I came across a sentence that has me a little perplexed:
>家の周りには、畑や林もあって、自然がたくさんあるとても静かな所だった。
The first instance of ある is in te form, but when we come to the second subclause (I think that’s what it’s called?) it shows up in dictionary form. I know this is the kind of thing you’ll see in a relative clause, but this doesn’t immediately register as that to me because we’re actually adding another piece after it, which is とても静かな. That’s the piece that’s really throwing me off. To me it would make sense if it was written like:
> 畑や林もあって、自然がたくさんあって、とても静かな
Is this correct too, or have I gotten something confused in the process of breaking this sentence down?
3 comments
It is modifying the noun that comes after it, instead of being conjunctive.
Its all about 所
What 所?
This kind of 所: 自然がたくさんあるとても静かな
It all is just a elongated description. And yes, this way we just describe “tokoro”, so no need to use the -te form.
This way the sentence does sound way more natural compared to your suggestion (畑や林もあって、自然がたくさんあって、とても静かな). Maybe just more beautiful, but guess that’s exactly the reason why it is used this way.
所 (noun) -> (とても静かな)所 (noun phrase) -> (自然がたくさんある)(とても静かな)所 (bigger noun phrase) -> (畑や林もあって、自然がたくさんある)(とても静かな)所 (even bigger noun phrase, expansing on first clause)
You can think of it as 畑や林もあって、自然がたくさんある modifying a noun phrase if that helps. Ultimately, what’s being expressed is a place which has two qualities: namely that there’s a lot of nature (specifically woods and fields), and that it’s a very quiet place.
Sometimes, Japanese is oddly satisfying.