の performing back referral? の used adjectivally?


Consider the following sentence:

> その薬は去年期限切れ **の** だったので、捨てました。

I'm trying to explain what the bolded の does in the above sentence.

This is what I came up with:

> の is used as a back referral
>
> The sentence would look like this :
>
> その薬は去年期限切れ **の** (薬)だったので、捨てました。
>
> But because 薬 can be understood from context, it is left out in the same
> sentence.

When I looked up `期限切れ` in the dictionary*, it is listed as (Nouns which may
take the genitive case prt. 'no') I'm not sure what it means exactly so...

**(Question):** Is there something I need to understand differently because of
this dictionary categorisation? How are "Nouns which may take the genitive
case prt. 'no'" different from just nouns?

Would 日本語 in 日本語の先生 also be a "noun which may take the genitive case prt.
'no'"? Because so far many nouns are able to take の, and I dont understand the
separate category for it.

**EDIT:** I think this was what I meant to ask - did the `の` in question come
from elision or does it have something to do with 期限切れ being a no-adj ?

(Just looked it up in other dictionaries**, it's labelled as no-adj)

*taken from JMDict

**checked against WWWJDIC and japanese.nciku.com




Your question is not really clear… Are you asking about "の" or "期限切れ"?

> の is used as a back referral

Actually, it's a simple elision..

誰のペンですか？ 私の(ペン)です。  
Whose pen is it? it is _mine_

何のタイアですか？ 車の(タイヤ)だ。  
Of what kind of vehicle is this tire? It's a car's one.

As far as "の for an adjective" goes, a famous example would be "色々" which can
go with の as well as な, to mean "various", but I'm not sure either how this
feat goes along the hint of your dictionary, if it's ever related.

> EDIT: I think this was what I meant to ask - did the の in question come from
> elision or does it have something to do with 期限切れ being a no-adj ?

**Edit** : Well, then both, probably :)  
Because 時間切れ works with a の, we could drop the word 薬 afterwards. If we were
considering a word without の, like "静か", we would have to use a palliative の
instead:  
その公園は去年静かなのだったので、寂しい。 (I'm sad because this park was a quiet one last year
(and isn't any more)).

**Edit2** : on の-adj.

There are some nouns that have a different function when used の. Consider the
nouns "普通" and "日本語". You say 普通の先生 and 日本語の先生, but while it is a "teacher of
Japanese" it is not a "teacher of normality". It's also not a "teacher from
the Japanese language" but it's an "average teacher". You are not working with
a genitive here, but you are really making an adjective that modifies the
following group.

As for why some adjectives work with の and others with な, I have no idea.




Your question is not really clear… Are you asking about "の" or "期限切れ"?

> の is used as a back referral

Actually, it's a simple elision..

誰のペンですか？ 私の(ペン)です。  
Whose pen is it? it is _mine_

何のタイアですか？ 車の(タイヤ)だ。  
Of what kind of vehicle is this tire? It's a car's one.

As far as "の for an adjective" goes, a famous example would be "色々" which can
go with の as well as な, to mean "various", but I'm not sure either how this
feat goes along the hint of your dictionary, if it's ever related.

> EDIT: I think this was what I meant to ask - did the の in question come from
> elision or does it have something to do with 期限切れ being a no-adj ?

**Edit** : Well, then both, probably :)  
Because 時間切れ works with a の, we could drop the word 薬 afterwards. If we were
considering a word without の, like "静か", we would have to use a palliative の
instead:  
その公園は去年静かなのだったので、寂しい。 (I'm sad because this park was a quiet one last year
(and isn't any more)).

**Edit2** : on の-adj.

There are some nouns that have a different function when used の. Consider the
nouns "普通" and "日本語". You say 普通の先生 and 日本語の先生, but while it is a "teacher of
Japanese" it is not a "teacher of normality". It's also not a "teacher from
the Japanese language" but it's an "average teacher". You are not working with
a genitive here, but you are really making an adjective that modifies the
following group.

As for why some adjectives work with の and others with な, I have no idea.

