# nominalizing no + wo



## Starfrown

I have come across an interesting sentence:

かなりの数の見物人もいるが,通行を阻まれたのをさいわい油を売っている御用聞きや出前持などもいる。

I think, in this case, that 通行を阻まれたのを is what Iwasaki (a Japanese linguist) called an "integrated adverbial clause" and should probably be translated as: "while the passage was blocked."

I think, in other cases, an adversative reading would be possible, i.e. "though the passage was blocked."

I'd like to hear what a native speaker thinks.


----------



## Starfrown

Maybe a good translation would be:
 
"A considerable number of spectators were there, too, and, with the passage blocked, door-to-door salesmen, delivery boys, and the like happily idling on the job."
 
Note: the Japanese expression "to sell oil" means "to idle," or "to make idle chat," especially when on the job.
 
Any thoughts???


----------



## Flaminius

I took a glimpse at Iwasaki and found out what is an integrated adverbial clause.  It expresses "the circumstance in which the matrix event takes place" but there is a "mismatch between its case marking and the matrix verb's argument structure."

In your example there is no mismatch because 1. the matrix verb takes an argument elsewhere and 2. the real source of case marking regularly provides _-o_ to 通行を阻まれたの.

A minimalist sentence to illustrate the points follows:
御用聞きなどは通行を阻まれたのをさいわい油を売っている。

The matrix verb is 売っている and makes the predicate with 油を which gets the accusative marking from the strict subcategorisation of 売る.  That さいわい is a noun suggests a disjunction of the sentence before 油.  In fact it can be expanded to さいわいに, さいわいと or さいわいとして without changing the interpretation.  Note that the last one contains a verb that can provide _-o_ to the complementiser _-no_.  In a literal translation, the さいわい part can be; finding it a good chance that they are prevented from passing through.  The construction XをYとする is to think X is Y in English.

The above explanations hold true even if the nominalised _no_-clause is not an internally headed relative clause.  The さいわい part can be "事故で道路がふさがったのをさいわい".


----------



## Starfrown

Many thanks.  My mistake was in assuming that "saiwai" was an adverb modifying "utte iru."

In this case, isn't it possible to interpret the 通行を阻まれたの as either an example of simple complementisation or an internally headed relative clause, tsuukou being the head, with little difference in meaning?


----------



## Flaminius

Yes, it can be either.

But _tsūkō_ cannot be the head because it is part of the predicate which is passive by virtue of _-rareta_.


----------



## Starfrown

If tsuukou can't be the head, what can???

Iwasaki showed that direct objects within an IHRC can function as heads.  Does the fact that the verb is passive mean that that is not possible here?


----------



## Flaminius

Hmmm, I may have missed something very important.

The subject of the predicate 通行を阻まれた is, if I continue using the minimalist rendition above, 御用聞きなど.  This is implicit in the subordinate clause but I am no longer sure what type of construction this is.

I tentatively argue that the subject of 通行を阻まれた is 御用聞きなど because it is also the subject of another predicate under the same instance of topicalisation. From my experience analysing _wa_-topicalisation, the topic noun phrase should get the same case marking for all predicates for which topicalisation is relevant.  Since it is immensely clear that it is 御用聞きなど who are idling away (i.e., the subject of 油を売っている), the same noun phrase should be the subject of 通行を阻まれた.


----------



## Starfrown

I like thinking of it as simple complementisation, i.e. "having the road blocked (on them)".  The passive is used for events outside of one's control, and although the events usually affect the topic adversely, they sometimes are positive.


----------



## Flaminius

Nihil obstat!  Since one can convey the same meaning by replacing 通行を阻まれた with a simple noun such as 通行止め, the movement of the subject noun has little to do with the meaning of the sentence.


----------



## Starfrown

Vērē.  I really need to track down Iwasaki's text and read it VERY carefully.  It has tons of great examples for those who are trying to move from the intermediate to advanced level of Japanese language study.


----------

