BTW, a bungo question while it's still fresh on your mind:
This may be my inexperience here, but looks to me that when an explicit subject immediately precedes a verb, the case marker is not just optional but in fact always omitted, at least in the Kokinshu era. I haven't seen this specifically articulated as a rule, though. However, when a direct object immediately precedes a transitive verb, the case marker seems to be more optional. (KKS 2:115, for example, has two direct objects right before the transitive verb, one with and one without its を.) Can you confirm this?
no subject
This may be my inexperience here, but looks to me that when an explicit subject immediately precedes a verb, the case marker is not just optional but in fact always omitted, at least in the Kokinshu era. I haven't seen this specifically articulated as a rule, though. However, when a direct object immediately precedes a transitive verb, the case marker seems to be more optional. (KKS 2:115, for example, has two direct objects right before the transitive verb, one with and one without its を.) Can you confirm this?
---L.