静かな山の寺で休みました - Is the mountain quiet or is the temple?

GenjiMain · 22 Jun 2025

Hi all. In the sentence 静かな山の寺で休みました, based on my understanding, this sentence says "I rested at the temple of a quiet mountain", but both google and chatgpt say the answer is "I rested at a quiet mountain temple". If the letter is correct, can someone explain why? Specifically, how 静かな山 (which in isolation means quiet mountain) comes to mean quiet temple.
Thank you.

Majestic · 22 Jun 2025

My non-native understanding is this; linguistically it can take on either meaning, since word order is rather flexible in Japanese. However, since the subject of the passage is the temple, and not the mountain per se, the most common interpretation would be that the "quiet" refers to the temple (which is located on the mountain).

静かな山の寺
quiet mountain temple

If you wanted to specify that the mountain was quiet while ignoring the volume level of the temple, you might say
静かな山の中にあるお寺

GenjiMain · 23 Jun 2025

Majestic said:
My non-native understanding is this; linguistically it can take on either meaning, since word order is rather flexible in Japanese. However, since the subject of the passage is the temple, and not the mountain per se, the most common interpretation would be that the "quiet" refers to the temple (which is located on the mountain).

静かな山の寺
quiet mountain temple

If you wanted to specify that the mountain was quiet while ignoring the volume level of the temple, you might say
静かな山の中にあるお寺

Thanks for the answer, and I think I understand your point on the different word grouping/order. However, when you say the subject of the passage is the temple, do you mean subject as in subject/object? If so, I don't get it lol. Wouldn't the subject in the sentence be the implied 私 (or whoever did the resting)?

Majestic · 23 Jun 2025

I meant the topic of the sentence. Not "subject" as in the grammatical subject.

GenjiMain · 23 Jun 2025

Majestic said:
I meant the topic of the sentence. Not "subject" as in the grammatical subject.

I thought that may have been the case. Thank you sir.

静かな山の寺で休みました - Is the mountain quiet or is the temple?

GenjiMain

Sempai

Majestic

先輩

GenjiMain

Sempai

Majestic

先輩

GenjiMain

Sempai

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