100050
In the sentence:

> 大学生になって初めて、その本の本当の価値が分かるようになった

If 初めて is an adverb, it should **modify the phrase behind it** , which is a
rule of Japanese. So here it should modify「その本の本当の価値が分かるようになった」, but why there
is a comma "、" between them?  
After all, I don't see elsewhere an adverb and its modifying part are
seperated by a comma. So I feel the original sentence is a little strange.

I came up with an explanation: maybe here we should see て初めて as a compound
particle, which means "not until". But I think it's also Ok to see 初めて as a
single adverb, and the sentence should be

> 大学生になって、初めてその本の本当の価値が分かるようになった

just like the sentence:

> 親が死んで、初めてそのありがたさがわかった

in the second explanation of 初めて from
[デジタル大辞泉](https://www.weblio.jp/content/%E5%88%9D%E3%82%81%E3%81%A6)
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2023-06-23T02:39:23.313
100046
2023-06-23T05:22:55.857
2023-06-23T05:20:37.243
56516
56516
question
syntax punctuation
Why is there a comma between 初めて and the following part it modifies?
初めて is modifying the the sentence before the comma. Think of it as two
separate phrases

> 大学生になって初めて

_Becoming a student for the first time_

(A better translation of the phrase になって初めて by jisho is 'not until I became'
or 'only when'.) This whole phrase modifies the expression after the comma.

> その本の本当の価値が分かるようになった

_I realized the true value of the book._

tl;dr: 初めて is part of the phrase before the comma
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2023-06-23T04:40:40.373
100049
2023-06-23T04:40:40.373
39515
100046
answer
You can put the comma in either of two places as below.

> 大学生になって、初めてその本の本当の価値が分かるようになった。
>
> 大学生になって初めて、その本の本当の価値が分かるようになった。

The two sentences give slightly different impressions. The first simply
connects two statements. The speaker became a college student (first), and
(then) realized the true value of the book for the first time. The second
sentence places greater focus on when they made that realization as if to say
it wasn’t until they became a college student that they realized the true
value of the book. The whole of 大学生になって初めて could be seen as a temporal phrase.

The difference is very subtle.
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2023-06-23T05:22:55.857
100050
2023-06-23T05:22:55.857
43676
100046
answer