From this question
I did few hours ago another one, a bigger one arose.
マフィアは隠れ蓑に合法的な事業を展開している
I know に can be used as an indirect complement but I would have used として since 隠れ蓑に is not the recipient of an action.
Also Can someone explain how is に used as an indirect complement?
You are correct that you can use として there. This kind of 〜に basically means として. I'm not sure you can call it a complement though, because according to the definitions I just looked up, it seems more like an adjunct. But terminology is not my forté, so I'll just give some examples of the same kind of usage.
The に in the above examples can all be replaced with として.
For many of the words that are often used adverbially like 試しに (試しに買った) or 戯れに (戯れに描いた), you can't replace the に with として because those are set phrases. But the meaning of the に is basically the same as として.
So yesterday I was trying to understand this a little better. I think that に is just the answer japanese has to most of the indirect compliments.
There are Transitive and Intransitive verbs
Transitive verbs have
Subject=The one who performs the action
Direct Object=The one which the action acts upon
Verb=An action
僕が林檎を食べる
How do you know which is the direct object?
You could ask this questions:
What is the action?
Who/What is doing the action?
What is being (insert verb)?
So the answers are
What is the action? 食べる
Who/What is doing the action? 僕 (Marked with が)
What is being (食べる )?林檎 (Marked with を)
Sometimes there is a receiver of the direct object:
The indirect object
僕が彼にペンを上げた
What is the action? 上げる
Who/What is doing the action? 僕
What is being (上げる)?ペン
Who is recipient of the Object?彼
This indirect object is marked with に
In my example
マフィアは隠れ蓑に合法的な事業を展開している
What is the action? 展開する
Who/What is doing the action? マフィア
What is being (展開する)?合法的な事業
Who is recipient of the Object?隠れ蓑
You can say that 隠れ蓑 is the recipient of the action but you can say that it answer the te question
as what?
Which is another indirect complement. So as long as there is no other particle that fit the role に can be used. (IF there is a choice you can use another particle which fit the same gramatical role in that situation, but not with the complement of means で)
Intransitive verbs
Here there is no direct object for the action Excluding times when: You get out of a smaller to a bigger place:
建物を出る
You are going trough something
空を飛んでいる
So some verbs have a transitive and intransitive form.
The transitive is used to act upon an object and the intransitive is kinda like a state of being.
Transitive:閉める=To close something
Intransitive:閉まる=To be closed
Some verbs while being intransitive have different meanings. For example:
Intransitive:映える=To shine, To look attractive, To look pretty
映える=To shine
If the meaning is active (The subject is doing an action) You have something like this:
夕焼けが空に映える
What is the action? 映える
Who/What is doing the action? 夕焼け
What is being (映える)? Nothing
Where is the verb happening?空The sunset shines in the sky
As you can see に here means the location where something takes place.
If the meaning is passive (in the sense that something is doing a state for a lack of a better term). 映える=To look attractive
ジャケットが映えるように三角筋と僧帽筋を鍛える.
What is the action? 映える
Who/What is doing the action? ジャケット
What is being (映える)? Nothing
What is the indirect complement? NothingIn order for a jacket to look attractive you have to train your deltoids and traps.
When I say indirect complement I mean the answer to every question which is not "Whom?" "What?". (that is how it is my native language at least).
and has other roles.
Ultimately I think it does not matter the distinction beetween intransitive (active and passive) since I believe you could say, but I am not sure so if there is a mistake please correct me.
僕がジャケットに映えるように三角筋と僧帽筋を鍛える. I,in order to look good in a jacket, train my deltoids and traps.
僕にジャケットが映えるように三角筋と僧帽筋を鍛える. In order for the jacket to look good on me, I train my deltoids and traps.
If I am wrong please correct me.
