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The following sentence is from the Constitution of Japan (Article 26).

すべて国民は、法律の定めるところにより、その保護する子女に普通教育を受けさせる義務を負ふ。

The English translation (or rather the original text?) says

All people shall be obligated to have all boys and girls under their protection receive ordinary education as provided for by law.

So the "その" in bold font means something like その人が. Is this a standard usage of その?

Cabbage
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2 Answers2

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Wiktionary's definition of その

  1. その人の。
    それ以来、その姿を見た者はいない。

すべて国民は、法律の定めるところにより、その人の保護する子女に普通教育を受けさせる義務を負ふ。

where the antecedent of その人 is 国民, or each member of the collective noun 国民.

Eddie Kal
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  • Thank you. But the meaning in Wiktionary is listed under 連体詞, whereas here 保護する is a verb. – Cabbage Nov 04 '21 at 04:49
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    @Cabbage Please see this answer for the が/の swap and relative clauses in Japanese: https://japanese.stackexchange.com/a/14550/30454 – Eddie Kal Nov 04 '21 at 04:58
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    @Cabbage その is categorized as a single 連体詞 because そ (其, "it") is rarely used outside その in modern Japanese, but this の is still that noun-linking particle, so ga-no conversion in relative clauses applies. – naruto Nov 04 '21 at 05:02
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    @Cabbage - その姿 sounds normal, whereas その保護する子女 sounds like legalese. – aguijonazo Nov 04 '21 at 07:17
  • I think @Cabbage might be pointing out that その is a 連体詞, and thus must modify a 体言, but the following word is the verb 保護する. That is a valid point -- and the resolution is that その modifies 子女. Likewise, その人の modifies 子女. The 保護する between その and 子女 also modifies 子女. – Eiríkr Útlendi Nov 04 '21 at 07:18
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    It could as well be それが保護する子女 or それの保護する子女, but only それの can be substituted with その and それが cannot be changed to そが, at least in modern Japanese. – aguijonazo Nov 04 '21 at 07:26
  • According to Eddie Kal, その is to be read as その人の, referring to 国民; but according to Eirikr Útlendi it modifies 子女; I'm not sure which is correct, or if both interpretations are possible. – Mauro Nov 04 '21 at 12:18
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Nope, this is the usual その. It seems to me that you didn't parse the sentence correctly.

You can understand the sentence like this

(すべて国民) は、(法律の定めるところ)により、[その {(国民が)保護する子女}に 普通教育を 受けさせる義務]を 負ふ。

All people have the responsibility to let their children receive general education under the law.

国民 is the hidden subject of 保護する. 子女 are boys and girls under care by 国民.

Jimmy Yang
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  • Thank you. But if the sentence is to be parsed as in you answer, then その becomes redundant. – Cabbage Nov 04 '21 at 04:58
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    @Cabbage Yes, that's why 国民が is not included in the original sentence. I'm just showing you how to understand this sentence. – Jimmy Yang Nov 04 '21 at 05:05