What is the difference between and ?

The title should be pretty self-explanatory. What meanings does each convey? And in
what kinds of circumstances would one be used instead of the other?
For example, what are the differences between these two sentences?

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This is really no different than the normal use of the scope/topic particle , except
that with (and , , and any other combination), the scope of the sentence
expands to include the particle itself. (I will use "scope" to mean "topic" here;
personally I prefer the former, but most people are used to the latter.)
The example sentences you chose might not be the best to illustrate the difference,
since the first is a classic example of a sentence lacking a scope. This type of
sentence is used for showing existence, possession, and phenomena:

Scope: none
Statement: There are books in the library.

Scope: none
Statement: It's raining.
So in the interest of better tackling your question, let's change the example
sentences:
(
(
is in parentheses because it could easily be left out. This is what's known
as "implied scope" in Japanese. As you know, if the scope of a sentence is understood
by all parties, you have the option of leaving it out entirely.
So let's break down these two. You'll see that while in the first sentence there is
only one scope, the second actually has two:
(
Scope (implied): I
Statement: Didn't meet with him.
(
Outer scope (implied): I
Inner scope (explicit): with him
Statement: Didn't meet.
Now as for what effect this has, the often adds a hint of comparison or contrast,
as repecmps mentioned. While both of the above sentences translate to, "I didn't meet
with him," the second hints that although you didn't meet with him, you may have met
with someone else. Put into a diagram, the second sentence looks like this:
Sentence diagram
The dashed green outer rectangle signifies the implied outer scope, the solid purple

inner rectangle signifies the explicitly defined inner scope, and the dashed blue
inner rectangle signifies the implication that you may have met with someone else.
Let's consider another pair of examples, this time using and :

Scope: she
Statement: Will go to Europe.

Outer scope: she

Inner scope: to Europe
Statement: Will go.
Both of these sentences say, "She will go to Europe," but as with the / example
above, the second, by using , hints at the fact that while she will go to Europe,
she may not go to somewhere else (say, the Middle East).
Admittedly this is a tough one for people coming from an English-speaking background,
since in English we might use only intonation to mark the difference by stressing the
contrasted scope:
I didn't meet with him.
I didn't meet with him.
She will go to Europe.
She will go to Europe.
Of course, the above stresses may not be natural in every situation, but they should
hint at how English and Japanese handle these situations differently.
answered Jun 14 '11 at 13:58
Derek Schaab
10.7k3066
1
+1 excellent post on as topic marker. (however you missed the main idea/implied
meaning of ) repecmps Jun 15 '11 at 1:02
@repecmps: I believe I covered this in the paragraph above the diagram: "the
often adds a hint of comparison or contrast[and] hints that although you didn't meet
with him, you may have met with someone else"; as well as in the paragraph following
the second example: "the second, by using , hints at the fact that while she
will go to Europe, she may not go to somewhere else" Derek Schaab Jun 15 '11 at
12:30
oh my bad. Good answer then!

repecmps Jun 15 '11 at 12:39

After re-reading this answer after all this time, the differences are explained very
well! istrasci Aug 9 '13 at 15:56
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down vote
In your library example:

Is the simple "There are books in a library".

Would be translated as "As for the library, there are books (in it)".
The is compulsory in both cases, but in the second sentence puts the stress on
the library.
Most people/students will tell you (like Derek's answer) that stresses the topic.
This doesn't mean much really and is missing the essential point of .
This form generally appears inside a context, with a preceding sentence expressing
some kind of opposition or comparison as in:
"There are fishes in the sea, as for the library there are books (in it)"
That's a primitive example but I think it shows were the difference lies.
Of course there's the idea of topic marker or emphasis on the topic, but the real
point here is to compare (implicitly or explicitly) with another sentence.
answered Jun 14 '11 at 7:20
I think the existing answers are missing something very important, and that is that
(the dative case marker) can be used to mark subjects given certain predicates. This
is called the "dative subject construction".
In modern Japanese, I believe you only see this construction if it is contrasted
(i.e., ), or if it is embedded. Some examples may help:
Contrasted (X Y)

'As for John, he does not understand English.'

Here, the marks as a subject, and the is used as a contrastive marker. The
marks as the nominative object of the intransitive verb .
Embedded ([X Y]Z)

'Everyone knows that John understands English.'

Here, the marks as the subject and again marks as the nominative
object of the intransitive verb . The embeds everything before it.
I believe that this construction is only allowed when you have
an intransitive verb predicate, or
a potential verb predicate,
AND there is a -marked object present(i.e., this will not work:
).
There are a few papers that talk about this. The one that comes to mind is "Checking
Theory and Dative Subject Constructions in Japanese and Korean" by Hiroyuki Ura. This
paper seems primarily focused on proving the subjectality of the marker rather than

when it feels natural to do this in modern Japanese, so be weary of many of the

examples in there.
answered Jan 20 '13 at 22:45
means "as for me" and is similar to
So completely unrelated to in this usage pattern.
EDIT: After posting teh library example, my answer doesn't make sense anymore, but
I'll leave it here fo rthe time being.
Would REALLY appreciate if people would put a comment as to why they downvoted
something. I have no problems admitting I'm wrong, and would like to learn from this
site, which i can't do if all you do is downvote with no reason.
http://japanese.stackexchange.com/questions/1096/what-is-the-difference-between%E3%81%AB-and-%E3%81%AB%E3%81%AF

What is and [closed]

I would recommend getting a book about particles... even something like A Dictionary of
Japanese Particles. Which is only about $15 (USD) at present.
Something to consider before getting into the particle combinations is the idea of and .
There are a lot of different rules (sometimes seemingly-contradictory rules,) for
and . But for the sake of simplicity, just remember that is often the first, main
subject of a sentence. is kind of the second main subject (the "newer subject" or
"focus point",) of a sentence.
Now let's get into the combinations from the question.
According to A Dictionary of Japanese Particles:

is a combination of particles and

can mean: "the thing that is called" (i.e. **
can mean: with (i.e. A **
can mean: "surprise/shock about something" (i.e. *
*
In the first example, actually seems related to when is used after dialog,
like this: ("Button" <- pointing to subject, what is?) It's
a sort of marker for the previous word... something that makes a sort of subject out
of the phrase before .

When is used, it often refers to a subject (placed in front of ,) for

example:
**(i.e. Studying is hard. -or- The thing of studying is
hard.) Using like this effectively turns a subject (a noun or a concept,) into a
subject of the sentence.

 is similar to . But the difference comes down to the difference between and
(explained earlier.)
So if we go back to the example used for and replace with :
**(i.e. For me, studying is hard. -or- For me, the
thing of studying is hard.) Here, the main subject of the sentence is " myself". But
when is used like this, (like still effectively turns a subject (a noun
or a concept,) into a subject of the sentence, but here, is pointing to a "new
subject" of the sentence (the thing of studying.)

With the example given with , is essentially the same thing. It creates a
concept from a given noun, verb, or phrase.
also has a special usage to show amazement of something unexpected or
surprising:
80 How amazing that he'll climb Mt. Fuji at 80 (years
old)!

http://japanese.stackexchange.com/questions/4590/what-is-%E3%81%A8%E3%81%AF%E3%81%AE%E3%81%8C-%E3%81%AE%E3%81%AF-%E3%81%AB%E3%81%AF-%E3%81%B8%E3%81%AFand-%E3%81%A7%E3%81%AF