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Why did the author use に in the following sentence?

> 理解しかねて首をかしげる会場の様子 **に** 、司会役が「もう少し具体的に」と重ねてたずねた。

たずねる needs に but for animate objects such as human beings. In the above
sentence, に is used after 様子 which is an inanimate. Asking to an inanimate
object seems to be strange for me.
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2016-06-04T18:12:18.643
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2016-06-13T03:06:02.380
2016-06-04T18:31:00.923
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grammar particle-に
Why did the author use に in the following sentence?
This is one of the functions of the particle に; to mark a reason/cause of some
action. You can translate that part using "due to", "because of", "on seeing",
etc.

[デジタル大辞泉](http://dictionary.goo.ne.jp/jn/166083/meaning/m0u/%E3%81%AB/) lists
this as the seventh meaning of に:

> ７ 動作・作用の原因・理由・きっかけとなるものを示す。…のために。…によって。 **「あまりのうれしさ―泣き出す」** 「退職金をもとで―商売を始める」

[This
page](http://www.coelang.tufs.ac.jp/mt/ja/gmod/contents/explanation/053.html)
explains this usage as the 13th meaning of に:

> １３ 原因・理由を表わすことがあります。  
>  (61) **人の多さに** びっくりしました。

In your sentence, the chairperson is asking to someone not mentioned in this
sentence (presumably, to the speaker on the stage). That person could also be
marked with に, but is simply omitted here.

Related questions:

  * [Why are these particles used here?](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/q/27806/5010)
  * [Understanding why に particle means "because" in this sentence](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/q/33483/5010)

Some verbs take に so often (like ～にびっくりする and ～にあきれる in the link above) that
it's perhaps best to just memorize the verb-particle pairs, but that's not the
case with your sentence.
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2016-06-04T18:46:34.543
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2016-06-04T19:21:49.693
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answer
I think "in response to" makes sense in this case.

Kind of like に対して only without the 対して part.
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2016-06-13T03:06:02.380
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answer