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です / 手伝ってまらって... / 夜更かしをした...

eeky

先輩
8 Jun 2010
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Hello,

1. This is a topic that I quite often get confused about, so apologies if I've asked a similar question before.

来週、田中先生の送別会をやる予定です。

Translation given: "A farewell party for Professor Tanaka is scheduled for next week."

Although I can read this fine, if I'm being more fussy it conflicts with the idea I have that です should be used for meanings like "X is Y", and があります for meanings like "X exists". If we're simply stating the existence of the plan (予定), per the translation, why do we use です rather than があります? What is the difference?


2. 手伝ってまらって助かった。大事故だったが、一人だけ 助かった。

My translation: "I received help and was rescued. It was a big accident and I was the only person to survive."

Is this correct? Is the speaker the subject of all the verbs, as I've translated? (There is no further context.)


3. Again, apologies if this is similar to questions I've asked before. It is another niggling problem that I never seem to be able to quite get my head around:

夜更かしをした次の日は、なかなか起きられません。

Translation given: "I have a hard time getting up the next day after staying up late."

Normally with V-た + N relative clauses, the noun is the subject of the verb, right? But here I see no way that 次の日 can be the subject of 夜更かしをした. It's like there's a missing particle or something that we have to mentally assume based on an understanding of what the overall meaning must be. How does this grammar work?
 
1. I think this is just a difference in viewpoint between English and Japanese. We'd say something is scheduled, and they'd say "it is such-and-such a schedule". There may be something grammatically going on there that someone else can explain, but this is pretty much the only way I've seen/heard it.

2. 手伝ってらって助かった、でしょう?That part is like "thanks for helping me" (literally I guess it's "I was saved by your helping me"). The second part I take to mean it was a big accident, but at least one person was saved, although I have to admit, I'm having a hard time imagining the situation here.

3. 夜更かしをした is modifying 次の日 here; 次の日 isn't the subject. I think this is referred to as an outside-reference relative clause, but I don't remember for sure. Anyway, the point is that the head noun isn't a part of the modifying clause -- it's outside of it, whereas if it were internal reference the head noun would be part of the clause (i.e., 画家が描いた絵, where the sentence would be 画家が絵を描いた).
 
Thanks @Glenn . In #3, is there something in the actual grammatical structure of the sentence that makes this an "outside reference", or do we have to identify it by first guessing what the meaning must be? I'm not suggesting that it's difficult to guess in this example, but I suppose there must be ambiguous situations where the noun and verb in "V-た + N" constructions could sensibly have a number of different semantic relationships? Could you give any other typical examples of V-た + N where N is not the subject of V?
 
I think the way you tell is if you can't put the head noun into the modifying phrase anywhere. I don't think there's any overt marking to show the difference. It seems to be more of an after-the-fact, "oh, this must be external reference (or whatever it's called)" just because it can't be anything else.

I don't have any other examples right now, unfortunately.
 
The modified noun is not limited to the subject. The object can be modified with a clause as same as the relative clause in English.

私を助けた人: the man who helped me
私が助けた人: the man (whom) I helped


The following thread might be somewhat helpful.

koto & to iu in "to iu koto", "to iu imi", "to iu no wa" etc | Japan Forum

The nous that can be a modifee in outside relation are limited in some types.

1)nouns about language/thought
ニュース、手紙、うそ、意見、考え、誘い、、、

2)nouns about affair/matter
事実、事件、可能性、歴史、仕事、作業、方法、、、

3)nouns about relative concept(both spatially and temporally)
上、横、後ろ、途中、前日、直後、、、

という can be an indicator for group 1, but there are many cases that という is not used.
As Glenn-san explained, 次の日 is considered to be in the group 3. という can't be used for this group, unlike group 1 and 2.
 
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