Why is it that some temporal nouns cannot be marked with に? And why do they become more acceptable with には?

Question

Consider the following:

に here is used in its function of denoting the time where an event occurs (に₁):

• ◯　一時に₁

• ◯　一時半に₁

• ◯　月曜日に₁

• ◯　正月に₁

• *　昨日に₁

• ?/◯　昨日には

• *　今日に₁

• ?/◯　今日には

• *　明日に₁

• ?/◯　明日には

• *　去年に₁

• ?/◯　去年には

• *　今年に₁

• ?/◯　今年には

• *　来年に₁

• ?/◯　来年には

• *　最近に₁

に becomes acceptable if dative(に₂):

• ◯　最近に₂なって

Why is it that に may not be used for the instances marked with * ?
Why is には acceptable? If に₁ is prohibited but には allowed, does this suggest that the に of には is distinct from に₁?

I think に₁ may not be used to mark deictic (words which meaning depends on contextual information) nouns. I think that is what they have in common. It is not possible to have useful information about "yesterday", "today", "tomorrow" or "next year" etc. unless we have more information about the current time.

Answer 1

Good observation that you mention deictic expressions. That is correct. Deictic pronouns with accusative case tend to be used adverbially rather than as pronouns; they already incorporate the meaning of on or に, so it would be redundant to have another ending. In traditional grammar, this is called adverbial accusative or adverbial objective. Latin clearly had an overt marking for this.

As for には, it means a different thing. It means "by", and that will not make the expression redundant.

* on today
by today
* 今日に
今日には