Why does は refer to a particular rather than general in some cases?


The sentence I am asking about is the following

> [魚]｛さかな｝が[好]｛す｝きじゃない[人]｛ひと｝は、[肉]｛にく｝が[好]｛す｝きだ 」  
>  Person who does not like fish like meat
>
> Source: [Tae Kim's Guide to Learning
> Japanese](http://www.guidetojapanese.org/learn/grammar/adjectives)

My understanding, which is probably flawed in some aspect, is that は after
「[魚]｛さかな｝が[好]｛す｝きじゃない[人]｛ひと｝」 should make the sentence mean "People (in
general) who do not like fish like meat", since は would mean in general as
opposed to a particular occurrence (が).

How, then, would the general form be conveyed (i.e. "People (in general) who
do not like fish like meat")?




You are correct and that website is incorrect on this matter.

Upon hearing/reading the sentence:

> 「​魚 {さかな} ​が​好 {す} ​きじゃない​人 {ひと} ​は、​肉 {にく} ​が​好 {す} ​きだ。 」

Practically all Japanese-speakers will take the 「人」 to mean " _ **people in
general**_ ". It is just _**extremely**_ unnatural to form that sentence when
the speaker/writer is referring to one particular person.

To alter the sentence so it talks about a particular individual, one could
say:

> 「魚が好きじゃない〇〇さんは、肉が好きだ。」 or more naturally,
>
> 「〇〇さんは、魚 **は** 好きじゃないけど、肉 **は** 好きだ。」←Uses a pair of the contrastive 「は's」.




You are correct and that website is incorrect on this matter.

Upon hearing/reading the sentence:

> 「​魚 {さかな} ​が​好 {す} ​きじゃない​人 {ひと} ​は、​肉 {にく} ​が​好 {す} ​きだ。 」

Practically all Japanese-speakers will take the 「人」 to mean " _ **people in
general**_ ". It is just _**extremely**_ unnatural to form that sentence when
the speaker/writer is referring to one particular person.

To alter the sentence so it talks about a particular individual, one could
say:

> 「魚が好きじゃない〇〇さんは、肉が好きだ。」 or more naturally,
>
> 「〇〇さんは、魚 **は** 好きじゃないけど、肉 **は** 好きだ。」←Uses a pair of the contrastive 「は's」.

