耳障りな話 ― jarring forecast

地震に関する話題です。つい先日、今後4年間にマグニチュード7以上のクラスの地震が関東地方で発生する確率は実に7割以上と試算されるというニュースを聞いておののかない人はいないのではないでしょうか？昨年の3.11からまだ1年も経たないというのに、まったく耳障りなニュースです。（予測に関わった研究者の人達には申し訳ないですが・・・。）


For a country still on edge nearly a year after the giant March 11 Tohoku earthquake, Japanese scientists Monday issued a jarring forecast: Tokyo will likely face its own large temblor within the next four years.

Researchers at Tokyo University’s Earthquake Research Institute said there’s a 70% probability the long-feared “big one” will hit the southern Kanto region, which includes Tokyo’s neon-lit jungle, by 2016. It’s an ominous consequence of last year’s game-changing magnitude 9.0 earthquake, the most powerful recorded to hit Japan.
(Yoree Koh. Big Tokyo Quake Forecast by 2016. The Wall Street Journal. January 23, 2012.)


上記はウォールストリートジャーナル紙からの引用です。今日は、"jarring"という表現に注目してみました。

"jar"と聞くと、ビン（瓶）という意味の名詞をまず思い浮かべますが、それとは別の単語で動詞として、


（耳や神経などに）障る；（人に）不快感を与える


という意味があり、"jarring"は形容詞的に用いられます。引用記事にありますように、今回の東大地震研究所の予測発表は地震を怖れる誰にとっても、あまり聞きたくない、耳障りな話、というわけです。

"jarring"について、もう少し他の用例を見てみましょう。


A first visit to Tokyo's American School in Japan (ASIJ) includes one jarring moment of cultural disconnect. Walking there from the train station, you turn left at the fruit and vegetable stand, pass through a lane crowded with tiny houses identified by graceful Japanese characters, and then veer right at the Shinto temple. After that it's through some metal gates and a parking lot - and smack into a modern American high school, complete with locker doors slamming, sneakers squeaking on the floor, and, in one corner, a group of fair-haired teens enthusiastically sharing a pizza.
(Christian Science Monitor. 2002.)


Crum, who works 20 hours a week as a mess hall lunch server at the Marine Corps base at Quantico, said a full-time job with benefits would allow her and her boyfriend, Thomas Ardis Jr., 27, to leave their tent and get an apartment. Last month, Crum was given a strong incentive to succeed. During a hospital visit for nausea, she discovered that she's pregnant. It was jarring news, but she vowed to keep the baby.
(Washington Post. 2010.)


Witnessing a ritual goat slaughter and feast at The Sowetan newspaper was another jarring experience until I understood the healing role of the slaughter in the context of the African family - whether it is to celebrate a birth or wedding or to heal the wounds of a death in the family.
(Christian Science Monitor. 1994.)


いずれも分かりやすいコンテクストだと思いますが、これらの用例に見られるように"jarring"は色々な名詞を修飾する形で用いられ、それが体験（experience）であれ、ニュース（news）であれ、当人にとっては不都合なもの、望ましくないものであることを意味します。