Usage of a clause to modify an い-adjective?


近所のバーは友達とお酒を飲むのにちょうどいい場所だ。 The neighbourhood bar is a great place to have a
drink with friends.

Does one think of the dependent clause 友達とお酒を飲むのに as modifying the い-adjective
ちょうどいい (which then modifies 場所), or does it modify the main clause ちょうどいい場所だ ?
I'm aware that nouns can be modified by putting a clause in front (e.g.
ぼくが食べたりんご), but to my knowledge this doesn't apply to い-adjectives. Perhaps
I'm overthinking this.




First of all, feel free to think of it however you want, as long as it helps
you understand how the sentence works. Secondly, this may not be a question
with an objective answer. What follows are several considerations concerning
the structure of _飲むのに良い場所だ_ , shortened for briefness' sake.

【A】→【B】 means that B is modified by A.

To address one of your concerns, i-adjectives cannot be modified by a 連体形-
clause the way a noun can be modified. Thus, a sentence like *
_【酒を飲む→良い】→【場所だ】_ is wrong, you need the particle(s) _のに_. However, it can be
parsed as _【酒を飲む】→【良い→場所だ】_ , with _飲む_ modifying _場所_ , but it means
something different: _A great place, where one drinks Sake._

We could translate the sentence as _A place that is great for drinking_ ,
which we could choose to interpret either as _(A place that is great.)(For
drinking.)_ or equally plausibly as _(A place that is:)(Great for drinking.)_

In a sense, many particles work like grammatical cases (or some prepositions)
in that they establish the relationship of a noun to the sentence. So _for
drinking_ marks drinking as the goal of the sentence's verb action; and that
is how I think about _するのに甲だ_.




First of all, feel free to think of it however you want, as long as it helps
you understand how the sentence works. Secondly, this may not be a question
with an objective answer. What follows are several considerations concerning
the structure of _飲むのに良い場所だ_ , shortened for briefness' sake.

【A】→【B】 means that B is modified by A.

To address one of your concerns, i-adjectives cannot be modified by a 連体形-
clause the way a noun can be modified. Thus, a sentence like *
_【酒を飲む→良い】→【場所だ】_ is wrong, you need the particle(s) _のに_. However, it can be
parsed as _【酒を飲む】→【良い→場所だ】_ , with _飲む_ modifying _場所_ , but it means
something different: _A great place, where one drinks Sake._

We could translate the sentence as _A place that is great for drinking_ ,
which we could choose to interpret either as _(A place that is great.)(For
drinking.)_ or equally plausibly as _(A place that is:)(Great for drinking.)_

In a sense, many particles work like grammatical cases (or some prepositions)
in that they establish the relationship of a noun to the sentence. So _for
drinking_ marks drinking as the goal of the sentence's verb action; and that
is how I think about _するのに甲だ_.

