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


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.




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




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

