nominalization - How do adjectives work in relative clauses?

This will probably be my last question regarding my prior questions. This will particularly focus on adjective + 物/こと. I was finally able to minimize the mess in my head, narrowing it down into something simple but I lacked of. I only learned about relative clause by verbs which sudden appearances of relative clause by adjective seems confusing.

I know that 見た犬 can either mean "the dog that saw" or "the dog (I/he/you) saw" depending on the context. Does that mean relative clause of adjective also have 2 possible meanings?

In this example:

私が好きな猫

It can mean "the cat I like" or "the cat that likes me". I don't know how it can be like that (especially that like is an adjective), how can it be? 白い物 means the thing that is white, can it have another meaning? 白いこと means being white, can it have another meaning?

For verbs the relative clause can be the subject or object (except if it is non living things and if the context is clear). Please explain it to me regarding this as detail as possible. Thank you for helping! 教えてください。すみません！ありがとうね。

Answer

I think the comparison of 好きな to 白い is not a fair comparison, which results in strange interpretations of the sentence if you enforce the situation that is true for one word, onto the other word. Let me try to explain.

好き is not a normal な-adjective, it does not behave in the same way as other typical な-adjectives. Kuno calls it a Verbal Nominal Adjective. Verbs take を for object marking while a Verbal Nominal Adjective such as 好き takes が for object marking.¹ Now let's try to label the different が.

I will label them such that が₁ is our usual subject marker, while が₂ is the が that is used when 好き is around to assign the が₂ argument marker.

Now let's first look at the structure. We begin with a usual verb like 読む and then swap it out with 好き:

1. 
   

   私が_１ 本を読んだ 　= "I read a book"　

   
   

   We can choose 本 or 私 as our noun of interest and proceed to make relative clauses:

   
   
   
   
   • [A] Choosing 本: 　(私が_１読んだ)_P本 　= "The book that I read"　
     Notice that the object marker を is not present in the relative clause P.
   
   
   • [B] Choosing 私: 　(本を読んだ)_Q 私 　= "I (that read the book)"
     
     Notice that the subject marker が₁ is no longer present.
   
   
   
   


2. 
   

   私が_１ 猫が₂好きだ 　= "I like cats"

   
   

   We can choose 猫 or 私 as our noun of interest and proceed to make relative clauses:

   
   
   
   
   • [C] Choosing 猫: 　(私が_１好きな)_R猫 　= "The cat that I like"
     Similarly notice that the object marker が₂ is not present in the relative clause R.
   
   
   • [D] Choosing 私: 　(猫が₂好きな)_S私 = "I (that like cats)"
     
     Notice that the subject marker が₁ is no longer present.
   
   
   
   

Now a slightly different case where we interchange 私 and 猫. We do the same thing of using a usual verb 読む and then swapping it out with 好き:

3. 
   

   猫が_１(本を読んだ) = "The cat read a book"

   
   
   
   
   
   • [E] (本を読んだ)_X猫 = "The cat that read a book"
     This is analogous to [B].
   
   
   
   


4. 
   

   猫が_１ (私が₂ 好きだ)　= "The cat likes me"

   
   
   
   
   • [F] (私が₂ 好きな)_Y猫　= "The cat that likes me"
     This is analogous to [D]
   
   
   
   
   

Now we put [C] and [F] side by side and remove all the labels. Both of them are on the surface:

5. 
   

   私が好きな猫 with two possible ways to label them:

   
   
   
   
   
   • 
     

     [C] (私が_１好きな)_R猫　= "The cat that I like"

     
     
   
   
   • 
     

     [F] (私が₂ 好きな)_Y猫 　= "The cat that likes me"

     
     
   
   
   
   

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Next let's go back to what I was trying to explain in the first sentence in this answer, why it is not fair to compare 好き to 白い:

• 
  

  白い does not assign an argument for an object.

  
  


• 
  

  Now we shall try against all rules to form an analog of Sentence 1. or 2. above such that 物 replaces 私

  
  
  
  
  • 物が₁+[？を]+白い
  
  
  
  • 物が₁+[？が₂]+白い
  
  
  
  

We soon realise that it cannot be done because 白い has no argument for an object and the sentence 物が₁白い is already complete.

Consequently there is no choice as in sentences 1. or 2. for you to choose your noun of interest and you are left with (in analog to the above examples):

• [G] Choosing 物: 　(白い)物　= "Thing that is white" = "white thing"

So to answer your question if there are additional meanings to 白い物 since 私が好きな猫 gave you reason to suspect that there might be other interpretations, there are no other interpretations for 白い物 in the way that 私が好きな猫 has.

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References:

^{[1] The Structure of the Japanese Language, p.90-91, Susumu Kuno}