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> 人の手を刺す stab someone in the hand.  
>  人の手に短剣を刺す stab a dagger in someone's hand.

What's the direct object in the second sentence? Is it just 短剣 or 人の手に短剣? I
ask because in the first sentence the hand is stabbed (手を刺す) and in the second
sentence the hand is also stabbed but 短剣を刺す would make me think the dagger
should be the one who's being stabbed(even though that would make no sense at
all). So did I make a mistake thinking just 短剣 is the direct object in the
second sentence or is there another explanation?
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2014-03-18T15:46:35.620
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question
grammar
What´s the (entire) direct object in this sentence?
I'll take a stab at it... .: ba-dump ching :.

In the first sentence, the `人の手` is the direct object. "Stab someone in the
hand".

In the second, the direct object is `短剣`, but here `刺す` more literally takes
the definition of "thrust" than "stab"; "thrust (刺す) a (を) dagger (短剣) into
(に) someone's hand (人の手)" → "stab someone in the hand with a dagger".

Here are a couple similar examples I found in the dictionary.

>   * 柄の長いフォークにウインナーを刺す → Put a hotdog/wiener onto a toasting fork
> (バーベキューのときなど)
>   * 指にとげを刺した → "I ran a thorn into my finger" = "I pricked my finger on a
> thorn"
>
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answer
In your second example, the direct object is 短剣, not 人の手に短剣.

The direct object here can take on two different semantic roles:

> 花子が [ 太郎の手 **を** 短剣 **で** ] 刺す _Hanako stabs Tarō's hand with a dagger._  
>  花子が [ 短剣 **を** 太郎の手 **に** ] 刺す _Hanako stabs a dagger into Tarō's hand._

In either case, the direct object is the noun phrase marked by を. Your first
example is like the first sentence above, except without the instrumental で.

In linguistics, this is called **locative alternation**. Certain verbs exhibit
this alternation; others do not. 刺す is one of the verbs that does. See _The
Handbook of Japanese Linguistics_ p.355 for an overview.
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answer