90838
I was trying a certain "SNS" app and encountered this phrase "友だちへの追加を許可". Not
sure who it would allow to add whom, I switched my phone's language back to
English and the corresponding setting said "allow others to add me". (See
below the screenshots.)

Is it then correct that here "友だちへの" modifies "許可"? It feels quite strange to
me. I don't know how to theorize this but somehow I feel that the only
grammatically plausible modification relation here is that "友だちへの" modifies
"追加". What am I missing here?

[![screen_shot_JP](https://i.stack.imgur.com/jrA1c.jpg)](https://i.stack.imgur.com/jrA1c.jpg)[![screen_shot_EN](https://i.stack.imgur.com/08poK.jpg)](https://i.stack.imgur.com/08poK.jpg)
CC BY-SA 4.0
2021-10-21T21:13:01.243
90837
2021-10-22T00:02:57.967
38770
question
particle-の modification
How to parse 友だちへの追加を許可?
(誰かを)友達に追加する means "to add (someone) as a friend". (誰かを)友達へ追加する would also
mean the same thing, but its nuance is closer to "to add (someone) _to_ the
friend (list)".

Following [this](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/q/33605/5010) rule, the
nominalized version of those is 友達への追加. (Somehow にの is an invalid
combination.) Thus 友達への追加を許可 literally means "Allow adding as a friend" or
”Allow adding to the friend list".

This may not be 100% wrong, but I agree that it's highly confusing. Since
there is no word that corresponds to "others", it's very hard to get who's
doing what. It should have been "他の人が(あなたを)友達に追加するのを許可" or at least
"他人に友達追加を許可". (The gray description below the checkbox is clear enough,
though.)
CC BY-SA 4.0
2021-10-21T23:42:48.593
90838
2021-10-21T23:53:56.327
2021-10-21T23:53:56.327
5010
5010
90837
answer
> I don't know how to theorize this but somehow I feel that the only
> grammatically plausible modification relation here is that "友だちへの" modifies
> "追加". What am I missing here?

You are missing "common sense" which takes years of experience dealing with
exactly these types of sentences, which is difficult to explain logically.
Many Japanese people are puzzled with these wordings too, especially those who
are not used to such interface. Common sense is not common after all.

Let's break it down:

Firstly, **友だちへの追加を許可（する）** can be interpreted in two ways:

  * 「友だちリストへの追加」を許可する
  * 「友だち」へ対して、「追加」という行為を行う事を許可する

So it's already ambiguous. Here's where the "common sense" comes in to play.
Don't ask me how I know this, but 友だち here does not mean (your) friend. 友だち
here is pointing to a "list of friends" or "contact list". Actually from an
engineer's perspective it's all about attributes - users who have the
attribute "friend" appears on "list of friends".

So let's replace 友だち with contact list.

「contact list」への追加を許可 = allow/permit the addition to "contact list". Now we're
getting close. We still don't know "who is giving permission", "who is
receiving permission", "who's contact list". Again let's use "common sense" -
you are at the liberty to press/slide the button, thus you have control over
permissions. Also, look at the description: 「あなたの電話番号を保有しているLINEユーザー」

So the answer is, that button/slider enables/disables the following:

**You allow "あなたの電話番号を保有しているLINEユーザー" to do "addition to (their) contact
list".**

To make it simple, you are allowing "LINE users who possess YOUR phone number"
to add you to their friend list.
CC BY-SA 4.0
2021-10-22T00:02:57.967
90839
2021-10-22T00:02:57.967
48366
90837
answer