Parsing 彼には映画監督になるという夢があります


My best guess is "His dream is to become a movie director," but I'm not sure
what "になるという" means when put together like that. I know that "になる" means
something like "becomes," and "という" means something like as/named/called, but
I'm not sure how to parse it.




The basic sentence is this:

> 彼には 夢が あります  
>  'He has a dream.' (polite)

This is a possessive argument structure1. In this argument structure, the
possessor is marked by に, and the possessed is marked by が. Since in your
example this clause is the main clause, the possessor is naturally expressed
as a topic, so the underlying に becomes には, and we end up with the ～には～がある
pattern.

Your example also has a noun-modifying clause (specifically, an appositive
clause):

> 映画監督になる **という** 夢  
>  'a dream, to become a film director'

The noun-modifying clause is 映画監督になる (lit. 'become a film director'), and it
is linked to the noun 夢 by the complementizer という. In this use, という is used
grammatically to show the relationship between the noun-modifying clause and
the noun 夢; it is not used literally to mean 'say', and that is why in this
use it is usually not written in kanji as と言う.

The noun phrase 映画監督になるという夢 as a whole is marked as the second argument of
あります with the particle が in your example:

> 彼には 【映画監督になる **という** 夢】が あります  
>  'His dream is to become a director.'

In this English translation, the possession is expressed with a possessive
pronoun rather than a clausal possessive construction, and _to become a
director_ is related to _dream_ with a subject-predicate relationship rather
than an appositive relationship. It expresses the basic idea, but the grammar
is very different!

If we wanted to make a slightly more direct translation, we could say
something like:

> 'He has a dream, to become a director.'

But the other translation is probably a more natural way to express the same
idea in English.

* * *

1 _Japanese: Revised Edition_ , Shoichi Iwasaki, Chapter 6 'Argument
Structures', p.107.  
2 _Japanese: Revised Edition_ , Shoichi Iwasaki, Chapter 9 'Noun phrase
structures', p.202, p.210.




The basic sentence is this:

> 彼には 夢が あります  
>  'He has a dream.' (polite)

This is a possessive argument structure1. In this argument structure, the
possessor is marked by に, and the possessed is marked by が. Since in your
example this clause is the main clause, the possessor is naturally expressed
as a topic, so the underlying に becomes には, and we end up with the ～には～がある
pattern.

Your example also has a noun-modifying clause (specifically, an appositive
clause):

> 映画監督になる **という** 夢  
>  'a dream, to become a film director'

The noun-modifying clause is 映画監督になる (lit. 'become a film director'), and it
is linked to the noun 夢 by the complementizer という. In this use, という is used
grammatically to show the relationship between the noun-modifying clause and
the noun 夢; it is not used literally to mean 'say', and that is why in this
use it is usually not written in kanji as と言う.

The noun phrase 映画監督になるという夢 as a whole is marked as the second argument of
あります with the particle が in your example:

> 彼には 【映画監督になる **という** 夢】が あります  
>  'His dream is to become a director.'

In this English translation, the possession is expressed with a possessive
pronoun rather than a clausal possessive construction, and _to become a
director_ is related to _dream_ with a subject-predicate relationship rather
than an appositive relationship. It expresses the basic idea, but the grammar
is very different!

If we wanted to make a slightly more direct translation, we could say
something like:

> 'He has a dream, to become a director.'

But the other translation is probably a more natural way to express the same
idea in English.

* * *

1 _Japanese: Revised Edition_ , Shoichi Iwasaki, Chapter 6 'Argument
Structures', p.107.  
2 _Japanese: Revised Edition_ , Shoichi Iwasaki, Chapter 9 'Noun phrase
structures', p.202, p.210.

