What’s the difference between these two grammar points? They seem pretty similar.
Only 3 of the criminals have been caught so far.
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For example
I believe they are actually the same grammar point. But the non-Bunpro website looks to have packaged と maybe incorrectly with the しか〜ない.
In the second sentence, i believe the と is acting in its “quotation” or “phrase packaging” (i don’t remember the linguistic term lol) capacity, so it’s really two grammar points. と as thought-package maker + しか〜ない
So it’s still “there is nothing but this thing”; it’s just that the “thing” in this case, is the phrase marked by と instead of some specific noun
After I posted this, I found an entry in Nihongo Bunkei Jiten. It took me a while to track down the source. This is the grammar I came across:
It looks like しかない has a general meaning of doing or being x to the exclusion of everything else, but there’s a nuance difference in each case. In this instance, the character is emphasizing the exclusion of other possibilities, “I can only think that…”
