English allows only gapped externally headed relative clauses: I ate the apple [that/which Joan bought Ø].
Head Relative Clause
6 Many of Yamasaki Toyoko’s (b. 1924) best-selling novels are loosely based on historical
events. Karei naru ichizoku ‘the family of exuberance’ depicts the rise and fall of the powerful Manpyo family during post-WWII Japan and alludes to the bankruptcy of the Sanyo Special Steel Co. in 1965. The novel has been fi lmed once and twice dramatized on TV.
3. いくら言葉がきつかったからといって、退職するなんて、信じ られない。 4. やっても、無駄だよ。 5. 知らないくせに、すぐ知ったかぶりをする。 6. しばらく会わないうちに、ずいぶん大きくなったね。 7. あの時、君の言うことをちゃんと聞けば、こんなことにはなら なかっただろう。 8. 動くと撃つぞ。 9. 何度説明しても分からないなら、もう、説明はしない。 10. 面白いなら、読んでみます。
In this sentence, the head of the relative clause construction is the apple, which is located outside the relative clause. Placed within the relative clause, it functions as the direct object of the verb bought. This gap inside the rela- tive clause is marked by “Ø.” This type of relative clause is most common in Japanese as well:
ジョーンがりんごを買った。
[ジョーンが Ø 買った］ りんごを食べた。
Relative Clause Head
However, Japanese also allows the head to appear inside the relative clause, i.e. an internally headed relative clause:
[ジョーンが りんごを買った］のを三つ分けてもらった。 Head
I received three of the apples that Joan bought.
Literally (ungrammatical in English): ‘I received three of them from that Joan bought the apples.’
[りんごがテーブルの上にあった］のを食べた。 Head
I ate the apple that was on the table.
Literally: ‘I ate that there was an apple on the table.’
The following examples of internally headed relative clauses in Japanese are drawn from Ohara (1996).
[父が三日前にお金を振り込んでおいてくれた］のを緑は今日引き出 した。(p. 13)
Three days ago her father had wired her money, and Midori withdrew it today.
[太郎が三年前箪笥の奥にお金を隠しておいた］のを花子は偶然見つ け出した。(p. 48)
Taro had hidden money behind the closet three years ago, and Hanako found it accidentially.
The internally headed relative clause construction supports Ikegami’s (1981: 257) contention that Japanese tends to depict situations as koto 事 (≈ an event), rather than as mono 物 (≈ a thing). For example, in the following, many native speakers of Japanese prefer the a-type expression over the b-type:
a. 私、太郎君のことが好きなの。 b. 私、太郎君が好きなの。
According to Ikegami, in the b-type expression, the act of reference to the individual, Taro in this case, is too defi nite. He (1988: 9) asserts that in Japanese text, “[a]n individuum is not seen in isolation; it is not clearly separated from what it stands contiguous with. It is merely a part of a larger whole, with which it may become merged to the extent of losing its identity.” Adapting Ikegami’s idea, Maynard (1997: 172) characterizes the same phe- nomenon as scene-orientation (as in Japanese) vis-à-vis agent-orientation (as in English). She contends, “[f ]or Japanese people, the scene of an event as a whole assumes the primary focus of attention (in comparison to English, where the agent is the primary focus).”
The following excerpt, taken from Mori Ogai’s novel, Seinen ‘a young man’,7 illu strates a case of ambiguous reference. The passage depicts the
scene in which the protagonist, Jun’ichi, is visited by a girl, Oyuki-san. While they are looking at pictures in a Western magazine, Oyuki-san’s hip touches Jun’ichi’s. The naïve young man automatically pulls back:
7 Mori Ogai (1862–1922) was a novelist, poet, and translator during the Meiji period. He also
served as a medical offi cer in the Imperial Japanese Army and was promoted to the highest rank, Army Surgeon-General, in 1907. He was sent by the Army to study in Germany (1884–1888), during which time he developed an interest in European literature. Mori is highly praised for his crisp, modern writing style. The novel Seinen, which was inspired by Natsume Soseki’s Sanshiro, is a portrait of a young man who aspires to become a novelist.
純一は無意識に、殆ど反射的に坐を起って、大分遠くへ押し遣(や) られていた火鉢の傍(そば)へ行って、火箸(ひばし)を手に取って、 ｢あ、火が消えそうになった、少しおこしましょうね」と云った。 ／「わたくしそんなに寒かないわ」極めて穏かな調子である。なぜ 純一が坐を移したか、少しも感ぜないと見える。／「こんなに大き な帽子があるでしょうか」と云うのを、火をいじりながら覗(のぞ) いて見れば、雑誌のしまいの方にある婦人服の広告であった。 (森鴎外『青年』) Jun’ichi almost automatically and unconsciously stood up and moved to the hibachi located at a distance. Picking up the hearth tongs, he said, “It’s going out. We need to put some more coal on the fi re.”
“I’m not cold,” Oyuki-san said calmly, without appearing to suspect why Jun’ichi had moved away.
“What a huge hat,” she continued with surprise. Maneuvering the fi re, Jun’ichi turned his gaze toward her. She was staring at an advertisement of women’s apparel at the end of the magazine.
The predicate in question is nozoite mireba 覗いて見れば, which requires both subject and direct object. The subject here is clearly Jun’ichi, but the direct object is not apparent because this sentence is structurally ambiguous. One interpretation considers no as in to iu no o と云うのを as a personal pronoun, identical with Sonna koto o itta no wa dare da そんなことを言っ たのは誰だ ‘Who said such a thing?’, where no is equivalent to hito 人. Then the translation would be:
“What a huge hat,” she continued with surprise. Maneuvering the fi re, Jun’ichi glanced at her. What she was looking at was an advertisement of women’s apparel toward the end of the magazine.
The alternative interpretation identifi es “Konna ni Dkina bDshi ga aru deshD
ka” to iu no o「こんなに大きな帽子があるでしょうか」と云うのを as an
internally headed relative clause whose head is bDshi 帽子:
“What a huge hat,” she continued with surprise. Maneuvering the fi re, Jun’ichi glanced at the hat. It was in an advertisement of women’s apparel toward the end of the magazine.
The second rendering sounds more logical than the fi rst. However, the most natural interpretation of this passage is that Jun’ichi glanced at the scene in which Oyuki-san was looking at the big hat in the magazine. Isolating Oyuki-san or the photograph of the hat is artifi cial and unnecessary to understanding the text.
EXERCISE 5.5
Identify internally headed relative clauses and translate into English the following (derived from Ohara 1996).
1. 財布が落ちていたのを駅員が拾った。