In the very beginning of Tae Kim's Guide to Japanese, namely here, there is this example:
魚が好きな人。
Person that likes fish.
When I read that for the first time, still as a very beginner in japanese, I just said "ok interesting, let's move on". But now, having completed the whole "Basic Grammar" and "Essential Grammar" sections of Tae Kim's guide, and drastically improved my vocabulary, I decided to reread everything and stumbled at this example.
It sounded unnatural, strange. As if the phrase was saying "fish is desirable person". (Note: of course I am far from fluent, so I wouldn't be surprised if it's correct, although sounding strange).
So I see two ways of parsing that phrase:
- (魚が好き)な人
- 魚が(好きな人)
Question 1: As far as I know (and here is where I'm probably wrong), we should use な to connect na-adjectives to nouns, but the first way of parsing is using な to connect a whole clause to a noun, is this grammar really correct? Does the whole clause accept a な simply because it ends in a na-adjective? What is going on here?
Question 2: Clearly the second option ("fish is desirable person") does not make sense, but I think we can create a similar example in which both interpretations would fit:
- "person that likes Alice": (Aliceが好き)な人
- "Alice is (a) desirable person": Aliceが(好きな人)
If this is correct, then is guessing by context the only way to decide between the two interpretations?
Note: I didn't post these as separate questions because they are extremely related and there is a chance that a single explanation might help me with both questions.