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I was reading a text from The Chairman's Bao titled "Australian Boy Finds 56-year-old Message in a Bottle" and I came across the following sentence:
现在的Paul已经63岁了
What does 的 do here? Could it be omitted? How's this construction called and where I could read more about it?
Possession, just as always, with flexible senses - here, in an abstract sense by the time known as "now".
"The Paul, who is in the possession (的) of now (现在) - Now's Paul - already (已经) has realized (了) the age of 63 years (岁)."
Or in a more succinct form, still preserving the cognition,
The Paul of now already attained 63 years of age.
Or, in a more colloquial, conventional form,
As of now, Paul is already 63.
By the "already" (已经), it sounds like there was some expectation elsewhere in the text that he was not so old by now.
ADD, see comments: This whole unit 现在的, in this instance, can also be understood as an adjective phrase - in that sense, it signifies that "nowness" is a quality held by Paul (effectively, the inverse of the interpretation described above), so the "Paul of the present time", or the "Paul with existing-in-the-present-time-ness". X的 in general is an adjective meaning "Xness-possessing". This is actually the most common interpretation, it's just that here, with this specific term, we have an alternative one that also makes sense as well, but in other cases one or the other will be clearly more sensible.
I remember when I first saw things like 小小的我， 年轻的他 it seemed strange. In English you can say:
poor little me
but normally, in English, we need a relative clause to describe Paul 'Paul, who ... '.
Paul put the message in a bottle as a boy. Now he is 63.
现年63岁的保罗对那一天记忆犹新。
Paul, who is now 63, remembers that day well.
的 can be either a possessive maker or an adjectival marker
Example of 的 as a possessive maker: "保罗的車" = "Paul's car" (的 marks the noun car as the object that's possessed by Paul)
Example of 的 as an adjectival marker: "年老的保罗" = "old aged Paul" (的 marks 年老 as an adjective for Paul)
Q: "Paul? Which Paul?"
A: "The old aged Paul"
The 的 in 现在的Paul已经63岁了 is not a possessive maker but an adjectival marker.
Q: "Paul? Which Paul?"
A: "The Paul today" (not the Paul in the past/ not the eight years old Paul)
"现在的 Paul 已经63岁了" is a [topic + comment] sentence
"现在的 Paul" (the Paul now) is the topic
"已经63岁了" (is already 63 years old) is the comment
If you remove 的 and write: "现在 Paul 已经63岁了" Then it would be translated as "Paul is now 63 years old"
