I think this might also be a case where の in a subordinate clause can be replaced by が. So you could also read it as 日本人の大好きな桜の花 The beloved sakura of the Japanese people
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That sounds right, but leebo is smarter and replying too so ill just wait for that
It’s kind of the other way around. In relative clauses, の can replace が, but it is not the genitive の.
が can’t replace a genitive の
Wait, youre referring to the 日本人が大好きな part, right? Reading your reply makes me think youre looking at the 桜の花 part which isnt what OP meant.
No I’m talking about the part they mentioned.
They’re making it sound like there could be a genitive の there that was replaced with が
Wait, I was the one who read it backwards, whoops. Yeah (fancy g word) の cant be replaced by が.
Isnt 日本人の大好きな桜の花 still ok though?
It is okay, but the relationship is just the reverse of what was described.
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Yeah thats my bad, I saw の, が, the word “replace”, and a correct sentence and my brain just went 正解！
famous example 我が国=our country, totally does replace no with ga, though.
我の国＝our country
That is a vestige of classical grammar. が does not function that way in modern grammar, but some classical phrases make it to the modern day.
In that sense 我が is effectively one word now, you can’t just put that が in other places where の can go.
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I put the question to my teacher and will relate what he comes back with
You’re asking if the genitive が persists in modern Japanese?
He says that following clauses are the same as eachother. which is the same construction as above.
わたしの貸した本 The book I lent
わたしが貸した本
But I am still not entirely clear so I will ask him in person in class tonight. i have been struggling with this が・の switcheroo for a while.
Yeah, I didn’t disagree with the fact that they can switch.
But that の is not the genitive の if you switched it with the が.
I think the confusing thing might be that when you write it with a の, in that sentence there, you don’t know if it’s genitive or subject marking.
But when you have the が there, that can only be subject marking.
So it’s strange to say it was genitive and became subject marking… It makes more sense to me to say that you had already switched the subject marking が out for the subject marking の when you wrote the sentence.
yes, that is the part I am not clear about. I’m struggling to think of an example where the の is definitely genitive and also in a subordinate clause. Maybe 私の大好きなボールペンで書いた漢字は… will work. But as I look at it I am reasonably sure that the の is not replaceable, as it would actually change the meaning of the sentence.
It’s not part of the relative clause if it’s genitive. It’s using its genitive effect on the whole relative clause that follows. But you can make sentences that work either way.
At the end of the day, this is a “looking under the hood” type discussion. As long as you know when you can use が and の you don’t need to know how linguists break the sentences up.
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There is an example for this in DoJG (for が => の):
You cannot replace が with の if the subject of the sentence is followed by a noun because the meaning changes.
トムがフットボールの切符をあげた女の子 (the girl to whom Tom gave a football ticket)
トムのフットボールの切符をあげた女の子 (the girl to some (someone) gave Tom’s football ticket)
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Thank you ! Now It’s time to study Tobira >_< !
Okey short question:
There are the i-adjective 小さい and 大きい. Then there are the “pre noun adjectival” (WTF?) 小さな and 大きな. So the い gets somehow replaced by the な?! Is there a rule? I read Tae Kims Guid up to the end of essential grammar, but there was nothig like that (I think).
Could someone please give me an expample, that makes the difference between these wordpairs clear? Because in the sentances I found, they were interchangable.
~T 
Imabi has an article on it.
There’s a pretty limited number of these, it’s not generalized to where you can make every one into the other.