Understanding the の in ～ものの


I thought that の always had to modify a noun... so how come a sentence like
the following is possible despite there being no nominalization of what
follows の ?

> たたみに布団を敷いて寝てみた **ものの** 、背中が痛くて寝られなかった。

Is this a different type of の? or does の work differently to how I imagined
it? I there any elision??? If the ものの construction has no such explanation
then I am ok with that, but if there is one I'd like to hear it.




As Tokyo Nagoya stated in his answer, in modern Japanese, ものの is considered
one word, a 接続助詞 (conjunctive particle).

However, it does in fact consist of the noun 「もの」 and the genitive case-
marking particle 「の」. There is no elision occurring. Generally speaking, your
thoughts on how this particle works are correct: it takes two nouns (or noun-
forms) and makes on larger noun-form.

However, the genitive case in Japanese can also mark the subject of an
adnominal clause, for example:

  * 神の怒った日
  * 事故の起こるところ

These may look like they are connecting (神)の(怒こった日) and (事故)の(起こるところ), but
what is actually happening is (神の怒こった)日 and (事故の起こった)ところ -- the 「の」 is marking
the subject of those adnominal clauses. This form of subject marking has
existed since before Old Japanese.

「ものの」 is attested from the Heian Period onward, and though I was unable to
find any explanation of this construction in particular, I would hypothesize
that it is related to the noun-marking function.




ものの is one word. It should be in your dictionary.

ものの is a conjunctive particle meaning けれども = "even though".

"Even though I tried to sleep by spreading futons on the tatami, I was unable
to sleep because my back hurt."

