What does にと do?


I have a sentence that I'm having some trouble with. It's from a game called
Tales of Graces -- basically, at one point you go to a garden and grab one of
these rare flowers from there. The sentence is the description that is
displayed when you view the flower in your inventory.

> 裏山の花畑へ行った証拠にと、摘んだ花。

Something like "A flower that proves you went to the garden out on the hill",
right? I get the gist of the sentence, but I'm not clear on what function にと
has after 証拠. Is it a combination of the particles に and と? Does this
combination carry any significant nuance?




# Answer

It's translated like:

[code]

    A flower I took to use it as an evidence that I went to the flower garden on the hill (at the back of something like a house).
    
[/code]

# Reference

If a person uses `(One's thinking) と、N`, s/he wants to use N along his/her
thinking.

Like:

[code]

    彼へのお[土産]{みやげ}にと、[買]{か}ってきたお[菓子]{かし}。 -> A candy I bought to make it a souvenir for him.
    縄跳びで[遊]{あそ}ぼうと、[持]{も}ってきた[縄]{なわ}。 -> A rope I took to play rope-skipping.
    
[/code]

Please take a look at `に`.

The point is that some verbs are hid after `に`. Let's add `しよう`, `[思]{おも}って`,
and `「」` to make it easier to understand.

[code]

    彼へのお[土産]{みやげ}にと、[買]{か}ってきたお[菓子]{かし}。 = 「彼へのお[土産]{みやげ}にしよう」と思って、[買]{か}ってきたお[菓子]{かし}。
    縄跳びで[遊]{あそ}ぼうと、[持]{も}ってきた[縄]{なわ}。 = 「縄跳びで[遊]{あそ}ぼう」と思って、[持]{も}ってきた[縄]{なわ}。
    [裏山]{うらやま}の[花畑]{はなばたけ}へ[行]{い}った[証拠]{しょうこ}にと、[摘]{つ}んだ[花]{はな}。 = 「[裏山]{うらやま}の[花畑]{はなばたけ}へ[行]{い}った[証拠]{しょうこ}にしよう」と思って、[摘]{つ}んだ[花]{はな}。
    
[/code]

You can see that the hero (or else?) thought that he wanted to use `摘んだ花` as
`裏山の花畑へ行った証拠`.




# Answer

It's translated like:

[code]

    A flower I took to use it as an evidence that I went to the flower garden on the hill (at the back of something like a house).
    
[/code]

# Reference

If a person uses `(One's thinking) と、N`, s/he wants to use N along his/her
thinking.

Like:

[code]

    彼へのお[土産]{みやげ}にと、[買]{か}ってきたお[菓子]{かし}。 -> A candy I bought to make it a souvenir for him.
    縄跳びで[遊]{あそ}ぼうと、[持]{も}ってきた[縄]{なわ}。 -> A rope I took to play rope-skipping.
    
[/code]

Please take a look at `に`.

The point is that some verbs are hid after `に`. Let's add `しよう`, `[思]{おも}って`,
and `「」` to make it easier to understand.

[code]

    彼へのお[土産]{みやげ}にと、[買]{か}ってきたお[菓子]{かし}。 = 「彼へのお[土産]{みやげ}にしよう」と思って、[買]{か}ってきたお[菓子]{かし}。
    縄跳びで[遊]{あそ}ぼうと、[持]{も}ってきた[縄]{なわ}。 = 「縄跳びで[遊]{あそ}ぼう」と思って、[持]{も}ってきた[縄]{なわ}。
    [裏山]{うらやま}の[花畑]{はなばたけ}へ[行]{い}った[証拠]{しょうこ}にと、[摘]{つ}んだ[花]{はな}。 = 「[裏山]{うらやま}の[花畑]{はなばたけ}へ[行]{い}った[証拠]{しょうこ}にしよう」と思って、[摘]{つ}んだ[花]{はな}。
    
[/code]

You can see that the hero (or else?) thought that he wanted to use `摘んだ花` as
`裏山の花畑へ行った証拠`.

