Meaning of verb phrase-ことだって、ある


> 傷つけられ追い詰められたノラ犬は、人に襲いかかることだって、ある。  
>  There are even times when a wounded and cornered stray dog will attack a
> human.

In my TL I have guessed that ことだって、ある is ことがある (there are times when...) with
the が being replaced by だって to give the meaning "there are **even** times
when...". Is this correct? Why is there a comma here?

My other thought was that って might be quoting the stuff before it, but I got
stuck with that line of reasoning.




You have got this one correct.

> 「Verb Phrase or Mini-Sentence + こと **だって** 、ある」

means:

> "There are **_also/even_** times when ~~~."

It is sayig that ~~~ is totally possible. 「～～だって」 basically means 「～～もやはり」.

The comma there is unnecessary and it is usually not used at all. The author
might have had a reason for using a comma, but without further context, we
could not be certain of it. Most likely, it was for emphasizing the fact that
the stray dogs actually could attack humans at times.

NOTE: This 「だって」 should not be confused with the sentence-ending 「～～～だって」,
which is **_quotative_**. "~~~~, he said.", "~~~, it says", etc.




You have got this one correct.

> 「Verb Phrase or Mini-Sentence + こと **だって** 、ある」

means:

> "There are **_also/even_** times when ~~~."

It is sayig that ~~~ is totally possible. 「～～だって」 basically means 「～～もやはり」.

The comma there is unnecessary and it is usually not used at all. The author
might have had a reason for using a comma, but without further context, we
could not be certain of it. Most likely, it was for emphasizing the fact that
the stray dogs actually could attack humans at times.

NOTE: This 「だって」 should not be confused with the sentence-ending 「～～～だって」,
which is **_quotative_**. "~~~~, he said.", "~~~, it says", etc.

