Re: japanese particles (Was: Chinese writing systems)

Amanda writes:

>Steg Belsky wrote:
>
>>  I think i learned "ni" for that kind of construction... |daigaku ni
>>  kaerimasu| "i go back to college".
>
>"ni" usually carries more of an "at" implication.  Of course, "to" and
>"at" can have fuzzy boundaries depending on the language.
>
>"kaerimasu" can't take "he", though, can it?  It sounds weird to me.  So
>maybe it *has* to take "ni" by default.  I wonder if this is like in Russian
>where "na" and "v" are distributed according to whether a place can be
>entered...
I'm a non-native, natch, but I almost *never* heard "e" in Japan. For
me, "e" implies longer distances and longer times of duration. As
Amanda points out, it's fuzzy stuff, but I feel weird saying "ginkoo
e itte kimasu" (I'm going to the bank (and'll be back)); I'd be more
likely to say "ginkoo ni itte kimasu". The classic example, "gakkoo e
ikimasu" (I'm going to school), is, of course, grammatically
acceptable *and* interchangeable with "gakkoo ni ikimasu" (which is
more within my comfort zone). Since I'm now in Boston, "Tookyoo e
ikimasu" is a viable utterance, but when I lived in Iizuka, "Fukuoka
e ikimasu" (an hour away) would've sounded affected to me.

Kou

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