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彼女からは警戒心が剥き出しの刺々しい雰囲気はない

In this sentence, 刺々しい雰囲気 appears as the noun here and being modified by 警戒心が剥き出し. But how could a complete sentence like 警戒心が剥き出し take the particle の to modify another noun? It would make sense if 警戒心が剥き出しの刺々しい雰囲気 is a complete sentence, but there is はない in the end, which means 雰囲気 must be the main noun being modified here. Wouldn't it be more correct if it's something like

彼女からは剥き出しな警戒心の刺々しい雰囲気はない?

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  • I wonder if the writter's intention was 彼女からは警戒心が剥き出す刺々しい雰囲気はない. (剥き出す: (verb version of 剥き出し) meaning 'to show'). Then the sentence would translate to "From her there is no sharpe atmosphere that her wariness expose". I don't know if there is any grammatical reason for this tho but this makes sense based on context. I found this sentence on a web novel though, so it's possible that this sentence is ungrammatical since natives can make mistakes too.
    – Tung
    Dec 27, 2021 at 12:59
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    The sentence sounds odd to me but for a reason unrelated to your doubt.
    – aguijonazo
    Dec 27, 2021 at 15:54
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    It seems that 剥【む】き出【だ】し is also used as an adjective with the の particle, the basic sense being "exposed". In the structure of this sentence, the adjectival phrase 警戒心【けいかいしん】が剥【む】き出【だ】しの would be modifying the noun 雰囲気【ふんいき】. Dec 27, 2021 at 18:52

1 Answer 1

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But how could a complete sentence like 警戒心が剥き出し take the particle の to modify another noun?

Remember that Japanese has something called a "double subject" construction such as 彼は背が高い, フランスはワインが有名だ and この本は表紙が緑色だ. By pulling out the は-marked argument and leaving the が-marked argument, you can construct a relativized phrase like so:

  • 背が高い人
    tall people
  • ワインが有名なフランス
    France, which is famous for wine
  • 表紙が緑色の本
    a book with a green cover

Your sentence is basically an example of this. 警戒心が剥き出しの is a perfectly valid adjectival (noun-modifying) expression, and it modifies the following noun phrase 刺々しい雰囲気. (Note that むき出し is a no-adjective on its own, and Japanese adjectives are similar in syntax to verbs.)

To explain this in more detail, 彼女は警戒心が剥き出しだ is a valid sentence but (この)雰囲気は警戒心が剥き出しだ is not. I think this 警戒心が剥き出しの is a gapless relative clause that modifies (刺々しい)雰囲気. Similar examples include:

  • カエルが池に飛び込む音
    the sound of a frog jumping into a pond
  • 誰かが魚を焼く煙
    smoke from someone grilling a fish
  • 彼が学校に行った帰り
    on his way back from school

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