# 흔히 말하듯 range of modification



## Flooooooooor

Hi all,

Below is from a quote about the French artist Bernard Buffet by his wife:

어린 시절 향수는 *우리가 흔히 말하듯* 불행하지 않으며, 그저 수수할 뿐이다. 냄비에 만들어진 빵 조각에서 나온 것 그리고 몇 개의 채소들로 이루어진 이 정물들 속에는 무한한 감동적인 것들이 떠다닌다.

My question is about the range of the sentence that is modified by *우리가 흔히 말하듯*, as I can imagine two plausible examples:


어린 시절 향수는 *우리가 흔히 말하듯* *(*불행하지 않으며, 그저 수수할 뿐이다*)*. That is, what it is that "we frequently say" is that [nostalgia for the times of youth is not unhappy but merely a simple and easy-going(?) feeling].
어린 시절 향수는 *우리가 흔히 말하듯* *(*불행*)*하지 않으며, 그저 수수할 뿐이다. That is, what it is that "we frequently say" is that [nostalgia for the times of youth is unhappy], but this is wrong -- nostalgia for those times is merely a simple and easy-going(?) feeling.
I think that the author's intention is #2, but only because it makes for a more "insightful" quote in that it claims "we" think of nostalgia one way but that in fact this line of thought is wrong. Is this correct? 

And maybe more importantly, is there any reason, grammatical or otherwise, that native speakers would not see any ambiguity in this sentence and immediately understand only one of the above meanings?

Thanks for any help -- and to those who are celebrating the holiday this week, 즐거운 추석 보내세요~


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## actively

안녕하세요ㅡ

I think it's #2? It wasn't ambiguous to me because it has ..ㄹ 뿐이다 in it, indicating the opposite preceding it.
어린 시절 향수는 *우리가 흔히 말하듯* 불행하지 않으며, 그저 수수할 뿐이다. 냄비에 만들어진 빵 조각에서 나온 것 그리고 몇 개의 채소들로 이루어진 이 정물들 속에는 무한한 감동적인 것들이 떠다닌다. 
Nostalgia from one's childhood is not unhappy *as it is usually perceived to be, *but a normal occurrence = My 의역 
풍족한 한가위 되세요~


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## pcy0308

Hello Flooooooooor,
The second one seems to be in line with what the artist is trying to say. "*수수하다*" here means "simple", "humble" rather than "easy-going", so according to Buffet, nostalgia isn't something extravagant or woe-inducing: to him, nostalgia is "not-so-taxing-on-one's-emotional health  " and is *wonderful in a simpler way*. Although, in a literal sense, "불행한" and "*수수한*" are not exactly opposite to one another, the former connotes something negative about nostalgia, while the latter sheds light upon its positive aspects; the adjective "*수수한*" is always used to describe something or someone in a positive, favorable way; it is often used to describe *unpretentious, natural, plain and simple beauty*: "한복을 입은 그녀는 *수수한* 매력이 있다."

Keeping that in mind, the second sentence of the quote makes it clear that it is *Buffet himself, not the general public, who feels nostalgia is magnificent in an inornate, plain and simple way, (unlike the common belief that it is unfortunate)*. Therefore, your second interpretation which *juxtaposes and contrasts two different ideas* (that of the general public and that of Buffet himself) seems like the right choice. If the entire quote containing both sentences were not given, it could have been a tricky choice.

If you wanted to express "as the saying goes, nostalgia isn't unfortunate and is merely beautiful in a simpler way" (here, Buffet is agreeing with the general public's view on nostalgia), you could just change where "우리가 흔히 말하듯" is positioned within the original sentence: "*우리가 흔히 말하듯, *어린시절 향수는 *우리가 흔히 말하듯* 불행하지 않으며, 그저 수수할 뿐이다." Hope this helps.


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## Flooooooooor

A bit of a late response, but big thanks to both actively and pcy0308 not only for answering my original question, but also for clarifying my understanding of 수수하다 in the sentence!


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