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When I happened upon the word 意図 (ito: intention), I was tickled. I figured that this instance of 図 might mean “map,” as it sometimes does. If so, one could read 意図 as mind + map! An intention might be a map of the mind!
Thinking that way made me quite happy, because back in college, I took an anthropology course called “Cultures and Consciousness,” and one of my favorite textbooks was Charles Hampden-Turner’s Maps of the Mind.
An Ancient Memory
of Maps of the Mind …
“Maps of the mind” is a great phrase, suggestive of many things, including trains of thought. When it comes to representing interconnected thoughts (e.g., about kanji!), the Internet is a perfect tool, for its glorious hyperlinkability.
Speaking of kanji, I probably ought to focus exclusively on that for the rest of this blog. But it’s hard to discipline the mind to go down a straight railroad track. We have such strong associative capacities that it’s almost as if our minds were meant to wander again and again. Why have we evolved that way, come to think of it? Is it so we can multitask? Is it so we can repeatedly return to the past, always digesting it and learning from it? Jesus, Eve, focus already!
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A Cool Compound 翻意 (hon’i: to change one’s mind) to flutter + mind |
The focus (!) of today’s blog is intentions: the good, the bad, and the unforeseen. We’ll take ’em one at a time with a few garnishes on the side.
The Best of Intentions
Several compounds help us talk about people’s true intentions. I don’t mean “true intentions” in the sense of “ulterior motives.” Quite the opposite. These words point to good faith and pure hearts:
本意 (hon’i: one’s real intent, motive, hopes) origin + intention
正意 (seii: true heart; correct meaning) right + intention
真意 (shin’i: real intention, true meaning) true + intention
In each compound, the initial kanji strikes me as geometrically sharp and simple, with crisp right angles and neat diagonals, as opposed to, say, 為.
Those left-hand kanji (本, 正, 真) give off the air not only of rectilinearity but also of rectitude, referring as they do to what’s correct and true.
The next compound also means “true intention” and would therefore seem to be similar to the three above:
奥意 (okui: true intention) inmost + meaning
But this is an entirely different word. For one thing, the first kanji looks complicated. And whereas 本, 正, and 真 allude to abstractions such as truth and rightness, the initial kanji in 奥意 has a much more private sense. Many of us first encounter this character in 奥さん (okusan: (your) wife). The kanji 奥 can also mean “mysterious,” so perhaps that’s why 奥意 feels murkier than the other “true intention” words.
Another word also refers to what lies inside the heart:
内意 (naii: intention, personal opinion) inside + meaning
And one last compound hints at good intentions:
好意 (kōi: goodwill, favor) good + thoughts
The Worst of Intentions
That word, kōi, happens to sound a lot like one with the opposite meaning:
故意 (koi: intention, purpose; bad faith; guilty mind)
intentional + intention
This 故 is the same one we see in 事故 (jiko: accident, incident, event + incident). But in 故意, the character 故 means “intentional” or “on purpose.” Those intentions result in misfortune, particularly when 故意 combines with に.
As if 故意 isn’t negative enough, here are a few more compounds in which the intention (意) is to screw people over:
悪意 (akui: ill will, spite, evil intention; bad meaning; (criminal) malice) to bear ill will + intention
殺意 (satsui: intent to kill) to kill + intention
底意 (sokoi: underlying motives, true intentions)
bottom + intention
意趣 (ishu: grudge, malice, spite, vindictiveness)
intention + motive
What’s the source of all this ill will?! I wondered whether 意 has a dark side, but as far as I can tell, the negativity comes solely from the kanji with which it’s paired. That is, you can spread butter on bread for a tasty treat, or you can smear a poisonous substance on bread for a toxic one.
The Unforeseen
Well, I didn’t quite expect to say that! I don’t know why such an unpleasant image popped into my head. But that’s OK, because it leads me to the topic of the unexpected and unintentional.
What do you think you get with no intention? As it turns out (unexpectedly!), similar ingredients lead to two compounds with rather different meanings:
無意 (mui: unintentional) without + intention
不意 (fui: sudden, unexpected) not + intentionI like the yomi of this second one: hooey or phooey!
The second compound here plays into another word that’s once again fun to say:
不意打ち (fuiuchi: surprise attack)
unexpected (1st 2 chars.) + to attackFuiuchi—almost a tongue twister!
And 不意 also spins off into this expression:
不意をつく(fui o tsuku: to take by surprise)
This つく (tsuku) would be written as 突く, “to thrust, to strike.” You may recognize this kanji as the first half of 突然 (totsuzen: abruptly, suddenly, unexpectedly, abruptly + state of being)
Like kanji, life is full of surprises (both good and bad), and with 意, you can express those unexpected developments in a couple of ways:
意外 (igai: unexpected, surprising) mind + outside
What’s unexpected lies outside the mind!
意表 (ihyō: surprise, something unexpected, limits of one’s expectation) mind + outside
Much to my surprise (!), Halpern says 表 means “outside” here (rather than “to express” or “surface,” as it often does). This word therefore has the same breakdown as the preceding one.
Multiple ways to say the same thing in Japanese?! Well, that’s hardly surprising! Maybe you’ll find some surprises in today’s Verbal Logic Quiz.
