> In this case isn't someClassObject just a literal that's resolved at compile-time and erased into a simple identifier symbol?

No. Its a variable assigned in runtime.

   public void yesYouCan (Object foo, Class<?> someClassObject) {
      // compile time?
      if(foo.getClass() instanceof someClassObject) { ... }
   }

Regardless, class and symbolic resolution occur at both compilation (to create the binary clsss files) and in runtime in the JVM (to load and execute the binary generated by the compiler):

http://java.sun.com/docs/books/jls/second_edition/html/execu...

> You can't pass someClassObject as an argument to anything but an operator like new or instanceof, and you can't assign to or from it, it doesn't itself belong to a class. It isn't an object.

No, its quite possible/common to write methods that take class objects as parameters.