Verb stem + にする


> 子供の教育は **学校任せにすべき** じゃない。  
>  We should not leave the education of children to schools. (given
> translation)

I'm baffled by the structure of this sentence. I would have written:

> 子供の教育は学校に任せるべきじゃない。

The lack of anything between 学校 and 任せ seems rather disturbing, and I've not
come across this verb stem + にする construct before either. What on earth is
going on here?




Well, the 連用形 of most verbs can be used as nouns (called 'deverbal nouns')
and/or noun elements in compound nouns.

  * Examples of deverbal nouns:「話(し)」「考え」「思い」「歩き」「泳ぎ」 (The list goes on and on.)

  * Examples of noun elements in compounds:「思い出話」「素人考え」「親思い」「一人歩き」「背泳ぎ」(The list goes on and on.)

「任せ」 is not quite like the examples above, in that it is not normally used as
a stand-alone noun (though there is「お任せ」) , but it is quite productive as a
noun element in compounds, such as 「運任せ」「力任せ」「他人任せ」 and even something like
「田中さん任せ」.

So 「学校任せ」 is just a compound noun phrase, nothing disturbing.

Now you may be able to see that 「学校任せにする」 is an instance of the pattern 「NP +
にする」, meaning "(to) turn something into NP" or "(to) put something into a
state of NP". (I guess the literal translation of 「子供の教育を学校任せにする」 would be
something like "(to) put the education of children into a state of leave-it-
to-schools.)

It should also be noted that there is a slight different in meaning between
「NP任せにする」 and 「NPに任せる」. The former often implies leaving most (or all) of a
given responsibility to NP when you should take more (or at least some) part
of it, whereas the latter carries no such implication. Thus:

「子供の教育は学校任せにすべきじゃない」 sounds closer to "We should not leave the education of
children all to schools. (Parents should be responsible too.) "

while

「子供の教育は学校に任せるべきじゃない」 sounds closer to "We should not leave the education of
children to schools (because schools are not to be trusted with such a
responsibility)."




Well, the 連用形 of most verbs can be used as nouns (called 'deverbal nouns')
and/or noun elements in compound nouns.

  * Examples of deverbal nouns:「話(し)」「考え」「思い」「歩き」「泳ぎ」 (The list goes on and on.)

  * Examples of noun elements in compounds:「思い出話」「素人考え」「親思い」「一人歩き」「背泳ぎ」(The list goes on and on.)

「任せ」 is not quite like the examples above, in that it is not normally used as
a stand-alone noun (though there is「お任せ」) , but it is quite productive as a
noun element in compounds, such as 「運任せ」「力任せ」「他人任せ」 and even something like
「田中さん任せ」.

So 「学校任せ」 is just a compound noun phrase, nothing disturbing.

Now you may be able to see that 「学校任せにする」 is an instance of the pattern 「NP +
にする」, meaning "(to) turn something into NP" or "(to) put something into a
state of NP". (I guess the literal translation of 「子供の教育を学校任せにする」 would be
something like "(to) put the education of children into a state of leave-it-
to-schools.)

It should also be noted that there is a slight different in meaning between
「NP任せにする」 and 「NPに任せる」. The former often implies leaving most (or all) of a
given responsibility to NP when you should take more (or at least some) part
of it, whereas the latter carries no such implication. Thus:

「子供の教育は学校任せにすべきじゃない」 sounds closer to "We should not leave the education of
children all to schools. (Parents should be responsible too.) "

while

「子供の教育は学校に任せるべきじゃない」 sounds closer to "We should not leave the education of
children to schools (because schools are not to be trusted with such a
responsibility)."

