窓をがらりと開ければそこは一面の緑。
I'm not sure what the end of the sentence means. I can guess that when he opened the window, there was some vegetation but I don't understand how the last part (一面の緑) works. What exactly does that mean and why does it make sense?
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1Have you looked up 一面? Try コトバンク. Also, do an image search for 一面の緑. – BJCUAI Mar 20 at 21:34
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I did try, but I can't find any satisfactory translation of this. Plus, I'm confused with the use of 緑 (I would have expected 緑のnoun instead of nounの緑). – Ushiromiya Mar 20 at 21:41
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It means a 'Sea/Blanket of green(ery)'.
According to 大辞林, one of the definitions of 一面 is: ある場所全体。そのあたりいったい。Hence, the whole area, or possibly colloquially paraphrased in a literary fashion as applies to the example in the question 'as far as the eye can see'.
An ALC search shows that this expression applies to vertical and horizontal planes alike, whether it be a 'blanket of snow' or a 'wall of ivy'.
In this case, using punipunijapan's explanation of の might be helpful. Thinking of this usage of の as 'of', rather than a strict possessive sense should hopefully help this construction seem more natural (日本語の本、英語の先生）. 緑 in this case refers to greenery (a noun), not the color green (can be adjectival). Substituting another noun like 森 or 雪 might make this pattern more understandable.
名詞+の is saying something specific (describing something) about the following noun, hence it is acting in an adverbial fashion. If it were 緑の一面 it would be describing the area as green, rather than describing the green as 'everywhere'.
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"一面の緑"means that you can see a lot of trees, plants, and weeds outside.
my image is like this:
