この頃、親たちは子供たちを以前よりもっと大人として扱い、子供には自分で人生上の選択をする自由が今まで以上に与えられている。

Sentence Discussions Japanese
#1
English Translation

Nowadays parents treat their children more as equals than they used to and the child is given more freedom to make his or her own decisions in life.

What is the role of 今まで以上 in this sentence? I believe the sentence will mean the same without it. Does it add emphasis? If so, to what? Does it add emphasis to the comparison of “then” and “now”?

#2

@ericaw
No. You cannot omit 今まで以上に. 今まで以上に is pretty much the same as “more than ever” in English.

Let’s evaluate the degree of freedom on a 1-10 scale.

  1. 自由が今まで以上に与えられている = (lit.) Freedom is given to children more than ever. = The maximum degree of freedom in the past is 7. But now they have 8.

  2. 自由が与えられている = (lit.) Freedom is given to children. = Now they have 8, but this sentence can mean either A) they used to have 9 and it dropped; or B) they had no freedom in the past at all. There is no comparison in this altered sentence.

By the way, the original Japanese sentence sounds like a very robotic word-for-word translation. Also, “treat their children more as equals” is mistranslated. My alternative translation is:

昨今は、親が子供間で扱いを区別しない傾向にあり、また子供は人生を自らの意思で選択する自由を今まで以上に有するようになった。
(pron. さっこんは、おやがこどもかんであつかいをくべつしないけいこうにあり、またこどもはじんせいをみずからのいしでせんたくするじゆうをいままでいじょうにゆうするようになった)

  • この頃 in the original sentence sounds very colloquial and it doesn’t match the rest of the sentence with formal expressions.

  • The original Japanese sentence compares A) treating adults v. treating children in the past; with B) those nowadays. But I think the English sentence means A) treating a child (especially male or the first child) v. other children in the past; and B) those nowadays.

  • 自分で人生上の選択をする自由 is understandable but not natural. I changed it to 人生を自らの意思で選択する自由.

Please keep in mind that even native speakers easily get confused between the two homophones “いし”: 意思 and 意志. 意思決定 (decision-making) is not interchangeable with 意志決定. 意志 is “willingness” or “commitment to doing something” while 意思 means “personal feeling/thought/belief/motive”. 意志 is used to describe the change in the state of mind to achieve something while 意思 is more focus on the current state of mind. This article explains the difference between 意思 and 意志.