The の in "私の馬鹿"

[Fuubuu]

I've come across this very often in the manga I've read and anime I've watched.
"私の馬鹿" is always translated as "I'm an ldiot."
Why is that? Shouldn't "I'm an ldiot" be "私は馬鹿?" and '私の馬鹿" mean something like "My folly" or "My bad?"
Thanks!

 

[nekojita]

This is not the possessive の

Probably the best definition in 大辞泉 would be this one:
㋙名称・人名。…という名の。…という。「富士―山」「三河―国」

To be "my idiocy" or something like that I think you would use 私の馬鹿さ

 

[Toritoribe]

I've come across this very often in the manga I've read and anime I've watched.
"私の馬鹿" is always translated as "I'm an ldiot."
Why is that? Shouldn't "I'm an ldiot" be "私は馬鹿?" and '私の馬鹿" mean something like "My folly" or "My bad?"
Thanks!

That's a special usage of apposition(同格) の which is the same definition as バラの花, 杉の木 or 大阪の町 (as in 大阪の町は賑やかだ, not "a town in Osaka"), as nekojita-san provided. In this special usage, the noun preceding の must be the ones for calling such like people's names, titles or personal pronouns (e.g. 太郎, 先生, 先輩, お兄ちゃん), and the noun following の must be the ones that have a negative nuance(e.g. エッチ, 意気地なし, わからず屋, ケチ). I've read a detailed explanation about this の in a thesis, but it's too long to translate...

 

[Fuubuu]

I think I understand a bit now! Thanks a lot!

 

[riverwest]

This is very interesting! First I would like to thank Fuubuu to bring up this subject. Even though I often read and hear about this usage, I have never thought about how to use this.

This might become too technical but I want to share something more of what I thought. I think Toritoribe-san's answer is spot-on. It (this usage) must be 同格. And this is what I summarized (at least in my head).

When using this particular 同格 form, "A の B", "A" is people's name or people's pronouns just like Toritoribe-san said. "B", I think, has to be な-adjective (形容動詞). All example we mentioned above are nouns but also な-adjectives. For example, we can say "ねずみはバカです。[(sorry, mouse!)]"(バカ is a noun here) but we can also say "バカな人" (バカ is な-adjective here). Likewise, we can say "エッチな人", "意気地なしな人", "わからず屋な人", "ケチな人" which indicate all these words are な-adjectives. We don't say "お兄ちゃんの学生！" (学生 is a noun), but we say "お兄ちゃんのいじわる！" (いじわる is a noun but also な-adjective). Of course, not all な-adjective can be used in this form; B has some sort of negative connotation in it just like Toritoribe-san said.

 

[Toritoribe]

For people who are interested in this topic, here's the thesis I mentioned in my previous post.
『「 お母さんのバカ！」型の「xのy」がどのようにして生まれるか ―参照点構造による分析― 』 by 小柳昇
http://nihon5ch.net/contents/ch5/daigakuin/gengo-2009-3.pdf
(142 pages pdf file, 321KB, all in Japanese)

 

[user64344]

I apologize if this isn't the appropriate place for this post, I thought it would be relevant.
Is the「七人の」in「七人の侍」of similar function as the original poster's example? It feels like it could be「侍の」for similar reasons feeling it could be「馬鹿のお母さん」.

 

[user64344]

I apologize if this isn't the appropriate place for this post, I thought it would be relevant.
Is the「七人の」in「七人の侍」of similar function as the original poster's example? It feels like it could be「侍の」for similar reasons feeling it could be「馬鹿のお母さん」.

Well, I got this. Counters and all. Sorry for my post.

 

[nekojita]

Xの七人 is possible but it would have to refer to a specific 七人, e.g. "The Magnificent Seven" was given the title in Japanese 荒野の七人 (not a direct translation).

 

[Toritoribe]

の in 七人の侍 indicates quantity, position or ordinal number, as in 2個のリンゴ, 3番目の惑星.

の
［格助］名詞、形容詞、形容動詞の語幹、副詞、副助詞、接続助詞「て」「ながら」などに付く。
１ 連体修飾格として諸種の関係を表す。
サ 数量・順序。…番目の。「多く―船」

の［格助終助間助並助準体助］の意味 - 国語辞書 - goo辞書

の
（ 格助 ）
１ 連体修飾語を作る。
ウ 人間・数量・位置・論理などについての関係を表す。 「社会悪－問題」 「大臣－身辺」

の(ノ)とは - コトバンク

It's well-known that 荒野の七人 is an adaptation of 七人の侍, but these two のs are quite different. 侍の七人 has a similar meaning to the original "seven samurai " (the nuance is different, though), whereas 七人の荒野 is "seven people's wasteland", not "seven people in wasteland".