I'm familiar with 「という」 and was somewhat confused why I saw 「のいう」 in the
following sentence:

> 人間対応能力は、ドラッカーのいう「他の人間とともに働く能力」のことです。

What is the role of 「のいう」 in this sentence? Is it incorrect to say 「という」? I
thought that 「の」 is possessive, but I'm unsure of what it means when combined
with 「いう」.
CC BY-SA 3.0
2012-08-23T05:03:32.007
6561
2012-08-26T16:08:12.647
1328
question
grammar
What does 「のいう」 mean in this sentence?
Would the の be equivalent to が？

It seems that this modified phrase is slightly crowded. The event or こと is the
quotation which is attributed to Drucker in a way that does not take emphasis
away from the quotation itlself (placing it on Drucker instead).
CC BY-SA 3.0
2012-08-23T05:27:23.730
6564
2012-08-23T05:27:23.730
1556
6561
answer
The の is in fact が here. Take the sentence and cut that little phrase to make
it easier to see: 人間対応能力は、「他の人間とともに働く能力」のことです。The ability to get along with
people is "the ability to work together with other people."

Now the author just attributes the quote to Drucker with the short modifying
phrase ドラッカーのいう. This could be ドラッカーがいう, but の is used in cases where the
modifier is kind of subordinate; it marks the subject of the modifying phrase
but not of the entire sentence, I guess.

So basically it works out to: The ability to get along with people is what
Drucker calls "the ability to work together with other people."

Other examples of the の replacing a が:

犬の舐めたボールを触るな！ Don't touch balls that dogs have licked! (Ok, that example
sounds dirtier and more awkward than I intended it.)

田中さんの選択した曲がかかってきた時、すごい盛り上がってきた。 When the song that Tanaka-san selected came
on, he got super excited.

I guess a similar situation in English is choosing between that and which in
modifying phrases.
CC BY-SA 3.0
2012-08-26T16:08:12.647
6604
2012-08-26T16:08:12.647
1648
6561
answer