～に対して～ Usage for contrasting? goo entry for > _The country's main territory; the country proper. Used in contrast to vassal states, outlying islands, etc._ I know about the different kinds of usages for () and its various forms, but this sentence kind of threw me for a loop. From the description, it is obvious that it must be the usage of here, contrasting the 'mainland' with 'vassal states' and 'outlying islands'. But I've never seen the usage used in the form of but rather NN. Is the form as it is given in the dictionary entry above a commonly used one and if yes, one could only guess from the context itself which usage is intended, right?

As you said, without the context, is likely to be taken as "to say [something] to " or "to call [something]". However, in this context, this sentence clearly means . usually takes / or a nominalizer, but it can also take an ordinary noun.

> Is the form as it is given in the dictionary entry above a commonly used one

It's not wrong nor difficult, but it's not very common, either. Even a native speaker may feel puzzled and think for a second at first sight.