Purpose of 者 in (noun)者，所(verb)也 structure

Question

I've recently learned that 者 is used to nominalize an action, whereas I used to think its purpose was just to assign an action to an actor and reference the actor. But I'm going through Fuller's book, and he uses the structure in the title. For example, he says that instead of "从X坠", we can write "X者，所从坠也。" This emphasizes X and makes it the topic of the sentence. Another similar example is "剑者，涉江者所求也," where "剑" is emphasized, and that is the object which the "涉江"-er seeks.

I don't understand why we need 者 in these cases. 剑 and any X are already nouns, so why do they need nominalization? What is the 者 doing?

Answer 1

noun 者・所 verb 也

in such structure, the “者” served two purpose:

• indicate a pause
• as a modal particle, to adjust the mood, or flow of the verse

in 禮記 禮運

故君者・所明也

Hence the ruler is he to whose brightness men look

君者・所養也

The ruler is he whom men support

君者・所事也

The ruler is he whom men serve

one might interpret “者” as the spotlight and fabfare , when an emcee announces; “and the winner is . . .”; in which, “者” is, to emphasise the preceding noun (君, in this example), as the subject of the following verb (明, 養, 事, in this example)

have fun :)

Answer 2

者

(1) (pron) those who, he who, one who.

(2) (noun suffix) -er, -or, -ist. [3] used as topic marker

pausing after a topic can emphasize it.

Example:

兵，詭道也 = warfare, is an art of deception

兵(者)，詭道也 = (what) warfare (is), is an art of deception

者 here is a "topic marker", not a noun. It leads the reader to a following statement. It can be omitted, as the example above showed.