How to parse 「店は人の多いところがいいです」

Question

店は人の多いところがいいです

^{Book translation: stores are better (to be) located at heavily trafficked places.}

My question is related to Relative Clauses: 多い人 vs 多くの人 in which the answerer provides a similar example to the above:

オーストラリア人の多い場所

^{Given translation: a place where there are many Australians.}

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人の多いところ

My understanding is that の marks the subject of the adjective 多い, which can be replaced が for emphasis.

1. 人が多い
2. 人の多い + ところ

Overall, it means "A place with lots of people." Assuming this parsing is correct, I move on to my next question.

Can 店は人の多いところがいいです be ambiguous?

ところ means "place" but it can also be used to refer to a point in time. Therefore, can the above sentence convey the meaning "It's good when the shop is crowded"?

Answer 1

I've been working with and in Japanese off and on since about 1988, but I'm not a native speaker, so take this with a grain of salt. :)

How to parse 店は人の多いところがいいです

人の多いところ
My understanding is that の marks the subject of the adjective 多い, which can be replaced が for emphasis...
Overall, it means "A place with lots of people."

Your parsing so far is correct.

Can 店は人の多いところがいいです be ambiguous?

I don't think so.

You point out:

ところ means "place" but it can also be used to refer to a point in time.

The term ところ used to refer to a point in time is, I think, always usually in the context of a verb phrase:

• するところ → just about to do
• しているところ → in the moment of doing
• したところ → just finished doing

I don't think it refers to time with most adjectives, where instead it refers to an aspect of something (as in 「彼女【かのじょ】のいい[と]{●}[こ]{●}[ろ]{●}」 "the good aspects of [my] girlfriend"), or to a location (as in 「蚊【か】のいない[と]{●}[こ]{●}[ろ]{●}」 "a place without mosquitoes", or 「カバの少【すく】ない[と]{●}[こ]{●}[ろ]{●}」 "a place with few hippos").

Can the above sentence convey the meaning "It's good when the shop is crowded"?

I don't think so. To convey the sense of "the point or span in time when a quality is present", I'm much more accustomed to seeing the word とき used instead:

店【みせ】は人【ひと】の多【おお】い[と]{●}[き]{●}がいいです

(Albeit, this isn't "crowded" so much as just "there are a lot of people".)

Addendum

As pointed out by @Nameless in the comment to this post, there are sometimes cases where [ADJ]+ところ refers to a moment or time, such as 「忙【いそが】しい[と]{●}[き]{●}」 "a busy moment".

I think the reason that doesn't work here with 店【みせ】 and 人【ひと】の多【おお】いところ is because a 店【みせ】 is inherently a "location", as noted by @A.Ellett in the comment on the question, so ところ in context must mean a place. Meanwhile, because neither a person nor a person's current state is a "location", 忙しいところ cannot refer to a "busy place" and still make sense in that context.

Answer 2

店は人の多いところがいいです

A sentence like this is fine only when there is enough context. Without any context, this is a very vague sentence. My interpretations (in the order they came to my mind) were:

1. I (usually) prefer crowded places within a shop/restaurant.
2. The good point of shops/restaurants (in general) is that I can find many people there.
3. Shops/restaurants should be located at a crowded location.
4. When you go to a shop/restaurant, choose one that has many customers.
   _{(I somehow didn't notice this until @Chocolate mentioned it, but this is also a natural interpretation.)}

In 1, 3 and 4, ところ refers to (three different kinds of) physical places. In 2, ところ refers to an abstract aspect (cf. Meaning of ところ in アメリカのいいところ).

ところ can refer to a point of time, but in this case I could not think of a possible interpretation where ところ means time point. Something like 人の少ないところを狙って店に入る would mean the same thing as 人の少ない時を狙って店に入る.