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I'd like to compare the meanings of:

  1. 田中{たなか}さんを尊敬{そんけい}している。

  2. 田中さんのことを尊敬している。

    Are the following statements true?

    -#2 has a much broader meaning, right? Like, I respect Tanaka as a man, a husband, a father, a translator, a software developer, etc. All inclusively, I respect pretty much everything about Tanaka. Very deep and genuine meaning. Because it is so inclusive, any surrounding context will not change the meaning.

    -#1 sounds very flat. A garden variety "I respect Tanaka." Something that you are supposed to say to be polite.

But then, can I say something like:
"マンガのことが好きです。"

I not only like to read manga, I also appreciate manga for how it reflects the societal norms of Japan, how it helps non-natives and native speakers become able to read Japanese, etc.

user312440
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  • @3to5businessdays yes. That is pretty much the exact same question. There are more answers that I can shake a stick at. So, please flag this as a duplicate, delete it, etc. – user312440 Aug 05 '14 at 02:23
  • Comments in the form of "possible duplicate of..." is automatically posted when a user flags a post as duplicate. Anyway duplicates are not necessarily bad, since different people asks things or look for answers using different words etc. – 3 to 5 business days Aug 05 '14 at 02:40
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    @user312440 We try not to delete duplicates. We like duplicates! The idea is that a new user coming in from Google might phrase the question the way you did, rather than the way the original asker did, so your duplicate helps them find the answers they want :-) –  Aug 05 '14 at 04:09

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