Thursday, 5 May 2016

grammar - Does the particle に in に作られた mark the agent or the location here?


I'm confused about 「に作られた」 in the following sentence. Kindly explain this part to me.



「Central Base」とは、旧「アクアポリス・中央エアポート」に作られた、「ASDF」の陸上(?)基地のことだ。



Some sort of translation:




  1. Central base is, created by the old Aquapolice - Central airport, ASDF's land(?) base.





  2. Central base is, created on the old Aquapolice - Central airport, ASDF's land(?) base. (However in this case I think that で would be more suitable)




The "(?)" is part of the original text.



Answer



The reading as に to mark the agent of the passive construction is definitely syntactically possible, but a much more likely reading is the locative に, i.e. your second reading.


Why is it に and not で? で marks a place where an action happens, に marks a place where something "exists". There is definitely some overlap in usage, but で in this case sounds strange to me, as if "it was built there, but then moved somewhere else".


No comments:

Post a Comment

readings - Appending 内 to a company name is read ない or うち?

For example, if I say マイクロソフト内のパートナーシップは強いです, is the 内 here read as うち or ない? Answer 「内」 in the form: 「Proper Noun + 内」 is always read 「ない...