Question about omitting subject/object

Goldfire1 · 17 Aug 2018

I have a question about when you can and cannot exclude the subject/object from a sentence. How do you use particles to indicate what the purpose of the sentence is?

I've written this sentence: 父は殺そうした
And I want it to mean: "My father tried to kill her".

But I'm not sure if it means what I want it to mean. Should I use が instead of は? Does it make a difference?
The sentence before talks about the person who he tried to kill, so there is context about who the other person is.

Toritoribe · 17 Aug 2018

Goldfire1 said:
Should I use が instead of は? Does it make a difference?

Yes. が works as 指定の"が" (が for specifying) there, i.e., it emphasizes that the person who tried to kill was 父, not anyone else. Also, は can be the contrastive marker depending on the context.

Other than that, is your father already mentioned previously? Plus, is the narrative written from your view point? You also need to pay attention to a fact that 父 could be misinterpreted as "her father" depending on these factors.

In conclusion, all those things, whether the object can be omitted or not or which should be used が or は, totally depend on the context after all. Can you show us the previous sentences?

Goldfire1 · 19 Aug 2018

Toritoribe said:
Yes. が works as 指定の"が" (が for specifying) there, i.e., it emphasizes that the person who tried to kill was 父, not anyone else. Also, は can be the contrastive marker depending on the context.

Other than that, is your father already mentioned previously? Plus, is the narrative written from your view point? You also need to pay attention to a fact that 父 could be misinterpreted as "her father" depending on these factors.

In conclusion, all those things, whether the object can be omitted or not or which should be used が or は, totally depend on the context after all. Can you show us the previous sentences?

Well, this is supposed to be a rapid pace monologue where a person is talking about her father trying to kill her mother, so she first says:
母は公園に、犬と散歩に行きました。父が殺そうとした。。。

Toritoribe · 20 Aug 2018

Do you mean that she is not talking to someone else by "monologue"? If so, the polite form 行きました is odd. In the first place, why did she explain what's happened in monologue?
Anyway, you can't omit the object since it can be her mother, dog or even the speaker herself. Also, it should be は, not が, since the father is a new topic.
Did her father follow her mother or was he waiting her to come back at home? You also need to explain it.

Question about omitting subject/object

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