89096
I know in Japanese each particle has a general meaning: を marks a direct
object, が a subject, etc. Even で, with its multiple meanings, was explained to
me like a sort of boundary-marker: in 私はペンで書きました, the で marks the (figurative)
"boundary" of what's used for writing, like there was a boundary around the
pen and I were using what's inside that boundary (in an abstract but similar
way to how 公園で歩きます means I'm walking inside the boundary of the park, marked
by で).

I'm a bit puzzled about に, though: its general meaning seems to be "movement
(real or figurative) towards something/someone", like 公園に行きます; also in cases
like 東京にいます o
[クマに会います](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/questions/88919/%E3%81%AB-
versus-%E3%82%92-with-%E4%BC%9A%E3%81%84%E3%81%BE%E3%81%97%E3%81%9F-verb) I
can see the figurate movement: the movement of the meeting, like said in that
reply, or the fact that to be in a place I had to go there in the first place,
as explained to me elsewhere. I'm not sure if this is a stretch or not, but I
kinda can see how those explanations fit in the general meaning stated above.

But when it comes to passive and causative, I'm kinda stumped: in a sentence
like 私が友達に本を送りました, I am doing the action towards my friend, marked by に, so
the usual に meaning; in a passive sentence like 私が友達に本を送られました, though, the
action is done _by_ my friend _towards_ me, so it kinda seems the other way
around. As far as I understand in the passive sentence 私 is marked by が
because I'm the subject of the れる auxiliary verb, so this is coherent with the
general meaning, but I'm trying to understand if there is some general meaning
I am missing comprensive of both the (seemingly?) opposite directions of
"movement".

For example, if I were to read 私が友達に, from が I would know 私 is the subject,
but as for 友達 I'd have to wait for what comes next to know the direction of
the action, if from me to them (本を送りました) or the other way around (本を送られました);
is this how it works? Or there is some underlying general meaning I'm missing?

I hope I was able to explain this question well enough; it's something I'm
struggling from some time, and while I tried on book and searching on the
Internet, I never really found an answer to this, beside a general "usually it
indicates a movement _towards_ something, here it's a movement _from_
something, which is basically the same thing", which doesn't really sounds
convincing me; also here I found some specific cases, but not a general
analysis.

Edit:

Like で can be seen as a general "boundary setting" meaning in the sense
explained above, I'm not sure if there is a general meaning for に, since it
seems to me that in translation can have two meanings: direction towards
something/recipient of the action (友達に本を送る) and direction from something/doer
of the action (友達に本を送られる).

Take で, which is translated among others as:

  * where an action takes place: 公園で歩いています

  * the mean used to do something: ペンで書きます

  * the language used to express something: 日本語で話します

  * who does something: 一人で勉強します, or みんなで行こうよ

All of these were explained to me as setting a boundary, like explained above,
since the intrinsic meaning of で is (according to that explanation) to set a
boundary (where I walk is within what boundary? What I use to write is within
what boundary? Etc.).

Assuming this is right and not just a made-up explanation trying to give a
non-existant general meaning, I was wondering if there is something like that
also for に, since I often saw it explained as "It shows the direction towards
which the action/movement is going", but for example in the passive it seems
to me to be going the other way around.

Is this double direction perceived also from Japanise natives? Or like で there
is a general (etymological?) meaning encompassing both? If a native reads
私が友達に would they be unsure about the direction of the following action? I'm
not sure if this helps clarifying.

In a nutshell: に is often explained as an arrow: Aに, the action/movement goes
towards A, like A ← 行きます. In the passive this goes (seems to go?) the other
way around: 友達に本を送られる, the book is going _from_ my friend _to_ me, so 友達 →
送られる, while in the non-passive sentence the direction is the usual: 友達 ← 送る.

I'm not sure if this sort of double meaning/direction is something due to an
awkward adaptation/translation to European grammars and languages, or if it's
something inherent to the particle itself.
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2021-08-18T16:02:59.453
88960
2021-08-28T22:00:19.097
2021-08-18T17:37:09.280
35362
35362
question
grammar particle-に
General meaning of に
There is no problem with directions. When we do some action, it's the goal.
When we receive some action, it's the source. You can notice that in both
cases it marks the same person/place and the only difference is the direction
of the action. Either we do ourselves, or we receive.

However, comparing to many other particles, in my opinion に is the hardest for
combining. That's because some of it's functions are completely unrelated. We
can try to start with locations and then dative case is similar to a
continuation of that, but instead of places we start to mark people, states or
abstract things. Time can fit too, but instead of physical space, we talk
about timeline. But what about the cause/reason function? Sentences like this:

```

    本を読むのに眼鏡をかけた "Put on the glasses to read a book"
    
```

It's hard to describe the goal of action as a location even in abstract sense.
Technically we can think about such explanation "the goal is where we intend
our action to move", but it's quite stretched. To make matter worse に is used
as adverbial copula too. For example, 正直に言う "to say honestly". While it's very
simple, we just take nouns or na-adjectives and describe with those our verb,
it's hard to think about any possible connection with locations. And this is
the main reason why I think it's hard to combine all に functions into a single
universal explanation.
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2021-08-28T22:00:19.097
89096
2021-08-28T22:00:19.097
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88960
answer