> . . . A perhaps pedantic comment: The idea that everything has a particle in
> theory, which is either "dropped" or not, is actually relatively modern. In
> earlier forms of Japanese, there were many cases where "no particle" was
> most correct, particularly marking subjects and direct objects: 花咲く都,
> 兎追いし彼の山, etc.
>
> Thus: (1) The modern "use ALL the particles" written style is not the Ideal
> form from which particles are dropped, but an artificially hypercorrected
> form;
>
> [from a comment by
> Matt](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/questions/3151/what-are-the-
> guidelines-of-omitting-particles#comment7168_3152)

That makes sense.

(but then, the discrepancy between spoken & written language must have been
great 1000 years ago.)

When did we start wanting to put particles on everything?

Most people today want Japanese to be so exact, like an artificial language --
purging all possible ambiguities and illogical stuff.

* * *

("hypercorrection" or overcompensation) -- See [Misplaced(?) に in
たった4週間の間に毎日3Lの水を飲み続けた女性の変化がヤバすぎ！](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/q/38590/16344)
for the over-zeal to put particles (助詞) resulting in insertion of に into
4週間の間に making the sentence ungrammatical (2 examples).
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particles classical-japanese old-japanese
Older Japanese had much fewer particles (助詞)? -- The modern "use ALL the particles" written style
> When did we start wanting to put particles on everything ?

In the context of "proper writing" I think the push for _precision_ and
_predictability_ is a common feature that many written languages take on as
society gets more complex. The less ambiguity in written communication, the
better - even at the expense of _utility_ and _aesthetics_.

I believe that in Japan this thought would have **started** to gain real
traction **in the Meiji period** through the 言文一致運動 and would have **continued
on into the post-WW2 language reforms** as the country was being Westernized.

This would eventually lead to the, "everything's gotta have a particle"
mentality that I think you're referring to.

You can see similar examples in Chinese with the national movement away from
文話 towards 白話, and in German with their occasional Rechtschreibung (correct-
writing) reforms.
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