What does する in its lone て-form mean?


The sentence

> トムが殺人事件を **目撃したって** 、本当なの？

translates to

> Is it true Tom witnessed a murder?

**Question:** I am confused about 目撃+したって, which I assume translates to
something like "doing-witnessing". **Specifically, why is する in its lone
て-form here, without any connecting verb?** Before this, I thought lone
て-forms were considered ungrammatical.




You can think of this って here as a shortening of っていうのは or というのは. 目撃する is
what's called a サ変 verb, where you take a noun and add する to make a verb out
of it. 'Is it true Tom witness a murder?' is a perfect translation already.

Forget trying to do 'hyper-literal' translations under the mistaken assumption
it will help you grasp the internal logic of the Japanese sentence. 目撃する is
one unit, closer to 'witness' than 'do witness'; you can't say 目撃をする.

As for って here, basically, it explicitly marks it as hearsay. The most literal
I believe there's any point in going, 'How they say Tom witnessed a murder, is
it true?'




You can think of this って here as a shortening of っていうのは or というのは. 目撃する is
what's called a サ変 verb, where you take a noun and add する to make a verb out
of it. 'Is it true Tom witness a murder?' is a perfect translation already.

Forget trying to do 'hyper-literal' translations under the mistaken assumption
it will help you grasp the internal logic of the Japanese sentence. 目撃する is
one unit, closer to 'witness' than 'do witness'; you can't say 目撃をする.

As for って here, basically, it explicitly marks it as hearsay. The most literal
I believe there's any point in going, 'How they say Tom witnessed a murder, is
it true?'

