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多過ぎ - too much

て - Why is it there? What's its position relating the grammar?

気 - Does it express intention? What does it represent exactly?

張って - to fill, to do maybe?

いるせいか - What is the grammatical function of this??

I'm a N4 Japanese learner so it's still so confusing for me to resolve the sentences. Can someone analyze it?? Thank you so much for now.

translator witch
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1 Answers1

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  • 多過ぎる works as an intransitive verb, and 多すぎて is its te-form. This te-form describes a reason/cause. Recheck the grammar of ～過ぎる.
  • 気が張る is a set phrase that means "to feel nervous", "one's nerve is stretched". 気が張っている is its progressive form.
  • せい is a special noun (形式名詞) which translates to "due to", "because of". (This seems to be categorized as a N3 grammar point, but it's very common in colloquial Japanese.)
  • This か is a question marker, but in this context it's like "presumably", "possibly" or "supposedly". See this.

やることが多過ぎて気が張っているせいか
possibly due to the fact that [someone] is being nervous because there are too many things to do

naruto
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  • Thank you so much for this satisfying answer. But it keeps me wondering, isn't the seika is a little redundant? I mean there's already ''て'' giving me the cause/reason, right? – translator witch Jul 16 '19 at 12:41
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    @translatorwitch There are two levels of cause/effect relationships. One is "having a lot of work and thus being nervous" (described by the te-form). The other is "being nervous and thus ～", where this ～ refers to what comes after せいか. So what's the remaining part of your sentence? – naruto Jul 16 '19 at 12:48
  • Ah, I get it now. I thought seika was linked to the first sentence.

    Here it is:

    毎日やることが多過ぎて気が張っているせいか、眠ってもすぐに目覚めてしまう。 They are nervous so they wake up right away?

     – translator witch Jul 17 '19 at 15:07
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    @translatorwitch Yes, they cannot sleep well, and that's perhaps because they are nervous, and that's because they have a lot of tasks. – naruto Jul 17 '19 at 15:16
  • Thank you so much, I appreciate your help, really. – translator witch Jul 18 '19 at 18:22