Is this は replacing が or を? (& is this 悪 read as あく or わる？） This is the "sentence": > *| condemn violence as evil Sounds simple? The English translation does not give a subject so I wonder are either or correct if I modify the sentence as follows: > [/] They condemned violence as evil. I think is consistent with the pattern in the following two sentences so I suspect that is the natural choice and although is also grammatically correct it is not used. > | They blamed him for incompetence > > | He criticised me for being careless If is the natural choice then I anticipate this will relate to the nature of the combinations of but I'd be grateful if someone could explain this. All these came from . *As a secondary question is this read as or

_(Answer based on information received in chat on 15 June 2014)_

In the examples given either or would be correct.

In Japanese, linguists call certain verbs (like ) "exceptional case marking verbs" (ECM verbs), and these verbs allow "raising to object", where the subject of the -clause becomes the object of the main clause. For example:

> [ ]-
> [ ]- ← SUBJECT is "raised" out of the -clause to OBJECT of the main clause

This is also referred to as "subject raising".

A number of theories have been put forward to explain how/when this can be done but it remains a matter of discussion. The are summarised in the paper "Semantic constraints on the subject-to-object raising (ECM) construction in Japanese" (Link: <

(Re: vs see link in 3rd comment below question from Snailboat.)