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Help with sentence meaning

palroj

後輩
25 Jul 2012
19
0
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Hey everyone,

I'm using NHK Easy to practice my japanese reading and came across a sentence that I'm having difficulties with. This is the article: NEWS WEB EASY|シリアで行方不明になった安田さんだという男性のビデオ

Can you guys help me out with the title sentence?

シリアで行方不明になった安田さんだという男性のビデオ

I get most of it and the overall sense of the phrase ("the man in the video is Yasuda-san who went missing in Syria", something like that?). Breaking it down:

シリアで - in Syria
行方不明になった - gone missing
安田さん - Yasuda-san
だという - ??
男性のビデオ - man in the video / video of man ?

So, my question is regarding the だという. I know という is usually used to quote someone or speak of something that's been said, but I don't know how it applies here.

And also, the last part 男性のビデオ sounds like it should be read "video of man" but I get the sense that it should be read "man in the video".

Thanks for your help.
 
"Video of the man" is correct. "Man in the video" is ビデオの男性. This is an explanation about the video, not the man.
だという shows that it's indefinite that the man is really Yasuda.
 
Thanks for your answer. So I guess the meaning of the sentence is that it's not possible to say that the man in the video is Yasuda?

I'm still a bit confused about the ending of that sentence, I'm not really understanding the grammar there. Can you elaborate a bit?

Thanks
 
You can think of it as "Video of the man who is said to have gone missing in Syria."
And that still fits in with what you thought it means: speak of something that's been said
 
シリアで行方不明になった安田さんだという男性のビデオ

No:
[シリアで行方不明になった安田さん] [だという男性のビデオ]

Yes:
[シリアで行方不明になった安田さんだ] [という男性のビデオ]

[シリアで行方不明になった安田さんだ] [という{<男性の>ビデオ}]

Easier to see:
[シリアで行方不明になった安田さんだ] [というビデオ]
 
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