Sunday, 21 August 2016

grammar - Why are we allowed to use を particle with na-adjectives?


Can someone explain the usage of a na-adjective with the を particle?


I cannot understand why we can say



ほうれん草を嫌いな人もいる。




because I'd thought that it had to be a が or の particle instead of an を.


Also, why can we say



きみがなぜジャズを嫌いか私にはわからない。



Shouldn't it be きみがなぜジャズが嫌いか私にはわからない?


(Source: tatoeba.org)



Answer



The answer to this is that generally speaking, you can't use を with na-adjectives. This is not standard usage for most na-adjectives. Additionally, although Google searches also attest this kind usage for 嫌い (at least), the Tanaka Corpus is known to have errors, so it's best to be careful.



A google search for "を嫌い" shows that the large majority of results, the を is clearly being used with some other verb, e.g. Xを嫌いになった。 However, in some, it is used in the way you noted, as in the following example:




  • Yを嫌いなワケについて語られていた。



This を is clearly attached to 嫌い, not 語る. So, back to your question: why? As @Axioplase's answer suggests, this is primarily seen with 好き and 嫌い, and so I argue that the reason you see を with these "na-adjectives" is that they are derived from the verbs 好く and 嫌う, respectively. They are both transitive verbs, and as such, accept objects readily. As such, using を with them in certain circumstances is not odd at all, though it may seem so when considered primarily as na-adjectives rather than verbs. I hypothesize that this usage is common with verb-derived na-adjectives, but not other na-adjectives.


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