based
more in how it is understood in Japanese. Even a link to a good Japanese
explanation or a summary would do.
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grammar set-phrases
The という in things like 〜ということ・〜というの・〜という感じ・〜というわけ etc
貸してくれたということは ＝ 貸してくれた ＋ ということは

ということは~ ＝ That means ~

<http://kotobank.jp/word/%E3%81%A8%E8%A8%80%E3%81%86%E3%81%93%E3%81%A8%E3%81%AF>
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Japanese-Japanese dictionaries give [almost complehensive
lists.](https://kotobank.jp/word/%E8%A8%80%E3%81%86%E3%83%BB%E4%BA%91%E3%81%86%E3%83%BB%E8%AC%82%E3%81%86-201316#E5.A4.A7.E8.BE.9E.E6.9E.97.20.E7.AC.AC.E4.B8.89.E7.89.88)

“Aという” originally meant “someone says A”, but its original meaning has been
lost in many cases, and it is used like a 助詞.

“Aということだ。” means “I heard that A.” In this sentence meaning of “say” is
remaining.

In other cases “Aということ” is used as a noun clause. A shorter form “Aこと” is also
used, but “Aということ” makes it more obvious that it is a noun clause. “Aこと” may
be confused with a normal combination of 連体形 + 名詞.

> 彼が言ったということ  
>  The fact that he said something  
>  (less common) What I hear he said
>
> 彼が言ったこと  
>  What he said  
>  (less common) The fact that he said something

When used in the form of “Aということは、B(ということ)だ。”, it means “Judging from A, B.”

“なんということもない” means literally “about which I have nothing to say” implying “not
special”.
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I feel your pain...but I think I'm able to answer this.

First, let's quickly review relative clauses. From
[Niwasaburoo](http://www.geocities.jp/niwasaburoo/56rentaisetu.html):

［Ｎを］ 私が買った辞書, which would be the relative clause version of 私が辞書を買った。

［Ｎに］ 私が日本語を教えた学生 ⇒ 私が学生に日本語を教えた。

［Ｎへ］ 母が買い物に行ったデパート ⇒ 母が買い物にデパートへ行った。

［Ｎと］ ×毎朝学校へ通った友達 ○毎朝いっしょに学校へ通った友達 ⇒ 毎朝いっしょに友達と学校へ通った。

So there's a lot of construction of the case of the head noun from context. So
how are we supposed to reconstruct what the noun's original case would be in
~というN? Well, let's just assume that it's the subject が. In that case, we'd get
Nが〜という。If N is こと for example, we'd have ことが〜という。

Now let's take a look at the definition of と from
[dictionary.goo](http://dictionary.goo.ne.jp/leaf/jn2/154670/m1u/%E3%81%A8/):

と：２ （文や句をそのまま受けて）動作・作用・状態の内容を表す。引用の「と」。

This is huge...because this is NOT what the English word "quotation" means.
From this definition, it would appear that と is extracting the substance of
what it is quoting more than just the words.

Now if only we could grab a definition of いう that states clearly what it is
that the subject is doing with the "quoted" material, and makes sense why this
would be metaphorically related to the act of speaking, but it is here where
the dictionary flounders a bit. From [the という
entry](http://dictionary.goo.ne.jp/leaf/jn2/9767/m1u/%E3%81%84%E3%81%86/):

１ （「…という」の形で体言に続けて）

㋐同格であることを示す。「世界の中のアメリカと―・う国」

㋑「と」の前の事柄を特に取り立てて示して、意味を強める。

㋒数量を表す語に付いて、その意味を強める。…に相当する。

５ （「…という」「…ということだ」などの形で）話の内容が直接でなく他からの情報にもとづくことを表す。

It would be great if there were a more abstract stand-alone usage of いう to
help us understand という, but it seems there isn't.

Two more things I would like to bring up. The first is apposition. [In
Masahiro Tanimori's Handbook of Japanese
Grammar](http://books.google.com/books?id=Me7t9o-LLroC&pg=PA219&lpg=PA219&dq=handbook%20of%20japanese%20grammar%20apposition&source=bl&ots=OBeuXxeEMX&sig=CouGHainCEhMvkMYeUzyhO91cxo&hl=en&sa=X&ei=UF5eVKm_Acb8yQSw9IKgDA&ved=0CB4Q6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=handbook%20of%20japanese%20grammar%20apposition&f=false),
という is defined as:

  1. After noun is apposition to the following word.

and 2. After statement in apposition to the following word.

I found this to be helpful to coping with という. Also, the distinction between
restrictive and non-restrictive apposition(referenced in both the [relative
clause](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Relative_clause) and
[apposition](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apposition) wikipedia pages) is I
think good to know.

Lastly you were wondering why someone would use a complex sentence? Well, when
you're dealing with
[形式名詞](http://www.geocities.jp/niwasaburoo/14keisikimeisi.html)(もの、の、ところ、etc),
usually you have some manner of [cleft
sentence](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cleft_sentence). Why use a cleft
sentence? i.e. Why say "It was the Germans who started this war" instead of
"The Germans started this war"? Well, usually this is wrapped up in the
concept of [focus](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Focus_\(linguistics\)). When
you say 〜ということは, you're making a note in some global variable called 文脈 that
you will be answering the implicit question you have posed. Similarly, "It was
the Germans who started this war" is answering the question, posed or not,
"Who started the war?" By using a cleft sentence, you set this kind of special
focus on some block of dialogue.
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Question ①:"I have been trying for ages to understand **the reason という is used
so frequently.** "

Question ②:"What does という add to the sentence and what connotations does it
have in Japanese?"

Question ③:If you were forced to name who it is doing the いう'ing, would it be
the speaker, Japanese society or just some abstract entity?

Question ④:What does 彼が金を貸してくれたということは do that 彼がお金を貸してくれたことは doesn't?

Question ⑤:"How do I even go about understanding what 何ということも(from
何ということもない普通の人生) means?"

Question ⑥:Could you also explain というの and というわけ? Preferably with examples
rather than just Aということ?

I'll try to answer as many of these as possible(as I tried in my other
answer).

という is an appositional akin to の(the の from 神社の鐘). It's primary purpose is to
neutrally relate two words or phrases, either VというN or NというN.

But what is it's connotation? These two(from goo thesaurus):

[From the という／といった／との thesaurus
page](http://dictionary.goo.ne.jp/leaf/thsrs/17163/m0u/):[共通する意味]★同格・内容説明を表わす。

同格 is the Japanese word for apposition...This would be a really awesome moment
for you to go look at the [wikipedia page for
apposition](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apposition).

[From the という／といった／といって／として／にしても thesaurus
page](http://dictionary.goo.ne.jp/leaf/thsrs/17187/m0u/):[共通する意味]★強調を表わす。

Expressing emphasis (or if we're feeling brazen, let's call it focus（焦点）)

So yeah...apposition and emphasis, that's という.

Continuing on to the derivatives...

From the [といえば／というと／といったら／となると thesaurus
page](http://dictionary.goo.ne.jp/leaf/thsrs/17199/m0u/):[共通する意味]
★ある事柄を話題とし、主題とすることを表わす。

So the common meaning here is that these all make what precedes them the topic
or subject (of the following dialogue).

So now what about the 形式名詞（もの、の、こと、ところ、わけ）? Why is という used so frequently with
them? Why is という used/needed before こと in sentences like the one above? The
best I can offer is to note again the "emphasis" meaning...I feel that alot of
this is mired in the grammatical category of focus. That question(④), properly
articulated, would be a great question to ask by itself.

Concerning 何ということもない, to explain why this is equivalent to 問題はない means
covering grammar quirks not within the scope of the other questions. I think
you can swap the appositionals, getting 何のこともない, and the meaning would be the
same. Again, this would be a great question to ask by itself.

Hopefully this is helpful. But if it is not, I'll try to further touch up this
answer as I have the time.
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彼が金を貸してくれたということは私は彼に信用されているということだ。

The fact that he lent me money means that he trusts me.

こと is use to turn a verb into a noun = **nominalization**

彼が金を貸す he lends money 彼が金を貸すことは to lend money = lending money Another usage of
'koto' is to serve as a placeholder for other nouns for exemple, you could
insert the word "fact" in place of 'koto' which leads to "the fact he
lends/lended money" this is another way to nominalize

last but not least the structure of the whole phrase is 田中(noun)は医者(noun)

  * noun is noun - Tanaka is a doctor we can nominalize the two sentences to follow the same pattern which is something along those lines

seeing is believing to see is to believe

見る 事 は 信じる 事 です miru koto ha shinjiru koto desu

Some times we use 'to iu' to show the contents / meaning

for example: the fact | but what fact 事 | どう 言う 事

彼が金を貸してくれたということ - the fact that he lended money
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