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I'm translating bits of _Hyrule Historia_ to test myself a bit and I'm a
little confused by this sentence structure.

お面を使うリンク

I'm inclined to say this translates to something along the lines of:

"Link uses a mask."

But can someone explain to me why the subject is appearing after the verb and
without a particle?
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2011-12-22T20:53:36.547
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2011-12-23T04:35:49.743
2011-12-23T04:35:49.743
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question
syntax subjects
Subject following verb?
I think your translation is incorrect. I believe this would be something
closer to "The mask-using Link" or "Link, using a mask...". The verb precedes
the noun because it is describing it. I'm not sure what that's called, but it
happens a lot.
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2011-12-22T21:31:11.583
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2011-12-22T21:31:11.583
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answer
Just like adjectives, verbs in Japanese can be used to describe nouns. In this
situation, the 連体形 of the verb is used, which happen to be the same as 終止形
(the form used to end sentence) in modern Japanese.

In this formation, a sentence is not formed. It only gets a descriptive
phrase, which can be used as part of the sentence (as a noun phrase). So the
translation given in @AHelps's answer may be more appropriate.

btw, the forms for adjective used to describe nouns are also called 連体形. For
i-adjectives it is the same with sentence ending form, for na-adjectives it is
not.
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2011-12-23T02:05:33.253
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2011-12-23T02:05:33.253
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answer