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This phrase is a heading in a business-Japanese book. Underneath, the book talks about avoiding casual contracted words in the office and on phone calls.

From what I know about 留める(とどめる), which is a transitive verb, I would think 「...留めましょう」 would be correct here. Although I can find examples of 「...に留める」, I can't find any that, to me, would make sense here. What does 「...に留める」 mean in this context?

Hikonyan
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    The direct object here is 略語, whose を was overridden by the topic marker は, whereas 社内での使用 is a destination (“confine the use of abbreviations to in-company use”). – L. F. Dec 19 '22 at 23:20
  • Ahh, so the distinction in the sentence (and also thanks to sundowner's answer) is about confining abbreviations to INTERNAL use. That's the piece I was missing. I guess I assumed that companies prefer avoiding abbreviations even internally, but my assumption overrode my reading abilities. – Hikonyan Dec 20 '22 at 00:29

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One way to understand it is to think that これを is omitted.

So verbosely, the sentence says

略語(について)は、これを社内での使用に留{とど}めましょう,

which literally means

Regarding abbreviations, let's keep this to internal use.


It is fairly common to move objects to the front this way.

  • この本はもう読み終えた I finished reading this book.
  • 必要なものは買った I bought necessary things.

The famous Article 9 of the Japanese Constitution has the following:

第九条 日本国民は、正義と秩序を基調とする国際平和を誠実に希求し、国権の発動たる戦争と、武力による威嚇又は武力の行使は、国際紛争を解決する手段としては、永久にこれを放棄する。 ② 前項の目的を達するため、陸海空軍その他の戦力は、これを保持しない。国の交戦権は、これを認めない。

A literal translation of the bold part would be

The Japanese people, regarding war and threat or use of forces, renounce these forever.

sundowner
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