Difference between から教わる and に教わる?

Japanese Language
1

From what I can tell from the example sentences, both of these can mean “to learn from”. Is there a difference between the particles?

2 Likes
2

I wouldn’t say there is. から is used when there is an abundance of に in the sentence and it would look either stylistically ugly or unclear. Also, could be a general writing style / stylistic choice.

3 Likes
3

The Dictionary of Basic Japanese Grammar entry ni_3 has this note:

The difference between ni_3 (of source) and kara_1 is that the former indicates the speaker’s psychological closeness to a human source, whereas the latter doesn’t. This difference explains why ni_3 is ungrammatical if the source is an impersonal institution to which the speaker can hardly feel close

and illustrates this with a sentence using もらう where から cannot be replaced by に:

ヒルさんは文部省から奨学金をもらいました。

I think this difference between the particles for indicating the source of something applies also when the particles are used with 教わる.

6 Likes
4

This is really interesting, I had no idea about that nuance. Can から make a sentence sound more impersonal if used instead of に? For example:

僕はおばあさんからお金をもらいました。

Does using から give the impression that I’m not very close to my grandma?

2 Likes
5

This topic was automatically closed 365 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.