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> 彼は自分の権利 **に執着する。**
>
> 利欲 **に執着する** 人も数多い。

I thought all する verbs are transitive so they should take the particle を. How
come this one doesn't?

Thanks!
CC BY-SA 3.0
2015-09-07T14:15:36.683
27874
2015-09-11T03:22:57.567
10316
question
grammar
Why does this する verb take に?
The so-called "suru verbs" consist of a noun (which signifies mostly some sort
of action) and the verb suru, with no particle in-between. The class of such
verbs is very large, e.g. 執着する (to have a tendency to), 愛する (to love), キスする
(to kiss), 勉強する (to study) etc.

Suru verbs can be intransitive. In your case, the suru verb 執着する has the
indirect object 利欲 with the particle に: 利欲 **に** 執着する - to be prone **to**
greed.

It seems that there is no easy way to figure out whether a given suru verb is
transitive or intransitive, i.e. to qualify サ変名詞 (verbal noun) as 他動詞
(transitive verb) or 自動詞 (intransitive verb). See also [a posting about this
classification](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/questions/15461/does-it-
make-sense-to-talk-
about-%E3%82%B5%E5%A4%89%E5%90%8D%E8%A9%9E%E3%81%95%E3%81%B8%E3%82%93%E3%82%81%E3%81%84%E3%81%97-as-%E4%BB%96%E5%8B%95%E8%A9%9E%E3%81%9F%E3%81%A9%E3%81%86%E3%81%97-or-%E8%87%AA%E5%8B%95%E8%A9%9E%E3%81%98%E3%81%A9%E3%81%86%E3%81%97).
At least, it is undefinable morphologically.

The verbal noun 執着 originated from two Chinese verbs 執 and 着, so this
structure V-V can be probably an argument for transitivity. But semantically,
I would compare ...に執着する with ...に着く (to arrive at). Naively considered, 執着 in
the proposed context means rather a "direction" to an indirect object than a
"possession" of a direct object.
CC BY-SA 3.0
2015-09-07T15:54:13.400
27878
2015-09-08T06:07:13.070
2017-04-13T12:43:44.740
-1
11113
27874
answer