I'm a bit confused by some of the above example sentences. Those that use verbs instead of nouns in particular. Admittedly, I had not come across this particular grammar before looking at it now but it doesn't sound right to say:
～あっての日本の生活にずっと慣れました。
毎日練習あっての、勝った！
For the first one maybe something like 「日本生活慣れ」
For the second one, shouldn't the verb be made into 「勝ち」？
Have I misunderstood this grammar point?
I checked with my Japanese co-worker and she agrees with me saying you can't say ～あっての、「動詞」。And all other places online say it goes between two nouns. I realize that not everything online is correct or that native speakers think about their own language like linguists but it seems to be a pretty strong indicator...Doing a google search also only shows me constructs where the verb has been made into a noun either by using the stem or adding こと...
http://www.wattpad.com/170627-jlpt-grammar
http://www.scribd.com/doc/36466776/JLPT-Grammar-Index
I think it's the の that makes it sound unnatural but I'll take a look in my N1対策 books when I get home.
Both Shin-kanzen master and so-matome for N1 say it can only be used with nouns (obviously noun phrases would be acceptable). If you want to use a verb or verb phrase you need to make it into a noun first thus：
×勝った → ○勝ち
After looking at the page, it looks like it was an mistype when the usage pattern was initially put into the site. My apologies for that. It has been updated to show a noun after the term.
