There’s a lot of grammar which has に used in it, for example: になる, にする, に見える, に気がつく, のに, おきに, そんなに, 一緒に, etc.
What is the meaning behind に appearing here, if there is at all? Why not other particles?
Sometimes it is understandable that something is an adverb like 急に, other times there’s your usual directional meaning like in に行く, but what about points I mentioned above? I cannot connect the meaning of に to the meanings of the particle used by itself. Is there any logic behind the choice of に or is it just something that happened historically for some reason?
5 comments
I thought it was just the に particle combined with a word. Like 一緒に meant together. The other day my Japanese friend used 一緒 on its own to mean “same?”
に has a very large range of meaning and it’s going to be hard to encompass them all in a brief conceptual framework. If the framework is too broad then it doesn’t really help understanding, if it’s too small it won’t capture them all.
に connects a noun to a verb. Exactly what relationship it shows between the noun and verb varies, and can’t always be easily seen as a “goal” or “direction” or “indirect object” or “adverbial” or other things of that nature.
In many cases it may be the easiest to simply treat (say) おきに as a phrase without trying to find which dictionary definition or which concept the に is expressing here.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_particles#ni
Found this under your post, maybe it’s helpful
[https://www.reddit.com/r/japaneseresources/comments/10fdqd4/particle_breakdown_exactly_when_and_why_to_use_に/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android_app&utm_name=androidcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button](https://www.reddit.com/r/japaneseresources/comments/10fdqd4/particle_breakdown_exactly_when_and_why_to_use_に/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android_app&utm_name=androidcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button)
I’ve always liked Imabi’s description of it.
>に is the particle of “establishment.” It encompasses place, time, direction, and destination.
So に to me feels like the basis of an action or state. Looking at it this way has helped me understand the seemingly different meanings of stuff like ために or のに.