Consider these two sentences:
(1) 母はついてくるようにアリスに合図した (Mother signaled to Alice to follow her)
(2) 父は手で私に部屋を出ていくように
と合図した。 (Father gestured to me to go out of the room)
And another sentence which I suspect has the same use of と as (2) but I cannot exactly say what it does:
(3) この本は子供を対象
とした本です。(Unnatural: This book is a book that is done in order for children to be targets) (Natural: This is a book for children)
Now I deconstruct the use of AをBとC in (3) to mean "Do verb C to achieve state B in direct object A"
(Question) How would I understand the use of と in (2)? Since (1) does not require と yet has a similar structure involving ように. But XようにY means "to do Y so that X can happen". What happens when と is added to the mix as in (2)?
(Example sentences taken from WWWJDIC)
Answer
Francis Drohan's A handbook of Japanese usage has four whole pages on the usages of と, so I don't think a comprehensive answer is appropriate here. But a few key points:
There are two kinds of と: one is a case particle (格助詞), and another is a conjunctive particle (接続助詞). In both your examples, と is being used as a case particle.
According to Drohan, there are 7 main uses for the case particle と: Listing, accompaniment, target of comparison, result of change, adverbialisation, quotation, and simile.
と in your example (2) is being used to denote quotation. ‘Father signalled to me with his hand, “get out of the room.”’
と in your example (3) is being used to denote the result of change. (In fact, Drohan gives the following example: 学生を対象とする。 It is meant for students.) The construction 〜とする here has the connotation of a decision being made: the target audience was set to be students.
Drohan gives some other examples of this usage:
塵も積もれば山となる。 Many a little makes a mickle.
夜となく昼となく働く。 They work morning, noon and night.
However, the collocation 〜とする also has other uses, e.g. 学生として ‘as a student’, なかったとしたら ‘supposing there were none’, etc.
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