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I remember having learning that に can be used for a simple emphasis of the word before it, like so:

私はケーキを食べた - I ate cake

私にはケーキを食べた - I ate cake (the others may or may not have, but I did)

But then I stumbled upon something about the に for emphasis not being able to be used in with verbs that normally can't take it? Does this mean the following sentences are incorrect, since 知る can't be used with に?

私にはその小説を知っている

誰にも試合の結果を知らない

Or have I completely misunderstood?

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Daniel Safari
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  • On http://japanese.stackexchange.com/questions/1096/what-is-the-difference-between-%E3%81%AB-and-%E3%81%AB%E3%81%AF read Derek's answer and then read mine. By Derek's explanation those sentences would be invalid, but I think they're kind of okay, because に is simply acting as a subject marker. Although I'm not 100% sure about their validity because the object is not が-marked, which it normally would be with a に-marked subject. – Darius Jahandarie Jan 29 '13 at 13:22
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    None of 私にはケーキを食べた, 私にはその小説を知っている, and 誰にも試合の結果を知らない is grammatical. (They become grammatical if you remove に.) I doubt that に can be used for emphasis. – Tsuyoshi Ito Jan 29 '13 at 13:27
  • @TsuyoshiIto Do you consider 私にはケーキが見えた to be valid? – Darius Jahandarie Jan 29 '13 at 13:57
  • @Darius Jahandarie: I am not sure why you are asking it, but yes, I consider 私にはケーキが見えた to be valid. – Tsuyoshi Ito Jan 29 '13 at 14:08
  • @TsuyoshiIto I ask because I think the には construction can be used for "emphasis" in certain sentences, because は acts as a contrastive marker. The reason it cannot be used with 知る is not because 知る doesn't take the dative に (as the question seems to suggest), but rather because it is transitive and takes an を-marked object, so に cannot be used to mark the subject. – Darius Jahandarie Jan 29 '13 at 15:02
  • @DariusJahandarie: The に in 私にはケーキが見えた makes sense because it means "The cake was visible to me". There is no "to" used when eating the cake. – istrasci Jan 29 '13 at 15:43
  • @istrasci I don't think that explanation is sufficient. You could translate 私はそれを知っている as "That is known to me" (i.e., passive) if you really wanted to. I don't think there is a correspondence to English here. – Darius Jahandarie Jan 29 '13 at 15:54
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    @Darius Jahandarie: (1) “には construction can be used for "emphasis" in certain sentences, because は acts as a contrastive marker”: I do not follow the reasoning you stated as “because.” は sometimes acts as a contrastive particle, but why does it mean that には is sometimes used as emphasis? (2) I do not think that に in 私にはケーキが見えた plays any role of emphasis, if that is what you are claiming. – Tsuyoshi Ito Jan 29 '13 at 19:54
  • @TsuyoshiIto Well, "emphasis" (note: quotation marks) was the wording of the poster, but what he described, to me looked like the use of the contrastive は (like when you accent the は of には when talking). The は in 私にはケーキが見えた can act as the contrastive marker and I personally find that usage to be common. I mainly wanted to clear up the fact that 私 (in this example) doesn't need to be considered an indirect object of the verb for you to be allowed to use には, as that has a different set of conditions for usage. – Darius Jahandarie Jan 31 '13 at 01:14
  • @Darius Jahandarie: Ah, I see. You did not mean that に in には means emphasis. – Tsuyoshi Ito Jan 31 '13 at 01:39

1 Answers1

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I do not know where you learned that に can be used for emphasis, but I do not know any case where に is used for emphasis. に is a case particle, and you cannot add に to something that plays roles other than the に-case. (The に-case is used for many purposes such as time, location, destination, direction, and purpose).

The following sentences are not grammatical.

  • 私にはケーキを食べた。
  • 私にはその小説を知っている。
  • 誰にも試合の結果を知らない。

Removing に from these sentences makes them grammatical.

  • 私はケーキを食べた。 I ate a cake.
  • 私はその小説を知っている。 I know the novel.
  • 誰も試合の結果を知らない。 No one knows the result of the match.
Tsuyoshi Ito
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