2

Hi I was revisiting Noun Phrase, and I wanted to cover up several aspects of の using a single noun phrase, but I was getting a bit confused with that regard.

So, following is my sentence: (Please note there maybe other ways of describing but I want to make it using particle の only to check out the order of positioning of particle の, which involves different modifier)

日本の山田さんの日本人の友達の田中さんの赤い木の家は高いです。

What I want to say; Yamada san's Japanese Friend Tanaka san's red tree house in Japan (location of house in Japan) = Noun Phrase

...is expensive.

In this sentence multiple uses of の are involved

日本: Positioning Modifier for House (in Japan)

山田: Possessive Modifier for Tanaka san (山田's Friend)

日本人: Noun Modifier for Friend (Japanese Friend)

友達の田中さん: Apposition Modifier for Tanaka san (who is a friend or my friend Tanaka san)

赤い: I-Adjective for Modifying the Colour of the House

木: Noun Modifier for House (as in Tree House)

So, following are my 3 questions:

  1. Is it Grammatical? As I was getting confused with the position of Positional Modifier (of where the house is) and Possessive Modifier i.e. using 山田さんの日本の。。。

  2. Is this a natural order I.e. Position (Place) -> Possessive Marker -> Noun Modifier (optional) -> Apposition -> Adjective -> Noun Modifier -> Noun (Main)?

  3. Is there any difference between 赤い木の家 or 木の赤い家 in the following sentence?

Thank You

(FYI - I tried using Google Translator, but it was showing different results each time I tried to put this in)

教えてください

APK
  • 197
  • 2
  • 12

1 Answers1

1

Is it Grammatical? As I was getting confused with the position of Positional Modifier (of where the house is) and Possessive Modifier i.e. using 山田さんの日本の

It's grammatical, but I read this as 日本の山田さん "Yamada-san (living) in Japan", not 日本の家. You could have said 日本にある田中さんの赤い木の家 ("Tanaka's red wooden house located in Japan"), though, because ある cannot modify a person for the obvious reason.

Is this a natural order I.e. Position (Place) -> Possessive Marker -> Noun Modifier (optional) -> Apposition -> Adjective -> Noun Modifier -> Noun (Main)?

Sorry, I have never thought about this consciously. I know English has a rule regarding this, but I have never seen a Japanese equivalent. This answer may be related.

Anyway, using three or more の's in succession is almost always bad even if it's not ambiguous (See Would you say 日系アメリカ人の歴史のポータル or 日系アメリカ人の歴史ポータル?). You can always come up with a less confusing expression using appropriate verbs and particles. For example, in this case I would say 山田さんの日本人の友達である田中さんが日本で住んでいる赤い木の家は高い.

Is there any difference between 赤い木の家 or 木の赤い家

They practically refer to the same thing, but 赤い木の家 is more natural if you want to simply say "red wooden house". (See Odd position of adjective)

naruto
  • 313,860
  • 13
  • 324
  • 625
  • 赤い木の家 seems to refers to a red tree, while 木の赤い家 seems to refer to a red house for me. – Tito Morenno Pontes e Souza Aug 25 '20 at 03:23
  • @TitoMorennoPonteseSouza Maybe, but they both effectively refer to the same thing like this, don't they? – naruto Aug 25 '20 at 03:44
  • I was thinking that 赤い木の家 could mean a house on top of a red tree. – Tito Morenno Pontes e Souza Aug 25 '20 at 04:21
  • @TitoMorennoPonteseSouza I never imagined that. That would be 赤い木の上の家 or 赤い木の上のツリーハウス. – naruto Aug 25 '20 at 04:34
  • @naruto Like always, thanks a lot, you really help me understand minute aspects! Naruto san, I am mainly confused with the order of 日本の (Position), as; if I put it after 山田, it seems like the friend is in Japan; if I put it after 田中 it seems like Japanese house rather than house in Japan (also the same interpretation if we put it after 木の but before 家) ありがとう – APK Aug 25 '20 at 08:59