As far as I know, the relative clause should be placed immediately in front of
the noun it modifies. For example, in sentence [木の下で休んでいる人の眼鏡], relative
clause [木の下で休んでいる] modifies the noun [人]. Then why in sentence [今使っている日本語の本]
relative clause [今使っている] modifies noun [本] instead of [日本語]?

In the second case [今使っている] should modify [日本語] (the noun it stands in front
of) and the full translation is going be something like "Book about the
**Japanese language** that (someone) currently using". But I'm pretty sure
that the correct translation is something like " **Book** about the Japanese
language that (someone) currently using". (Bold points the word modified by
relative clause)
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2022-03-31T21:49:44.123
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2023-06-15T21:01:00.123
2022-04-01T06:23:57.293
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question
relative-clauses
Relative clauses with various nouns
「日本語の」is describing what type of book it is. The only noun is 「本」, so
「今使っている」modifies the only noun in the sentence, 「本」。
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2022-04-04T22:16:56.577
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answer
A relative clause modifies a noun phrase. In this case there is a _potential_
ambiguity as it could modify the noun phrase 日本語 or it could modify the noun
phrase 日本語の本. The ambiguity is resolved pragmatically, that is by
understanding the context.

While it would be grammatically possible to parse this as 今[使っている日本語の]本 that
is odd to the point of being meaningless. Therefore the understood meaning is
今使っている[日本語の本].

A similar ambiguity can exist in English and many other languages: You can say
"A book about Japanese that I'm using". Pragmatically you understand that you
are using the book, and the book is about Japanese. You don't interpret this
as being a book about "the Japanese that I'm using". since that is
nonsensical. Sometimes the placement of a modfier creates ambiguity that
results in a ludicrous sentence (see "misplaced modifier). Normally, you have
no difficulty parsing the sentence correctly
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2022-09-02T16:37:08.977
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2022-09-02T16:37:08.977
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answer