Dear anyone,
Your duolingo forum registration isn't automaticaly transferred to duome forum so in order to join duome forums you need to register with your existing or any other username and email; in any case it's advised that you choose a new password for the forum.
~ Duome Team

attaching genitive noun to its owner/word order

Moderator: Explorer

User avatar
dochawk
United States of America

attaching genitive noun to its owner/word order

Post by dochawk »

I understand that word order is generally not hardwired.

But does a possessive genitive have a specific position, such as immediately after the non it modifies?

If not, how do you tell which noun belongs to the person specified by the genitive?

User avatar
yogibaer
Egypt

Re: attaching genitive noun to its owner/word order

Post by yogibaer »

afaik there is no specific position for a possessive genitive but the closer it is to the noun it modifies the clearer it will be for a reader or listener. Refering to your sentence from your last post: "Magistra in schola reginae mustelam puellae dat. " reginae could be also genitive Sg. here but would it sound logical or give sense in the whole context?

If reginae was genitive sg. here, we could translate it as: "The queen's teacher in school gives the girl a weasel." vs "The teacher in school gives the queen the girl's weasel."

Without further context both translations are correct depending on the understanding of the surrounding context. However if reginae was genitive I would say "Magistra reginae in schola puellae mustelam dat." This would make it clearer that it's the queen's teacher.

Post Reply

Return to “Grammatica”