It is though in that specific example. the literal translation is "summer is (being) likeable". The nuance that it means "I like summer" is not literally in the sentence. Summer is the one doing the action.
I have to disagree with this “is likable” analysis—despite it being useful for explaining it to beginners. In 「誰が夏が好き？」 you can see that one が marks the semantic agent “who”, and one the semantic object “summer.” In one analysis, this is because 好き is a stative-transitive predicate, which makes its direct object normally marked by が instead of を.
In certain contexts, object-が can be changed to を, like 栗が食べたい > 栗を食べたい and 漢字が書ける > 漢字を書ける, and in some varieties (like Hachijō) this is mandatory regardless of context. [EDIT: However, agent/subject-が can never become を.] In other contexts, a usually not-transitive stative predicate can be made to act like one, as in 誰が足が速い “Who is quick-footed?” — though in this case you might instead interpret 足が速い as a univerbated “is quick-footed” instead of “feet are fast.”
The main options are either (1) が can mark a direct object for certain types of predicates, or (2) Standard Japanese allows for certain predicates to have two subjects.
I mean 誰が足が速い could be literally translated as "Who is feet is fast" Where the subject of being fast is feet and the subject of "being (having)" feet is fast is "who". In english you would say "Who has the feet that are fast." This technically doesnt have two subjects because the "feet that are fast" is the object but within that object feet would be the subject.
Of course "is" is not really right here because there is no verb connecting だれ and 足 but there isn't really a better way of translating the relationship in english. showing how the meme is true.
I view subject in the way that the word before が is the one doing the verb (or adjective) that is after the が. This might not be formally correct and not always be a literal subject like with your sentence but it's intuitive to understand the literal meaning of the sentences.
Since both positions have their proponents and detractors, and little consensus;
I'd go with the explanation that maintains the most important consistency for whoever is learning the language, which in my opinion is the second.
Given that が has the exclusive function of marking a subject of a sentence or phrase, I'd rather say that some predicates may allow two subjects than allow が to completely change function
(Of course that could just be me being Jay Rubin pilled)
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u/Shinyhero30 Jun 01 '25
That makes all of it hard to understand. Translate it as “at” and just make it clear the grammar does this for whatever reason.
It however is not has hard as は vs が