dictionary forms expressing completion in relative clauses

Question

I would like to focus on the verbs in bold:

1. その歌手は熱狂するファンに取り囲まれていた。

The singer was surrounded by excited fans.

(example sentence for 取り囲む from my copy of the "Junior Anchor" dictionary)

2. これは喜びに輝く一家の写真です。

This is a picture of the family, beaming with happiness.

(example sentence from goojisho).

In the first sentence I'd expect 熱狂していた or 熱狂している (relative time). To me 熱狂する sounds like the fans weren't excited yet, or weren't completely excited yet. I don't think this is what the writer intends to convey, though.

Similarly, in 2), 喜びに輝いている seems appropriate to me and 喜びに輝く sounds like they will beam with happiness in the future relative to either the moment of speaking or the time when the picture was taken. Neither makes sense.

In contrast to these sentences, here is one from "A Student's Guide to Japanese Grammar" by Naomi Hanaoka McGloin, p. 14:

3. 昨日田中さんの家へ行った。駅の前で田中さんにあげるものを買った。

I went to Tanaka's yesterday. I bought a gift I was going to give to Ms. Tanaka at the station.

Here, あげる clearly signals relative future / non-completion.

Are there rules whereby the expression of grammatical aspect can be simplified in relative clauses in the manner of 1) and 2)? Is this associated to any particular style (e.g. written style as opposed to spoken, informal language)? Is this associated to a particular category of verbs?

Answer 1

Are there rules whereby the expression of grammatical aspect can be simplified in relative clauses in the manner of 1) and 2)?

The dictionary form is not solely restricted to express things that will happen in the future, but is also used to just "describe" things, aka serving as a general attribute of things(some people call this tense-less). For example, a 写真, what kind of 写真? One that 輝く with 喜び. Here, it's much natural to say 喜びに輝く写真 rather than 喜びに輝いてる写真, although the latter is not wrong per se. The former is just a description, giving you what kind of 写真 it is, while the latter emphasizes on the fact that it is 輝くing with 喜び NOW, at this very moment, and whether it will stop 輝くing in the future is irrelevant.

Also for ファン. What kind of ファン? Well, those that do the 狂熱. So we call them 狂熱するファン. That's all. Unless you wanna emphasize that they're doing the 狂熱 right now, in which case you'd say 狂熱してるファン, you'd stick with the much more natural option, which is just 狂熱するファン.

The similar concept can somewhat be found in English as well. Consider:

This is a pipeline that transports oil.

"transports oil" is the relative clause that modifies "pipeline", defining this pipeline's function. If I say, however:

This is a pipeline that is transporting oil.

Now the exact implication would differ is based on context but I am specifying that it's carrying oil right now. Will it carry water in the future? Did it carry gas in the past? I don't know. The emphasis is simply different. Such usage of "the simple present" tense in English is also considered a "tense-less" usage where it just serves as an attribute to the thing it modifies, and time information is, well, removed.

Is this associated to any particular style (e.g. written style as opposed to spoken, informal language)? Is this associated to a particular category of verbs?

No and no. This is how people speak and write, and has nothing to do with verb categories.

P.S. since the general dictionary form is used to give a general description, if you wanted to emphasize that the action is not yet there, but will happen in the future, you should use していく. I.e. 喜びに輝いてく写真