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Here's an example.

メイドにはびびった

Who was scared, the speaker, or the maid?

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It depends on the verb. The question is just a translation request, I vote for closing. – Axioplase Oct 23 '11 at 5:05
I don't think it's just a translation request, because I made it general. – language hacker Oct 24 '11 at 22:49

2 Answers

up vote 5 down vote accepted

This is context-dependent. It could be the speaker that was frightened, but it could just as easily be the most recent subject (e.g. person) being discussed prior to this sentence. Without more context, it's really impossible to say for certain. In any case, though, someone or something was frightened by the maid.

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up vote -4 down vote

Just for short answer:

Maid was scared.

Maybe she saw something and it might scare her. I can't tell exactly because there is no particular reason that scares her.

=== Similar examples ===

あなたにはご迷惑をおかけしました。
I am sorry to have troubled you.

この問題は私には難しい。
This problem is too difficult for me.

In this case, には　means for.

I hope this helps.

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Why was this answer downvoted? – language hacker Oct 23 '11 at 3:39
2  
The downvote was not from me, but this answer is wrong. Even translation.babylon.com/japanese/to-english does a better job ... – Lukman Oct 23 '11 at 4:02
The information in this answer is useful, but I can't upvote while it interprets the sentence in the question wrongly. Hoping for an edit... – Hyperworm Oct 23 '11 at 5:00
“(The) maid was scared” would be メイドはびびった. As Lukman stated, メイドにはびびった has a different meaning. – Tsuyoshi Ito Oct 23 '11 at 22:31

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