Why is wo followed by a noun?

Question

So I've got this sentence: 日本【にほん】の古【ふる】くから言【い】い伝【つた】われている話【はな】しを昔話【むかしばなし】と言【い】います。

Now 昔話【むかしばなし】 is supposed to be a noun, and を should be followed by a verb, but why is を followed by a noun in this case?

Answer 1

It all depends on what arguments the verb takes. The verb in your sentence is いう (iu) and it can be used in this pattern.

ＡをＢという (A wo B to iu)
to call A B

There aren't many verbs that take this kind of と (not the kind that means "with") as an argument.

Answer 2

and wo should be followed by a verb

In general, particles don't need to be followed by anything; they are postpositions, so they restrict what precedes them. [を]{wo} should be preceded by a noun, and its purpose is to mark the direct object in some clause. However, an action could have many "participants", so we can't really say that any specific one of them has to come right before the verb in the general case. (Of course, certain orders are preferred idiomatically.)

In your example, [と]{to} is another particle. The verb is [言]{i}[い]{i}[ま]{ma}[す]{su}, the formal equivalent of [言]{i}[う]{u}. The core meaning is "speak", but it's also used to talk about naming or calling things. For that usage, the と-participant is the name being used, and the を-participant is the thing that receives that name. (If present, a [が]{ga}-participant would be the person applying that name.)

This と is different from the one that means "and" (as a conjunction). It is used for quoting things, either literally (as speech or text) or more abstractly. Only a few verbs use it.