So there I am again, asking a question from the book "Sword Art Online 1".
This time it's about the sentence: またの名を
≪ソードアート・オンライン≫。
What is the meaning of を in this case?
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Sign up to join this communityThe particle を
is a 格助詞{かくじょし} ("case particle"). Normally, a case particle marks a noun or noun phrase to show its relationship to the predicate (such as a verb or an adjective), or to another noun or noun phrase. Specifically, the particle を
marks the accusative case. This means that it marks the direct object of a verb.
Therefore, we would expect to find just such a verb in this sentence. Since there is no verb, we can assume this is an example of ellipsis. Something has been left out, and as the reader, it's our job to guess what it is.
Searching on Google and
Weblio for またの名を
reveals that it is a common phrase meaning "also known as". The full phrase
またの名を〜と言う
is also listed on Weblio
and appears to be relatively common, so it's reasonable to guess that the elided phrase is と言う
. (You could also guess that it's と呼ぶ
or something similar; it doesn't change the meaning very much.)
Therefore, we can interpret your sentence as the following:
またの名を≪ソードアート・オンライン≫と言う。
So what does を
mean in this sentence? It has the same function it usually does, which is marking the direct object of a verb.
NをN
once, and Chocolate suggested it was ellipsis for 「・・・と言う」 or [・・・と呼ぶ」 or such. I think (but don't know) that this is the same thing.