Meaning of にまで?

Question

A long time ago, I came across this example sentence in Jisho:

彼{かれ}の仕事{しごと}は井戸掘{いどほ}りからゴミの処理{しょり}にまで及ぶ{およぶ}。
His tasks range from digging wells to getting rid of garbage.

Why does this sentence use both に and まで after 処理? Would it be sufficient to have just one or the other, or are both required?

Enno Shioji · Accepted Answer · 2015-10-08 17:00:50Z

5

井戸掘りからゴミの処理に及ぶ would sound natural, and already emphasizes how broad his responsibilities are.

Slightly literal translation:

井戸掘りからゴミの処理に及ぶ
his responsibilities reaches from digging wells to getting rid of garbage

Adding まで strengthens this emphasis

井戸掘りからゴミの処理にまで及ぶ
his responsibilities reaches from digging wells, to even getting rid of garbage

The same まで can be used like this: カリカリに揚げれば、骨まで食べられますよ

彼の仕事は、井戸掘りからゴミの処理まで及ぶ sounds a bit odd to me but I'm not sure if it's only me.

answered Oct 8, 2015 at 11:38

Enno Shioji

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1

Are you saying that "AからBまで及ぶ" is always ungrammatical, or only in this example? I'm not sure if there is a rule, but there seems to be a few examples here without the に.
– mirka
Commented Oct 8, 2015 at 15:56
3

@mirka: I think it sounds weird because から〜までwithout に indicates a closed, ordered range (新幹線は九州から青森まで及ぶ、値段は数百円から数千万まで及ぶ). E.g.「訪問した国はインド、ブラジルからイタリアにまで及ぶ」sounds natural but 「インド、ブラジルからイタリアまで及ぶ」sounds a bit odd because it implies the range stops at Italy. But after thinking about it a few times I'm no longer sure!
– Enno Shioji
Commented Oct 8, 2015 at 17:00
Interesting. I agree that "Xまで及ぶ" generally sounds a little odd, and after comparing some Google hits with random nouns it does seem that "Xに及ぶ" is an order of magnitude more common than "Xまで及ぶ". So に is at least the default choice (if not the "correct" choice).
– mirka
Commented Oct 8, 2015 at 19:34

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