I think I might be misunderstanding the difference between で and に in this case.
I understood that when the で particle is used after a location, the following phrase is about the location, or occurs at the location specified. There is perhaps more emphasis on the location, rather than the following phrase. For example.
机の上で鉛筆が落とされた – On the top of a desk, a pencil was dropped.
この家で住んでいます – At this house, (I am) staying
I understood that when the に particle is used after a location, the intention is to describe the relationship between the following phrase and the location. There is perhaps some more emphasis on the following phrase in this case as well.
机の上に鉛筆が落とされた – A pencil was dropped, on the top of a desk.
この家に住んでいます – (I am) staying, at this house.
Is my understanding here bunk? Any clarification would be greatly appreciated.
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6 comments
机の上で、鉛筆が落とされた sounds like someone is standing on the desk and dropping pencils.
机の上、新鉛筆が落とされた sounds like someone is dropping a pencil in the desk.
この家で住んでいます doesn’t exist AFIK.
机の上で、鉛筆が落とされた sounds like someone is standing on the desk and dropping pencils.
机の上、新鉛筆が落とされた sounds like someone is dropping a pencil in the desk.
この家で住んでいます doesn’t exist AFIK.
で is more like extra info about where an action is taking place.
に is generally for indirect objects and arguments connected to the verb.
It doesn’t have to do with emphasis. It has completely to do with the grammar of the sentence and the verb being used.
机の上で鉛筆が落とされた。 Your translation of this is correct but it doesn’t mean what you seem to think it does. This doesn’t mean that the pencil was dropped onto the top of the desk as in the pencil fell from someone’s hand onto the desk. This means something more like someone was standing on top of the desk and dropped a pencil, but it doesn’t say where the pencil landed.
机の上に鉛筆が落とされた。This means that the pencil was dropped onto the top of the desk, because に designates the desktop as the indirect object.
この家で住んでいます。I don’t think I’ve ever heard anyone say this. 住んでいる takes an indirect object and indirect objects are basically always marked with に and never で.
It basically has to do with the relation of the indirect object to the verb. で never marks indirect objects.
机の上で鉛筆が落とされた means “Over the desk, a pencil was dropped” while 机の上に means “onto the desk”. You normally don’t say この家で住んでいる.
There was just a thread on this exact same topic a couple days ago. I wrote some long comments there you can check for an explanation of で vs に. They have completely separate meanings and it has nothing to do with emphasis. As someone else already pointed out, you can’t use で with 住む, unless there’s some obscure unnatural interpretation of that verb as an action.
For your examples, use に。
An example for で can be:
図書館で友達と本をたくさん読みます。