grammar - Relative clauses types and confusion

I was reading

Japanese:Revised edition by Shoichi Iwasaki

And he talks about 4 types of relative clauses.

A)“Cased Head” Type (Relative Clause): the head noun bears some case relation to the predicate in the modifying clause

犬を飼っている木村さん。

B)“Adverbial Head” Type: the head noun bears an adverbial relation to the information expressed in the modifier

財産をなくした賭け事。

C)“Relational Head” Type: the head noun and the modifier form some sort of interdependent relationship

太郎が東京へ行った翌年。

D)“Content Label Head” Type (Appositive Clause): the head noun serves as a label for the content expressed in the modifier In other words, content nouns are those nouns which have the potential to be further commented on for their content.

犬が赤ん坊をかんだ事実。

This looks pretty straightforward, but when reading is not always so easy, at least for me.

For example I found this sentence today.

ちょうどこれまでとは対向線路にあたる闇の向こうから、眩いライトの光が浴びせかけられた。

Is 闇 a type D(“Content Label Head” Type) noun in this sentence? Is it there a way to easily spot if it's a type A or Type D?
I don't have problems with B,C types but as for A,D I can't seem to grasp when it's A or D.

He also goes on saying this:

In English, noun phrases within a relative clause cannot be further relativized, but this is allowed in some cases in Japanese.

Is this referring to nesting?

Ex > 可愛がっていた犬が死んだ子供

Answer

A good way to tell the type is to imagine the original sentence without a relative clause.

• A: 木村さんは犬を飼っている。 (木村さん is the subject)



• B: [私は]賭け事で財産をなくした。 (賭け事で is adverbial)


• C: (no original sentence; 翌年に太郎が東京へ行った would mean something different)


• D: (no original sentence; 事実 does not bite a baby)

And consider the phrase in question:

これまでとは対向線路にあたる闇の向こう

We can think of the original sentence, which is either:

• 闇の向こうはこれまでとは対向線路にあたる。


• 闇はこれまでとは対向線路にあたる。
  The darkness corresponds to the oncoming lane (from the viewpoint of where we came from)

So 闇 serves as the subject of the verb あたる in the original sentence, just like 木村さん is the subject of 犬を飼っている.

This sentence may have confused you because あたる is a verb that can denote an appositive relation. In type D, there is no such a verb.

• 東京に行った話 (Type D; the relative clause is the direct content of 話)


• 東京に行った気になる話 (Type B: You feel as if you went to Tokyo by the 話 (adverbial))



• 東京に行ったことと関係する話 (Type A; 関係する is the subject of 話)

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In English, noun phrases within a relative clause cannot be further relativized, but this is allowed in some cases in Japanese.

Is this referring to nesting?

I think so. 頭が赤い魚を食べた猫 can both mean:

• a cat who ate a red-headed fish


• a fish-eating cat whose head is red

But if I'm not mistaken, "a cat who ate a fish whose head is red" can only mean the former (...am I right?)