Function of に here?

Question

Found this sentence:

両親が死んだというのに、悲しもうとすらしない俺に向けられる目が。クズみたいなニートに向けられる目、敵意。軽蔑。

That に in 「悲しもうとすらしない俺に向けられる目が」is acting as the indirect object or is it marking the doer? Since it's a passive sentence.

naruto · Answer 1 · 2021-08-06T07:11:14.050

2

This ～に is marking the target/destination of the 目. ～に used in a passive construction does not necessarily mark the doer (agent).

俺に向けられる目
stares cast to me
_{(not "stares cast by me")}

Now you may be wondering if に in a passive sentence can be ambiguous. The answer is yes. See the following questions:

edited Aug 06 '21 at 07:11

answered Aug 06 '21 at 07:05

naruto

I still don't understand why 向ける is passive here. Will 俺に向ける目 also work? Can you write 俺に向けられる目 as a non-passive sentence?「Xが目を俺に向ける」とか – Jimmy Yang Aug 06 '21 at 07:13
1

@JimmyYang XをYに向ける means "to direct X to Y". Naturally, its passive version is XがYに向けられる ("X is directed to Y"), and its relativized version is Yに向けられるX ("X which is directed to Y"). 俺に向ける目 is "stares [someone] casts to me", which is grammatical but defeats the main purpose of passive voice here. Do you remember "suffering passive"? – naruto Aug 06 '21 at 07:19

1 Answers1