Thursday 25 August 2016

grammar - Is this は replacing が or を? (& is this 悪 read as あく or わる?)


This is the "sentence":



暴力は悪*だと非難する| condemn violence as evil



Sounds simple? The English translation does not give a subject so I wonder are either が or をcorrect if I modify the sentence as follows:




彼らは暴力 [が/を] 悪だと非難した |They condemned violence as evil.



I think を is consistent with the pattern in the following two sentences so I suspect that is the natural choice and although が is also grammatically correct it is not used.



彼らは彼を無能だと非難した| They blamed him for incompetence


彼は私を不注意だと批判した| He criticised me for being careless



If が is the natural choice then I anticipate this will relate to the nature of the combinations of 暴力&悪;彼&無能:私&不注意 but I'd be grateful if someone could explain this.


All these came from プログレッシブ英和・和英辞典.


*As a secondary question is this 悪 read as あく or わる?




Answer



(Answer based on information received in chat on 15 June 2014)


In the examples given either を or が would be correct.


In Japanese, linguists call certain verbs (like 言う) "exceptional case marking verbs" (ECM verbs), and these verbs allow "raising to object", where the subject of the と-clause becomes the object of the main clause. For example:



花子は [ 彼が   嘘つきだ ]-と 思っている。
花子は   彼を [ 嘘つきだ ]-と 思っている。  ← SUBJECT is "raised" out of the と-clause to OBJECT of the main clause



This is also referred to as "subject raising".


A number of theories have been put forward to explain how/when this can be done but it remains a matter of discussion. The are summarised in the paper "Semantic constraints on the subject-to-object raising (ECM) construction in Japanese" (Link: http://vsarpj.orinst.ox.ac.uk/files/horn.eals.pdf)



(Re: わる vs あく; see link in 3rd comment below question from Snailboat.)


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