Use of 可能な他 in a sentence


I have the following sentence that has been troubling me.

> 準備術式や詠唱を必要とする大魔法のプロセスをある程度省略し、高速発動させる事が可能な他、魔力を充填したページを武器・装甲として使用可能。

Yes it's unfortunatelly Anime bs, but I put it in it's entirety for context's
sake. It is from a description of a certain item.

The first segment is easy enough to translate:

> Somewhat shortens the process of Big Magic that requires technique
> preparation and arias

the part I have issues with is the next one:

> 高速発動させる事が可能な他

specifically the role of here 他 and how it's used in the form of

> subject が可能な他

高速発動させる of course is high speed activation (of magic). But I don't really see
how one should then put that together with the 可能な他 which is I think possible
others.

As of now I think this means that other types of magic, that is not BIG magic,
whose cast time is a bit shortened, are significantly sped up since presumably
they weren't as long in preparation initially...

But that's still wierd to me. If I lacked context and got a sentence of the
like:

> verb 事が adjectiveな noun

I'd assume it's trying to say that the action described by the verb is somehow
the noun described by the adjective...

* * *

**Edit:**

I'm editing the question, to add some more context since I was not able to get
the answers I got, and how they would fit here.

The item in question is a magical/mage's tool used for doing magic. The user
of the item is known for long cast time but massive damage spells. Such spells
have been referred to as big magic before.

While 詠唱 is more singing chanting, in this verse, in translations "aria" was
used, and it basically describes the incantation performed by the mage to
activate magic. So shortening/abbreviating the "aria" and other preparatory
tasks makes sense.

発動 is activation or in the parlance of the setting the triggering of magic.
This term is used for activation/putting into effect/casting magic.

Mana, pages etc. Previously one of parts of the setting was the ability to
store mana (魔力) into objects that can then later be used for doing things.
This user in particular has had a book before where pages were composed of
mana. So the last segment seems to say that the object can be used as weapon
or armor, which is in some way connected/described by pages filled with mana.

I'm kinda beggining to think that all fragments basically share として使用可能 as an
ending, but I"m still confused by how 他 and ページを武器・装甲 fit here




First, here is how I interpret the sentence:

> 準備術式や詠唱を必要とする大魔法のプロセスをある程度省略し、高速発動させる事が可能な他、魔力を充填したページを武器・装甲として使用可能。
>
> Other than being capable of somewhat abbreviating the process of Great
> Magics that require preparatory formulation and(/or) incantation and (thus)
> speedily initiating [said Great Magics], [the item] makes it possible to use
> pages charged with magic as weapons and armor.

And a slimmed-down version:

> Enables swift casting of Great Magics by abbreviating the process of
> preparatory formulation and(/or) incantation. Also enables magic-charged
> pages to be used as weapons and armor.

The thing with「他」is that when a clause, verb phrase or some other adnominal
phrase XXX modifies it, the whole phrase「XXX他」(always, as far as I know) means
something to the effect of "other than XXX" (or "apart from X"), rather than
forming a noun phrase that is interpretable in English as being headed by
"(an)other" and having XXX as a modifier. (that is, not interpretable as the
noun phrase _(an)other [who/which...]_ , _[V-ing] (an)other_ , or
_[adjective/determinative] (an)other_ )

Now, in the sentence in question, 「準備術式や詠唱を必要とする大魔法のプロセスをある程度省略し、高速発動させる事が可能な」
is a modifier for「他」. And if you remember, when something modifies「他」, the
resulting phrase means " **other than** XXX", so the who phrase
"準備術式や詠唱を必要とする大魔法のプロセスをある程度省略し、高速発動させる事が可能な **他** " will be translated as
something like " **other than** being capable of somewhat abbreviating the
process of Great Magics that require preparatory formulation and(/or)
incantation and (thus) speedily initiating [said Great Magics]", like above.

(If the head noun were「アイテム」 or some other "normal" noun instead of this
little weirdo 「他」 and the whole phrase went like
「準備術式や詠唱を必要とする大魔法のプロセスをある程度省略し、高速発動させる事が可能なアイテム」, it would be translated as a
noun phrase as you would expect, but no,「他」 just has to be different.)

As to why a noun phrase like this one can stand freely within a sentence
without a particle like 「に」... well, I can't say for sure, but I reckon it
involves the omission of the particle and then reanalysis of 「他」 into a
[副助詞](https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%8A%A9%E8%A9%9E#%E5%89%AF%E5%8A%A9%E8%A9%9E)
(like what happened with happened with 位 and 程) or into a 接続助詞 (like 時 and 所).
(Come to think of it, the English "other than XXX," also behaves like this,
though possibly through an unlike process.)




First, here is how I interpret the sentence:

> 準備術式や詠唱を必要とする大魔法のプロセスをある程度省略し、高速発動させる事が可能な他、魔力を充填したページを武器・装甲として使用可能。
>
> Other than being capable of somewhat abbreviating the process of Great
> Magics that require preparatory formulation and(/or) incantation and (thus)
> speedily initiating [said Great Magics], [the item] makes it possible to use
> pages charged with magic as weapons and armor.

And a slimmed-down version:

> Enables swift casting of Great Magics by abbreviating the process of
> preparatory formulation and(/or) incantation. Also enables magic-charged
> pages to be used as weapons and armor.

The thing with「他」is that when a clause, verb phrase or some other adnominal
phrase XXX modifies it, the whole phrase「XXX他」(always, as far as I know) means
something to the effect of "other than XXX" (or "apart from X"), rather than
forming a noun phrase that is interpretable in English as being headed by
"(an)other" and having XXX as a modifier. (that is, not interpretable as the
noun phrase _(an)other [who/which...]_ , _[V-ing] (an)other_ , or
_[adjective/determinative] (an)other_ )

Now, in the sentence in question, 「準備術式や詠唱を必要とする大魔法のプロセスをある程度省略し、高速発動させる事が可能な」
is a modifier for「他」. And if you remember, when something modifies「他」, the
resulting phrase means " **other than** XXX", so the who phrase
"準備術式や詠唱を必要とする大魔法のプロセスをある程度省略し、高速発動させる事が可能な **他** " will be translated as
something like " **other than** being capable of somewhat abbreviating the
process of Great Magics that require preparatory formulation and(/or)
incantation and (thus) speedily initiating [said Great Magics]", like above.

(If the head noun were「アイテム」 or some other "normal" noun instead of this
little weirdo 「他」 and the whole phrase went like
「準備術式や詠唱を必要とする大魔法のプロセスをある程度省略し、高速発動させる事が可能なアイテム」, it would be translated as a
noun phrase as you would expect, but no,「他」 just has to be different.)

As to why a noun phrase like this one can stand freely within a sentence
without a particle like 「に」... well, I can't say for sure, but I reckon it
involves the omission of the particle and then reanalysis of 「他」 into a
[副助詞](https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%8A%A9%E8%A9%9E#%E5%89%AF%E5%8A%A9%E8%A9%9E)
(like what happened with happened with 位 and 程) or into a 接続助詞 (like 時 and 所).
(Come to think of it, the English "other than XXX," also behaves like this,
though possibly through an unlike process.)

