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I have learned that when using a "-たい" form, when the sentence would normally
require "を", you can use either "を" or "が", but "が" was actually preferred,
"を" sounding unnatural.

I searched about the reason, but could only find the same, "が" is preferred,
"を" doesn't sound natural to native speakers.

What is the reason? since the particle is before the "-たい" verb, it can't be a
phonological deformation, so what is the logic behind it?

Thanks a lot!
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2012-01-14T18:29:13.150
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2012-01-14T19:17:27.253
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particles particle-が particle-を
Logic behind "が" preferrence when using a "-たい" form
Originally I didn't think I had a full answer to this question, but in the end
maybe I do.

`たい` is actually an adjective. When describing things with adjectives, が is
used:

> ようこさんは髪【かみ】が長【なが】いです。
>
> Youko's hair is long.

I think that adding `たい` to the ます form of a verb means it is no longer a
verb, but rather an adjective. So don't think of `たい` form as a verb but
rather an adjective, and this use of が should make sense.
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2012-01-14T20:23:01.937
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I'm not really sure if it makes sense to talk about 'logic', but I'll still
try to see if I can add some system to the madness.

Japanese often uses が, not を, after what would typically be the object in
English, when there's no actual action inflicted upon said object. 彼が好き,
お金が欲しい, 日本語が分かる, りんごが食べたい, 字が読める, あいつが憎い.

One way to look at it could be: if for example you _want_ to eat an apple (but
haven't done it yet), is it really **you doing something to the apple** , or
is it **the apple doing something to you**? You might argue that it is the
**latter**. This might be why what English speakers regard as the object can
take on the more subject-like が.

In the Indo-european languages that I know of, the topic of a sentence seems
to be the subject by default ( _I_ want money, _I_ can read letters), but
Japanese, having a separate topic marker は, doesn't really have this
restriction. After having said 私は, there is more freedom to make different
parts of the sentence into the subject (even if the topic is often implied in
Japanese).

However, there are also ～たい cases where only を feels much more natural (maybe
が is even wrong):

> 空を飛びたい <\- (I) want to fly in the sky
>
> 家を出たい <\- (I) want to exit the house

In these cases, (maybe depending on who you ask) 空 and 家 aren't real objects,
but rather the place that a motion takes place through (the former) and the
place that a motion takes place from (the latter). I wouldn't be able to back
up any claim as to why を is more natural here, but maybe this way of using を
entered into the language at a different point in time, and therefore
different rules apply (Linguists, please come to my rescue).
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