ことのみしか知らない

[akrodha]

戦うことのみしか知らないX
The translation of this sentence is "X knows nothing but fighting." I understand everything except for みしか. Dictionary lookups didn't turn up anything. Any help is appreciated!

[Glenn]

That's のみ＋しか. Seems like they really want to emphasize the fact that all he knows is fighting.

[undrentide]

戦うことのみしか知らないX
The translation of this sentence is "X knows nothing but fighting." I understand everything except for みしか. Dictionary lookups didn't turn up anything. Any help is appreciated!

It is not みしか but 戦うこと＋のみ＋しか＋知らない
Both のみ and しか mean "only", the latter carries negative connotation.
To me this sentence sounds redundant...
戦うことしか知らない is suffice.
It is possible to say 戦うことのみ知っている, too, though this sounds rather positive while 戦うことしか知らない sounds negative (I don't mean grammatical negation but negative feeling.)
---
Gee, Glenn san, you beat me again! :)

[Elizabeth]

戦うことのみしか知らないX
The translation of this sentence is "X knows nothing but fighting." I understand everything except for みしか. Dictionary lookups didn't turn up anything. Any help is appreciated!
All I've seen is not nomi, but "dake shika..." so that must be more common. :)

It is possible to say 戦うことのみ知っている, too, though this sounds rather positive while 戦うことしか知らない sounds negative (I don't mean grammatical negation but negative feeling.)

What about 戦うことばかり知らない ? If it's even grammatical, is that essentially as negative in the sense that they know a few other things than fighting, but emphasizing it's very little in comparison. 　

[undrentide]

All I've seen is not nomi, but "dake shika..." so that must be more common. :)

I agree with this, だけしか is quite common.

What about 戦うことばかり知らない ? If it's even grammatical, is that essentially as negative in the sense that they know a few other things than fighting, but emphasizing it's very little in comparison. 　

ばかり知らない sounds just incorrect to me... it does not convey the meaning you intended.
戦うことばかり知っている sounds better, but still a little bit awkward.

[akrodha]

Oh wow that was fast. Thanks!

I'm not surprised that it sounds a bit "negative." I found this on a website dedicated to a fighting game (Smash Bros. Melee) coming up on the Wii.

But it's good to know that だけしか is common. I looked up のみ and it's supposed to be a bit more formal than だけ. Maybe since のみしか appeared on a Nintendo website, they're trying to fall in between formal and casual? Or maybe they're just using strange formulations for emphasis?

Oh well. Either way thanks! And I hope you guys don't mind me asking questions like this in the future. Hopefully they'll be better researched :}

[Elizabeth]

ばかり知らない sounds just incorrect to me... it does not convey the meaning you intended.
戦うことばかり知っている sounds better, but still a little bit awkward.
Ah, well, thanks undrentide. I suppose ばかり essentially overlaps with だけ in what I was trying to convey anyway. :souka:

With a negative sentence, then, it is always ばかり＋です （ではない。。。）？

人生悪いことばかりじゃない
私ばかりじゃない。。。

[Glenn]

Found these on Google; the use with negative seems to be limited.

前を見て！携帯ばかり見ないでよ
萌えてばかりもいられない！
他国の批判ばかりをしてられない状況 ...
浅野支持者は吉田氏批判ばかりしていないか？(rhetorical question, not sure it counts)
議論や分析ばかりしてないで「攻めてみよ！」
自然がいいとばかりは限らない
金のことばかり言うんじゃないよ！？ (minor alteration on the negative command)
今回ばかりは後に引けない。

I found those after skimming through 7 pages of search results. Some were repeaters, like 〜ばかり見ないで (脚 came up a few times; I'm a bit curious about that one), 〜てばかりもいられない, but most seemed to be used with じゃない and its variants.