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If I wanted to describe the person I was speaking about as being Japanese, to
me it seems natural to say:

> 日本人{にほんじん}の相手{あいて}

... however, one time a Japanese teacher told me it's more correct to say:

> 相手{あいて}の日本人{にほんじん}

... but that never sat right with me. To me the first way seems more logical
because it goes from more general to more specific.

Is `相手{あいて}の日本人{にほんじん}` more correct?

If so, why?
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2011-08-30T12:06:19.033
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2013-05-26T10:49:40.183
2013-05-25T09:48:49.357
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grammar particle-の
相手の日本人 or 日本人の相手?
This の signifies the two words refer to the same thing, and 相手の日本人 means
someone who is 相手 and 日本人 at the same time. I do not think that using 日本人の相手
when you mean 相手の日本人 is _incorrect_. However, 日本人の相手 is ambiguous: it may mean
the same as 相手の日本人, but it may also mean an opponent/partner/company of some
Japanese person, as in 吉田さんの相手. This is probably why the teacher said that it
is more correct to say 相手の日本人 than to say 日本人の相手.

If you think that 日本人の相手 is _more natural_ than 相手の日本人, that may be because
日本人の相手 corresponds better to the English expression, where “Japanese” is an
adjective.
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2011-08-30T12:31:18.453
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2011-08-30T12:41:05.543
2011-08-30T12:41:05.543
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Tsuyoshi Ito's answer is right, but I think there is another factor here. It
is specifity. `相手` 'the other person' is specific enough to identify the
person. Nevertheless, if you modify it as `日本人の相手`, it sounds like there are
several people that are referred to as `相手`, and you are narrowing it down by
adding `日本人の`, which is redundant, and hence not appropriate, if there is only
one person you are talking to. On the other hand `日本人` 'Japanese person' is
not specific enough, and it makes sense to modify it with `相手の`, making it
`相手の日本人`.
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2011-08-30T13:53:30.233
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2011-08-31T23:12:21.870
2011-08-31T23:12:21.870
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Hmm, this may be a tough answer to argue against the two previous which are
answered by native speakers. But here goes...

To me it just seems like a matter of perspective. With `日本人の相手`, it's saying
"Out of (the group of) Japanese people, the one who is an 相手." With `相手の日本人`,
it's "Out of all the 相手's, the one who is Japanese". So it seems like a choice
of with what you want to associate the person more; are you placing more
emphasis on them being an 相手 or a 日本人. However, for reasons I can't explain,
it _does_ sound like `日本人の相手` could be representing more than one person,
whereas `相手の日本人` sounds like only one person.

I also stumbled upon something similar once. A friend of mine was saying
"Enjoy the rest of your summer". She said it as 「 **残りの夏休み** を過ごしてください」and it
didn't sit well with me either (and still doesn't) -- I thought it should be
`夏休みの残り`. But it seems like the same perspective issue. "Of all the things
that have a remainder, the one that is summer" vs. "Of all the parts of
summer, the remaining part".

I think as English speakers, `日本人の相手` sounds more natural to us because in
Japanese 101, we're taught to "adjectivize" nouns this way, like `日本の車`,
`スイスの時計`, `ドイツのビール`, and so on. So we project this same pattern onto people.
The confusion is that with the previous examples, it makes no sense to switch
the order. Take `日本の車`: the two groups are Japan and cars, and there is no
larger "semantic group" that contains both of them. The groups are so separate
that only "a car from Japan" makes sense; "a Japan from cars" makes no sense.
However, in the case of 相手 and 日本人, the two groups are part of the same larger
"semantic group": people. So it confuses us about which one should modify the
other one. But going back to our knowledge of "adjectivizing" nouns, we tend
to put 日本人の as the adjective.
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2011-08-30T14:51:44.687
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2011-08-30T14:51:44.687
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My answer will undoubtedly not be as complete as Ito-san's, but here's my two
cents:

Instead of looking at の as a possessive particle, you should try to see it as
a particle attaching some quality or attribute to said noun. In that sense
`相手の日本人` does **not** mean `the 日本人 of 相手`, but `the 日本人 having an 相手
quality`.

In the same sense `残りの夏休み` (from istrasci's answer) means `The part of the
summer vacation that has the 'leftness' quality`. Aka: the part that's left.

I am by no means an officially trained linguistic, but ever since I began
looking at の in this way, it made my world a lot simpler. In fact, this is in
my view also how the 'possessive の' works:

`私の友達` → The friend having an 'of me' quality → my friend.
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2013-05-26T10:49:40.183
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