77977
I was reading a book of Pokemon, and this sentence came across:

> 中には、「幻」と呼ばれ、めったに人前に現れないものもいる。(Original)

My interpretation was

> Among them, one is called a "phantom" and rarely appears in public.

which I think has the general idea, but the last part of the sentence is
bugging me, namely 現れないものもいる。A more literal translation that I can think of
would be something like

> Among them, one is called a "phantom". A thing that rarely appears in public
> also exists.

although this seems much more unnatural in English. To be honest, I expected
the original sentence to be written as just

> 中には、「幻」と呼ばれ、めったに人前に現れない。(Alternative)

Summarising:  
1. What are the nuances between the original sentence and the alternative?  
2. Do Japanese people use the original more often (or even strictly)?  
3. Should they be translated as the same in English? I feel that my translation of the original is more close to the alternative sentence. However, the more "literal" translation feels too unnatural in English.
CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-06-12T20:42:25.550
77973
2020-06-13T01:16:18.857
32479
question
translation nuances japanese-to-english
Interpretation of めったに人前に現れないものもいる
Looks like you have been tricked by a comma within a long relative clause,
which is very common in Japanese. The correct translation is:

> 中には、「幻」と呼ばれ、めったに人前に現れないものもいる。  
>  Among them, there are also ones that are called "phantoms" and rarely
> appear in public.

That is, `「幻」と呼ばれ、めったに人前に現れない` as a whole is the relative clause that modifies
もの. Your "alternative" suggestion doesn't make sense to me.

Related:

  * [Why is neither て nor ます form used here?](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/q/54741/5010)
  * [Commas and relative clauses](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/q/23781/5010)

> Rules regarding the use of commas around relative clauses (or anywhere for
> that matter) in Japanese are not nearly as strict as in English. Where to
> use commas is pretty much left at the discretion of each writer.

  * [why does this intransitive verb use が?](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/q/54663/5010)
CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-06-13T01:03:41.913
77977
2020-06-13T01:16:18.857
2020-06-13T01:16:18.857
5010
5010
77973
answer