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In the JLU chat, Flaw recently typed up some instructions printed on a Japanese product. Here's what they said:

直射日光の当たらない涼しい所に保管してください

It appears that 所 is modified by two phrases:

  • 直射日光の当たらない "not in direct sunlight"
  • 涼しい "cool"

But they aren't joined by て. It doesn't say 直射日光の当たらなくて涼しい. I can't find any information on joining two adjectives like this, without using て. Is it grammatical to combine them this way? Is it different from using て?

I've seen forms like すごい高い before, but I thought that was just a non-standard way of saying すごく高い. This seems like it's different.

  • あたらない is not an イ-adjective. – istrasci Mar 01 '13 at 19:34
  • @istrasci This answer is related to what you just said. I know that 助動詞「ない」 isn't a 形容詞, but I thought it made sense to treat the word resulting from 未然形＋助動詞「ない」 as an adjective because I thought it behaved like one. Is that where I've gone wrong? –  Mar 01 '13 at 19:41
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    Yes, it usually behaves like one, but not in this case. Actually, I can't really explain this except to say that 直射日光の当たらない is modifying 涼しい所, not 直射日光の当たらない and 涼しい modifying 所. – istrasci Mar 01 '13 at 20:08
  • I feel like this question stems from a misunderstanding. 背が高い格好いい人 is perfectly fine. This is because it's analyzed as 背が高い［格好いい人］. その人は背が高い格好いい is of course wrong (except perhaps with certain young people). With this knowledge you should see that ない behaves exactly the same. – Darius Jahandarie Mar 06 '13 at 15:35

1 Answers1

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Similar to @istrasci, I can't think of any other explanation except that 涼しい所 is being modified by 直射日光の当たらない, and that there isn't any "and" in this sentence, in this case I think the noun phrase 涼しい所 is being modified by the relative clause 直射日光の当たらない:

直射日光の当たらない涼しい所
"A cool place [which/that] isn't exposed to direct sunlight"

On the other hand, I think 直射日光の当たらなくて涼しい would be:

直射日光の当たらなくて涼しい所
"A place [which/that] isn't exposed to direct sunlight and is cool"

Which I think sounds more clunky in English, I think it might in Japanese too. (BTW, 直射日光の当たらない涼しい場所に保管してください is on ALC as "Store in a cool place avoiding direct sunlight", and I think it's pretty standard.)

cypher
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  • I think I was still confused last time I read this answer, because the comment I left on it back then didn't make any sense :-) But thanks for explaining, I think I finally get it. –  Nov 02 '13 at 12:47