> 丸尾君はだれに頼まれたわけで **も** ないのに、ひとりで教室の拭きそうじをしていた。  
>  Although it's not the case that Maruo was asked by anyone, he did the
> classroom cleaning by himself.

...わけではない = It's not the case that ...  
だれも = anyone

I'm confused as to how these merge together into the above sentence (assuming
my translation is correct).

Naively (and no doubt wrongly) I would have tried だれに **も** 頼まれたわけで **は**
ないのに. Is there a way to understand what is going on here?

Also, If I simply wanted to say "I wasn't asked by anyone" (without all the わけ
stuff) how would I do that? Again, naivley I'd try だれに **も** 頼まれなかった、but
something tells me I'm wrong.
CC BY-SA 3.0
2015-12-23T11:58:12.877
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question
grammar particle-も
Why does も move in sentences involving だれも etc
だれにも頼まれたわけではないのに sounds awkward because it stands for something like "it's not
that he was asked by even someone". Isn't it better to rephrase "it's not even
that he was asked by someone"?

And yes, "I wasn't asked by anyone" translates to 誰にも頼まれなかった.
CC BY-SA 3.0
2015-12-24T10:02:39.413
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answer
The も moves because 誰も is not a single word; it is two words. The も is the
very same as in 私もそう思う.

The combination of a question _phrase_ and も becomes 'any~~~'; for example,
you could say

> 誰のせい？  
>  Whose fault is it?

Someone may answer

> 誰のせいで **も** ない  
>  It's no one's fault.

You may be familiar with ～ても 'even if'; combining this with a question word
results in 'no matter', as in

> 例えこの先何があっても、僕達は友達でいよう。  
>  No matter what happens, we will always be friends.

I don't know if that's a satisfactory answer, but I hope it at least helps you
somewhat.
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2015-12-24T16:21:13.527
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answer