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BBCのLearning Englishのサイトでtoken handful

以下のサイトの真ん中辺のパラグラフの部分にあるa token handfulの意味がよくわかりません。サイトは以下の通りです。 http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/newsenglish/witn/2007/03/070328_turkey_women.shtml Ideally the campaigners want positive discrimination to end that - the introduction of a legal quota for women MPs. But for this year's general election they're pressuring party leaders, all of them men, to change the way they draw up their party lists. Instead of putting a token handful of female candidates at the very bottom, campaigners want women in the top slots. They're hopeful that would ensure at least ten percent of MPs in the next parliament are women - not the full equality they're after but a start. 真ん中辺のa token handful of female candidates のtoken handfulを日本語にするとど表現したらいいでしょうか。 a token handful はBBCのサイトでは"here, a small number of people who are chosen in order to pretend that a problem is being dealt with"という説明になっていますが、よく意味がわかりません。また、ここではtokenは形容詞でつかわれているんでしょうか。 テキストが長くてすみませんが、よろしくお願いいたします。

  • 英語
  • 回答数2
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  • tjhiroko
  • ベストアンサー率52% (2281/4352)
回答No.1

tokenには形容詞的に「形だけの、申し訳程度の」という意味がありますので、この場合はそれかと思います。 a token handful of female candidates で「形だけの少数の女性候補」とか、前後の部分も一緒に訳すと「申し訳程度に一握りの女性候補をリストのはるか下に名前を載せる代わりに」とかいった感じかと思います。

13243546
質問者

お礼

形容詞でそういう意味があったんですか。 勉強になりました。どうもありがとうございました。

その他の回答 (1)

  • go_urn
  • ベストアンサー率57% (938/1643)
回答No.2

こんにちは。 a token handful of female candidates 初めて見る形で、勉強になりました。No.1のお方の回答で尽きているか と思いますが、『プログレッシブ英和中辞典』で見ますと、 token に形容詞としての、「ほんのわずかな、形ばかりの」という意味が 記載されており、a token black/ a token womanの例が出ていて、「(人種差別や女性差別がないことを示すためにその職場・集団に受け入れられた)お飾りの黒人(女性)」という説明があります。 そうすると、そのようなコンテクストで使われるようになったフレイズ かもしれませんね。 Googleで、"a token handful of"を入れてみると、かなり用例があり、 ざっと見ただけですが、類似のコンテクストでの使用が多いようです。 興味深い用法をありがとうございました。

13243546
質問者

お礼

プログレッシブ英和中辞典をみるべきでした。最近英辞郎ばかりみているので、反省しました。 私もgoogleで検索してみますね。 例文もありがとうございました。

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