に (to or from)

I came across this sentence on WaniKani today and I was wondering if someone would explain it for me:

アパートの屋根に投げて粉々になるのを見てみたかったので、昨日すごく安いラジオを買った。

I bought a very cheap radio yesterday just so I could throw it off the roof of my apartment and watch it shatter.

If I were translating it, I would have thought that he was throwing it on the roof.

Gonna have to say I disagree that に is being used to denote the location of the action taking place, unless there is some exception I’m unaware of.

Meaning that the subject is planning on throwing the cheap radio against the roof to see it shatter?

Basically, that’s what my reading of the Japanese would be. Like, you can see 二塁に投げる for “throw to second base” in baseball. It wouldn’t be “throw from second base” as far as I’m aware. (and yes, I’m aware using the kanji for bases is unusual nowadays)

Kinda figure if you’re throwing from the roof you’d use から. Or で?

So we don’t have a consensus? I’ll ask the Mrs. when she returns.

In the meantime, I just came across another possible anomaly.

このきじはトーフグを一やくちょう有名にした。

This article suddenly made Tofugu super popular.

Shouldn’t that mean “famous” rather than “popular” or is there a slight nuance in the word “有名”?

Taking a second look, I totally misread 屋根 for 屋上, resulting in a completely different image in my head. Scratch my prior comment entirely, the radio’s definitely being thrown in the direction of the roof. I still question the usage of 投げる there as opposed to a compound, though. Knocked out my first post since I was off the mark.

@Leebo With baseball though, don’t they refer to the people when they use terms like “first place” (legitimate question because I’m clueless about baseball in Japan). That would mean に is an indirect object indicator then, wouldn’t it?

@Belthazar With my original thought behind my first post’s translations, I made no assumptions about where the radio was being thrown, only from where. I effectively thought of it as “Because, on the rooftop of my apartment, I wanted to throw and watch it shatter, I bought a very cheap radio yesterday.”

@deadhippo I think it’s simply a liberal translation. Japanese has positive and negative correlating terms in 有名 and 汚名 just like we have “famous” and “infamous.” As popularity requires a positive correlation and one can assume an appropriate level of scaling, something famous would undoubtedly be popular.

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You could talk about throwing to a person, but talking about throwing to a location, regardless of who is there to receive it, is normal. The second baseman is not necessarily the person standing at second base, and there may not even be anyone there at all at the time of the throw (in the case of an error).

Excuse me. Who is on first.

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I was wondering if maybe it was a error and the author meant から.

I think the person is supposed to be on the roof (positional) when throwing the radio, not throwing the radio at the roof (directional).The translation is a natural one, not a literal one. My guess is this same sentence could work even if they didn’t throw it off the roof but just from one side of the roof to the other; as many things in Japanese, it would depend on the context.

Waaait, now that I think about it, it could also mean that they’re throwing it at the roof. It’s all about context.

giphy

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OK. The Mrs. has spoken. にmeans on to the roof and they probably meant から.
So it’s a mistake. What’s the best way to report it?

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Email hello@wanikani.com

That was my first thought, but it was worth hashing out.

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WaniKani finally got back:

"The first example is an error, and has been fixed. "

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Can confirm. Now it says “…屋根から投げて…” instead of “…屋根投げて…”

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