I am studding particles, and I want to translate the anime's name:
"この素晴しい世界に祝福を!" (kono subarashii sekai ni shukufuku o!).
What does に mean in this sentence? I have seen many people translating this phase to, Blessings to this wonderful world, or God's blessings to this wonderful world. In this case, why not use へ instead に?
Answer
The difference between に and へ is the sense of distance between the speaker and "素晴らしい世界".
に implies that the speaker and 素晴らしい世界 is in the same position/place, while in the case of へ there is some distance between the speaker and 素晴らしい世界. If 素晴らしい世界 is apart from the speaker, "あの" must be used instead of "この" in この素晴らしい世界. In this case when you must use あの, there is not much difference in nuance whether you use へ or に.
I can feel the difference in nuances between "に" and "へ". However, the difference is, I know, very difficult to be described clearly not only for foreigners who are studying Japanese, but also for native speakers of Japanese.
Since I thought that the content I showed in my original answer was not enough, I examined the difference further by searching on the Internet. Below is a summary of the results of my examination expressed in bullet points. There were six effective sources examined and they are shown at the end of the edited answer. If you understand Japanese well I recommend you to read the original text directly. Especially the last two sources are very good articles where very useful contents are written for everybody including native speakers of Japanese.
- (a) The difference is not particularly conscious in many cases.
- (b) Although there is a difference, when expressing a destination both are used.
- (c) "へ" represents the direction of movement, while "に" represents "arrival point" or "destination point".
- (d) Young people often use "に" like "東京｛とうきょう｝に行｛い｝く", "家｛いえ｝に帰｛かえ｝る" or "田中｛たなか｝さんに渡｛わた｝す", while the elderly use "へ" more often than youngsters like "東京へ行く", "家へ帰る" or "田中さんへ渡す".
- (e) As for "へ", you can say "駅への道｛みち｝ the way to the staion" in the sense of "駅｛えき｝へ行｛い｝く途中｛とちゅう｝ on the way to the station", but you cannnot say "駅にの道" by using "に". The latter phrase doesn't make sense. This may be because the "道" in this phrase refers to the way in the direction of going to the station, so that the speaker feels conscious that "へ" is more appropriate than "に".
- (f) When telling the course of a typhoon, you can use either "北｛きた｝へ向｛む｝かっている heading north" or "北に向かっている heading north", but it may be better to say "北へ向かっている". The reason for this is that in case of telling the predicting course of a typhoon in a weather forecast, "the arrival point" to which the typhoon is heading has not yet been decided, so what you can say clearly is "the heading direction" of the typhoon.
- (g) The reason why the distinction in usage between modern "に" and "へ" is ambiguous is written in "日本語｛にほんご｝文法｛ぶんぽう｝大辞典｛だいじてん｝ Japanese grammar dictionary".
According to this dictionary,
① "へ" was originally "[辺]｛he｝ neighborhood or vicinity", which was a noun that was used by attaching to a word indicating a place in particular in a phrase like "海｛うみ｝の辺 the place near the sea" or "沖｛おき｝の辺 the place near the offshore".
② After that, it was transformed into "a case particle 格助詞｛かくじょし｝" from the Nara era to the Heian era, and it was used together with the verb having the meaning of moving, and worked to show the direction of its movement.
③ From the middle of the Heian era, "へ" invaded the usage of the case particle with "に" indicating the "帰着点｛きちゃくてん｝・到着点｛とうちゃくてん｝ return/arrival point" of movement, so "へ" also had become to indicate "帰着点・到着点 return/arrival point".
④ The invasion shown in ③ has led to ambiguity of modern use of "に" and "へ". - (h) There is a difference in range between "に" and "へ".
"に" concretely represents the destination and arrival place in a narrow range. On the other hand, "へ" expresses the destination and the direction of travel in a wide range also from the fact that "辺 neighborhood or vicinity" is the etymology of it.
For example, let's think about "明日｛あした or あす｝東京へ行く" and "明日東京に行く". There is no big difference in using either way to convey your intention. However, the former expression using "へ" shows "Tokyo as direction", whereas the latter using "に" shows the nuance where the arrival point is emphasized as "Tokyo that is not any other place". Therefore, "東京に行く" means going to a destination called Tokyo, such as Tokyo Station, Shinjuku, Ikebukuro etc. refers to a relatively limited place or specific place, while "東京へ行く" means not limited to going to Tokyo Station, Shinjuku etc. but relatively extensive area such as Yokohama and Tokyo Disneyland etc. is included. - (i) Let's give you a quiz. Historically Japan is roughly divided into the eras with Nara, Heian, Kamakura, Muromachi, [江戸]{Edo} , Meiji etc.
Then, what is the era of each of the following questions.
(A) 江戸[時代]{じだい}に続｛つづ｝く時代
(B) 江戸時代へ続く時代
First of all, as for "江戸時代へ続く時代", the answer is likely to be "the Muromachi era" in the above division. It is not the Meiji era. When you say "〇〇へ続く時代", the era that is proper as the answer would be what is older than 〇〇 in time.
On the other hand, what era is "江戸時代に続く時代"? The answer is somewhat vague. There are possibilities of "the Muromachi era" and "the Meiji era" as well. However, "the Meiji era" is more plausible than "the Muromachi era". - (j) Since I think source (6) is an excellent article explaining the difference between "へ" and "に", I'll translate the main part of it into English as it is.
【quote】
On meaning of case particles "へ" and "に"
Case particles "へ" and "に" are words with distinct differences, and in general they are not misused.
These two are:
"へ" is "目的地｛もくてきち｝格{かく} a case particle indicating a destination place".
"に" is "対象地｛たいしょうち｝格 a case particle indicating the target place"＋"[舞台]｛ぶたい｝ 格 a case particle indicating the stage or the place where plays are performed".
Or it could be said as follows:
"へ" indicates movement to the target location/object/state.
"に" indicates to exist/ to make something/someone exist/ to cause an event in the target location/object/state.
"そこへ行く" means just moving. On the other hand, "そこに行く" means to move there and make the place a new place of existence.
【unquote】
Sources:
(1) 「福山に行きます」と「福山へ行きます」の「に」と「へ」の違いを教えてください。
（日本語の教え方相談室 アルク）
(2) Q 台風の進路を伝えるときは、「北に向かっている」と「北へ向かっている」のどちらがよいでしょうか。
（ＮＨＫ放送文化研究所）
(3) 「に」と「へ」
（ことば百科 三省堂Web Dictionary）
(4) 「に」と「へ」の助詞の使い方分けを教えてください。
（Yahoo知恵袋）
(5) 「に続く」と「へ続く」
（国語辞典編纂者・日本語学者の飯間浩明のウェブサイト）
(6) 格助詞「へ」と「に」の意味
（＃＃＃日本語の核心、格助詞論 万象酔歩）
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