Let's Bloom Earlier Than the Cherry Blossoms#
I noticed an interesting advertisement on my way to work:
Let's bloom earlier than the cherry blossoms.
Making flowers bloom / Flowers bloom
Keihin-Tohoku Line CM Waseda Academy
2025-01-20
I found it interesting because the usage of "咲く" in this sentence seems to be a meaning not yet included in dictionaries.
Looking solely at the definition of "咲く，" it is completely unclear what the advertisement is trying to convey:
咲く
- The flower bud opens. To bloom. "A large flower blooms" "The peony blooms magnificently"
- Waves break and appear white. "In the bay of Ajigama, the waves break and it is said that they can be untangled" <Man'yōshū, 3551>
Digital Daijisen (Shogakukan)
However, checking related idiomatic expressions makes it easier to understand:
花が咲く
- The season comes and flourishes. "One day, the day will come when it blooms"
- It continues lively from one to another. "In a folktale, it blooms"
Digital Daijisen (Shogakukan)
花を咲かせる
- To succeed. To be active and gain fame. "After many years of effort, it finally bloomed into a large flower"
Digital Daijisen (Shogakukan)
Seeing "花を咲かせる，" I thought there was a word "咲かせる，" but only the "Shinmeikai Kokugo Jiten 8th Edition" and "NEW Saito Kazu Eigo Daijiten" have it listed.
However, neither of these dictionaries includes the meaning "to succeed. To be active and gain fame" for "咲かせる，" so the "咲く" in "桜より先に、咲いてやろう" should be considered a usage not yet included in dictionaries.
さか・せる⓪【咲かせる】
(Transitive)
[Causative form of "咲く"] To make it bloom.
"One flower blooms again in that area"
'Shinmeikai Kokugo Jiten 8th Edition'
さかせる〔咲かせる〕
To make (a flower) bloom; to make (a tree) blossom
'NEW Saito Kazu Eigo Daijiten'
Expansion#
How can we use [[idiomatic expression recognition algorithm]] to identify that "桜より先に、咲いてやろう" actually uses the idiomatic expression "花を咲かせる"?
First, I personally believe that the dictionary form corresponding to "咲いてやろう" is either "咲かせる" or "咲く." Although the explanation of "花が咲く" in [[Daijisen]] does not include "to succeed. To be active and gain fame," since Mecab also does not parse "花を咲かせる" as "咲かせる，" it suffices to allow both "花を咲かせる" and "花が咲く" to be searchable as "花" + "咲く." Additionally, interestingly, although these two idiomatic expressions are highly similar in meaning and form, the search suggestions in the "MOJi Dictionary" do not show the connection between these two idiomatic expressions, which indicates that they are not using keyword extraction and recognition but rather other methods.
Secondly, this example is also different from "摘み取って残した ここでいつか 華咲かせる" in [[運命の華]]—while "華" can indeed be read as "はな，" Mecab will not parse it incorrectly. However, "桜" cannot be parsed as "はな，" requiring Mecab to correctly parse even "当て字，" which seems a bit excessive.