Language Question: 又は

[Kent Enfield]

Is there an older or rarer meaning to 又は beyond listing alternatives? I'm working on the tsuki and do sections of Takano sensei's waza list, and this has come up.

The description makes perfect grammatical and kendo sense if this 又は means "or", but it doesn't make sense in terms of context. If it means "or", the description becomes that of two completely different techniques. If it were to instead indicate some sort of sequential link (Takano sensei uses "其の儘" a lot), the technique would also make perfect sense mechanically and would also make sense given the technique name and its place in the curriculum.

[atgm]

I've seen situations where it's been used to indicate a continuation of a list in the sense of "and also" or "and further"... though it's hard to say whether that applies or not without actually seeing the text.

[Kent Enfield]

I've seen situations where it's been used to indicate a continuation of a list in the sense of "and also" or "and further"... though it's hard to say whether that applies or not without actually seeing the text.
I don't want to give away too much and take away from the post on kenshi247. The context is a technique called XY, where the description is:

敵より〜するを、Xし、又はYする。

[atgm]

I guess it would work.

[Sukeyasu]

The Japanese "either, or" isn't as exclusive as it is in English. In addition to "mata wa," there are words like "aruiwa" and "moshikuwa" that are used in the same way. Maybe a better translation than "or" in some cases is "furthermore."

I would guess that the example you gave above is actually a shortening of something like "mata wa Y wo suru koto ga/mo arimasu," which would be very common for the style in which Takano Sensei is writing.

[Kent Enfield]

Thanks.

I would guess that the example you gave above is actually a shortening of something like "mata wa Y wo suru koto ga/mo arimasu," which would be very common for the style in which Takano Sensei is writing.
Nope. It's straight up "teki yori nani nani suru wo, X wo shi, mata wa Y wo suru."

[Sukeyasu]

Right. What I'm saying is that the "koto ga/mo arimasu" part is understood.

[Josh Reyer]

I've PM'd Kent about this, and in my opinion, the "は" is a misprint or copy error, and the passage should read "X wo shi, mata Y wo suru." The main problem with the "or/also/furthermore" construction is that the supplemental possibility offered (Y) should be the main technique (X), given the section the technique is in.