Connecting sentences with dictionary form verbs? This is from the "intro" of the novel talking in general about sayayins . It seems that is like a sort of poetic/archaic style as the grammar doesn't make sense to me. > I think it means > [][[]] [] > > Their liking is the battle, to invade other stars [they] were the hooligans of the universe. It's that is correct, what is the grammatical explanation for the connection between this [] and this [] as there is no , , commas, pre-masu or -form linkage. Thanks.

It modifies the noun .

Here's a simpler example:

> - (I) read books
>
> - A child who reads books
>
> **** - A **male** child who reads books

In your example, being fairly literal, we have

> [[]][] - They were hooligans who invaded other stars
>
> [[]] [ **** ] - They were hooligans **of the universe** who invaded other stars

Edit per @Chocolate's suggestion: [] also directly modifies . The is the of and it is used to connect the clauses. It doesn't say that they **like** to invade other stars. It only says they like to fight/engage on battle, the invading is a separate action. You can think of it like this:

> [ **** ] [] - They were hooligans **who liked fighting**
>
> [][ **[]** ] [] - They were hooligans who liked fighting and **invaded other stars**. Note that the action of liking is separate from the action of invading.
>
> [][[]] [ **** ] - They were hooligans **of the universe** who liked fighting and invaded other stars