60896
There is sentence

> 「だがまあ、惚れた女を一途に見守っている男の邪魔をするのは無粋と言うものだ」

which I rougly translated as "However, as they say, it's rude to disturb a man
who is earnestly watching over loved woman". But this translation is due to
context, which suggests that it is a man who fell in love with woman, where my
first attempt was that it was woman who fell in love, since 惚れた modifies 女.

Can someone clarify what happens here grammar-wise?
CC BY-SA 4.0
2018-08-16T08:02:21.790
60895
2020-08-04T02:09:18.363
2020-08-04T02:09:18.363
5010
30982
question
grammar translation relative-clauses ambiguous-relative-clauses
Clarification about how 惚れた should be translated
In this context, 惚れた女 clearly means "the woman whom he fell in love with"
rather than "the woman who fell in love with someone". The subject of 惚れる is
男. Grammatically, this is an innate ambiguity of [Japanese relative
clauses](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/q/14541/5010), which work by
moving a modified noun and _removing_ the accompanying particle such as
が/を/に/へ. You have to determine the correct meaning from the context.

>   * 男は女 **に** 惚れた。  
>  The man fell in love with the woman.
>   * 男が惚れた女  
>  the woman whom the man fell in love with (note that に is gone)
>   * 惚れた女  
>  the woman whom the man fell in love with (subject is omitted)
>

>
> * * *
>
>   * 女 **は** 誰かに惚れた。  
>  The woman fell in love with someone.
>   * 誰かに惚れた女  
>  the woman who fell in love with someone (note that は is gone)
>   * 惚れた女  
>  the woman who fell in love with someone (target is omitted)
>

Likewise, 紹介した人 can mean both "the person who introduced someone" and "the
person whom someone introduced" depending on the context. あげた人 can mean both
the giver and the receiver. Also see: [Relative Clause
Ambiguous](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/q/60385/5010)

As an aside, please recheck the meaning of
[無粋](https://jisho.org/word/%E7%84%A1%E7%B2%8B).
CC BY-SA 4.0
2018-08-16T08:35:18.087
60896
2018-08-16T08:41:35.337
2018-08-16T08:41:35.337
5010
5010
60895
answer