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I thought that の always had to modify a noun... so how come a sentence like the following is possible despite there being no nominalization of what follows の ?

たたみに布団を敷いて寝てみたものの、背中が痛くて寝られなかった。

Is this a different type of の? or does の work differently to how I imagined it? I there any elision??? If the ものの construction has no such explanation then I am ok with that, but if there is one I'd like to hear it.

chocolate
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Nathan
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2 Answers2

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ものの is one word. It should be in your dictionary.

ものの is a conjunctive particle meaning けれども = "even though".

"Even though I tried to sleep by spreading futons on the tatami, I was unable to sleep because my back hurt."

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As Tokyo Nagoya stated in his answer, in modern Japanese, ものの is considered one word, a 接続助詞 (conjunctive particle).

However, it does in fact consist of the noun 「もの」 and the genitive case-marking particle 「の」. There is no elision occurring. Generally speaking, your thoughts on how this particle works are correct: it takes two nouns (or noun-forms) and makes on larger noun-form.

However, the genitive case in Japanese can also mark the subject of an adnominal clause, for example:

  • 神の怒った日
  • 事故の起こるところ

These may look like they are connecting (神)の(怒こった日) and (事故)の(起こるところ), but what is actually happening is (神の怒こった)日 and (事故の起こった)ところ -- the 「の」 is marking the subject of those adnominal clauses. This form of subject marking has existed since before Old Japanese.

「ものの」 is attested from the Heian Period onward, and though I was unable to find any explanation of this construction in particular, I would hypothesize that it is related to the noun-marking function.

jogloran
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rintaun
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  • "it takes two nouns" -- which nouns in this case? one may be もの, but what is the other? – jovanni Nov 06 '13 at 08:24
  • Perfect. I will look into this further and try and change my understanding in other places that use の! Thankyou so much :)! – Nathan Nov 06 '13 at 08:24
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    Perhaps the second nominal was the following clause? As I understand it, in classical Japanese a clause ending in 連体形 was essentially a nominalized clause. That's how the genitive が was able to attach to a clause, which led to it being reanalyzed as a conjunctive particle. It seems plausible that の could be playing a similar role here. (See Shibatani's The Languages of Japan pages 353-354 for some relevant historical information on の／が and the idea that 連体形-clauses could function as nominals.) –  Nov 06 '13 at 08:59
  • @snailboat, interesting! This is the kind of insight I was hoping someone would bring to the table. So on top of が and の having some functional overlap as genitive/nominative markers, can we hypothesize that they also have functional overlap as "although"? If so, the next question would be whether ものが or just の have ever existed as conjunctions meaning "although". – dainichi Nov 06 '13 at 15:27
  • hmm... my dictionary says 'の(一)[格助]... ④次に述べる事に関係するものを示すのに使う。(イ)同様な事を次にも述べる時、つなぎに使う。「桜花咲きなむ時ー[丹]{に}つつじのにほはむ時に」(万)'。(subject marking usage is listed at (一)②(イ).) – jovanni Nov 06 '13 at 16:35
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    @dainichi As far as I could find, の is not considered to have developed conjunctive properties like が has. However, interestingly, のに has a related meaning, which could potentially shed some light – rintaun Nov 07 '13 at 00:45
  • @rintaun, のに is a great observation, although the の here to me smells more like the nominalizer の. Of course that makes me wonder if/how nominalizer の and genitive/nominative particle の are related! – dainichi Nov 07 '13 at 01:22
  • My dictionary asserts that the の in ものの is a case particle. The reason why ものの became a conjunctive particle is probably similar to why が also became a (slightly different) conjunctive particle. – Kafka Fuura Nov 28 '13 at 09:40