There were a lot of great answers here. I gave the checkmark to ento's answer because I felt it most completely explained all aspects of this use of こと. But many of the other answers are excellent, so if you're visiting this question for the first time, please take a few moments to read through all answers. Thanks to everyone for your help with this question.
When learning the phrase "I like X", everyone learns "Xが好きだ". But if X is a pronoun, you sometimes see こと:
あなたが好きだ。 → あなたのことが好きだ。
What purpose does こと serve here? I know that in subordinate clauses, こと can eliminate ambiguity:
彼が好きな人 "a person he likes" or "a person who likes him"
彼のことが好きな人 "a person who likes him"
But in a simple statement such as the first example above, it doesn't seem to change the meaning at all.
My own searches on this problem have yielded the following two theories (neither with anything to back them up):
- こと adds a layer of indirectness, and is therefore preferred from a Japanese standpoint.
- こと encompasses more of the object ("you" versus "all the things about you")
Is either of these correct?
こと also shows up in many other situations, seemingly without any effect on the meaning:
事件を覚えている。 → 事件のことを覚えている。 I remember the incident.
地球を考えて行動する → 地球のことを考えて行動する take action while considering the
Earthplanet (edited to "the planet" to fulfill the requirement for 考える to be paired with something abstract)
What's going on here?
Answer
I've let my subconscious sleep on this for a while, which has a native Japanese language processor built in, and come to the conclusion that のこと does two seemingly opposite things. I'll illustrate them with my inner images for [noun] and [noun]のこと, and later quote a dictionary to further support my views.
Let's take 事件のこと as an example.
A plain "事件" is a simple dot...
add a little blur/halo around the dot and arrows going toward it and you get "事件のこと":
The little blur/halo adds a "universe of variable traits" (quote from Dave M G's answer) around the subject noun and lifts it to an abstract level (because traits are abstract things).
This "abstracting" aspect becomes apparent when the ensuing verb is about a physical action:
あなたを抱きしめたい。 I want to hug you.
あなたのことを抱きしめたい。 I want to hug all the things that is you. (figuratively)
パンのことが好き, is just fine in this light, if it's meant to be "I like everything about breads," and not "I like to eat breads."
Now to the arrows. I'd like to call these the "focusing" feature of "のこと" (as mentioned in Enno's answer). The "focusing" aspect can be seen clearly when the ensuing verb has directivity in itself.
人を見下す。 Look down on someone.
人のことを見下す。Look down on at someone. (I know it's incorrect, but I hope the spirit gets through.)
With the latter example, there's a bit more emphasis on the action of looking down.
At this point, I took up the dictionary and looked if it has anything to say about it. And these two definitions from Daijirin match up with my observation:
- "abstracting": (2)(ア) ある物事に関連する事柄。 Things related to a particular thing.
- "focusing": (2)(イ) ある人物が動作・心情の対象であることを示す。 Indicates a person is the object of an action/emotion.
The dictionary makes it seem like these two are mutually exclusive, but I think the two aspects of ..のこと can manifest themselves at the same time, or with one of them more stressed than the other, depending on the abstractedness/directivity/etc. of the verb/noun used in conjunction.
So in summary, のこと in あなたのことが好き serves two purposes: abstracting and focusing.
As for the two theories, theory 2. "こと encompasses more of the object" corresponds to the "abstracting" aspect of こと, which I deem true. Theory 1. "こと adds a layer of indirectness" is also true, because speaking abstractly means indirectness. However, I'm not sure if it's universally "preferred from a Japanese standpoint", perhaps except in the case of expressing emotion (あなたが好きだ!), it's well conceivable that a reserved mode of expression can be preferred by some.
I'll leave the analysis of 地球を考える and 事件を覚えている to sawa's answer =)
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