*Note: This got a bit longer than I intended, but I actually tried to post in the daily thread but got a message back “Unable to create post.” But since this is so long… maybe just make a top-level post?*
友だちに会う
Now, I understand 会う marks its target with に and I think the relevant definition is this one:
⑥ 動作・作用の行われる対象・相手を表す。「人によくかみつく犬」「友人に伝える」([goo](https://dictionary.goo.ne.jp/word/%E3%81%AB/#jn-166083))
Still, I was curious to see what people had written about using を here anyway. Well, a quick google away I found [this chiebukuro post](https://detail.chiebukuro.yahoo.co.jp/qa/question_detail/q14241233429):
>格助詞「を」は「空を飛ぶ」のように動的な対象認識を表し、「に」は静的な対象認識を表します。
>「会う」相手は静的な対象なので「に」で空間的に位置付けるので「友達に会う」です。
The discrimination between を and に being based on whether the target is 動的 or 静的 isn’t something I’ve heard before, even though it’s been discussed that を can be used for “motion verbs,” but it’s generally not discussed as a 対象 or target in that case. I think on goo, [definitions 2, 3, and 4 ](https://dictionary.goo.ne.jp/word/%E3%82%92/#jn-239138)are relevant to motion verbs, but none of them mention a target or 対象.
So I went no further than making a mental note of this until I was watching this video talking about the English word “take”. [youtube video](https://youtu.be/cBI2WN-EffQ?si=9DCb52jM1nrwYHCu&t=424)
>「have」の方は基本的に「状態」を表す言葉ですから、やや「静的」、動きがない感じで、「take」の方が「動的」、積極的に休みを「取る」感じがするかもしれないですね。\[…\]
>「休みを取る」が「take a break」で、「休みにする」が「have a break」。
Welp, seeing the same explanation twice in two days warrants more investigation. I was curious if others had heard this explanation and/or had thoughts on it. Does it align with goo’s definitions just in a way I’m not grasping? Or perhaps it’s just a different way of understanding the same concepts?
At least for me, I do kind of see this as a useful way to conceptualize things. に is used to mark locations which tend to not move while を-marked objects tend to be acted upon. But I’m not sure if my conceptualization is correct.
東京を離れる ー I am leaving Tokyo and so relative to me, Tokyo is growing distant. 動的
友達に会う ー While my friend is alive and tends to move, my concept of them is static; 静的. Also, in the definition of 会う appears “互いに**顔を向かい合わせる**” and while my friend is static, their head refers to the physical body part which is 動的.
髪の毛に手を触れる ー The first time I read this I was confused why the に and を weren’t reversed, but this seems to make sense with this explanation, too. Using the hair as a static fixed point, since the hand moves to the hair and not the other way around, the hand is moving and thus the hair gets the に while the hand gets the を.
But there are some examples where I’m not really sure how this works. In “空を飛ぶ”, I guess technically the air is put behind the subject as they move through it, but that’s not really a tangible thing. But what about “〇〇を見る”? The typical explanation of 〇〇 being the object of 見る is easier to think about; otherwise the best I can come up with is the object moves from the state of “unseen” to “seen”.
*PS: Anyone is free to respond that I’m overthinking it, but I already know. This is just how I have fun.*
by SplinterOfChaos