# Prepositional phrase ambiguities



## 123xyz

Hello everybody,

I was wondering whether the ambiguities which arise in English due to the way that prepositional phrases are used, i.e. due to their dual function as adjectives and adverbs, are also present in Turkish. Consider the following sentence:

I saw the man with the telescope.

It could mean that I saw the man by means of a telescope, or that I saw the man, who happened to have a telescope with him, depending on how the prepositional phrase is analysed, i.e. whether it's interpreted as an adjunct of the verb or as an adjunct of the direct object. How would these two meanings be rendered in Turkish? I suspect that two different constructions would be used, which would resolve the ambiguity that's present in the English sentence. I would guess that you would say something like:

Teleskopla adamı gördüm (the first meaning: how did I see the man?)
Teleskopla olan adamı gördüm/teleskopu var olan adamı gördüm (the second meaning: which man did I see?)

My sentences are probably incorrect, but I strongly suspect that I'm on the right track, i.e. that Turkish can translate the English sentence above in two different ways, using two constructions that are more or less similar to the potentially incorrect ones I've proposed.

Meanwhile, where an English prepositional phrase has "in", "on", "at" or something such as the preposition, I believe that Turkish precludes ambiguity with the use of the "-ki" suffix, in the following way:

Sokakta kadını öldürdüm (the murder took place on the street)
Sokaktaki kadını öldürdüm (it was the woman on the street who was murdered)

I am right about this? In English, on the other hand, "I killed the woman on the street" would be ambiguous.

Thank you in advance


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## PorFavorDama

_Hi @123xyz ,_

As far as I know, you are completely right about your thoughts. Ambiguities also present in Turkish as they do in any other language. They are divided into two groups in Turkish.

• Lexical ambiguity

Redundancy
Contradiction in terms

Misuse of words
• Structural (Wording) ambiguity

Subject&Verb mismatch.
Misuse of suffixes
Wrong use of conjunctions
This list goes on like this, these are just the ones I know but I am not really qualified to give you the exact list. So it is better to wait for someone who is related to this topic.


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## Gemmenita

123xyz said:


> I saw the man with the telescope./I killed the woman on the street.(...) but I strongly suspect that I'm on the right track, i.e. that Turkish can translate the English sentence above in two different ways, using two constructions (...)



Hi 123xyz,

Yes, you are on the right track and have discovered very well that in Turkish these ambiguities are resolved by prepositions, suffixes or other elements.

1. I saw the man _with the telescope._= Adamı *teleskopla* gördüm.
2. I saw _the man with the telescope._ =  I saw the man _who was with a _telescope. = I saw the man_ who had_ a telescope.= *Teleskopu olan* adamı gördüm.

1. I killed the woman _on the street._= Kadını *sokakta* öldürdüm.
2. I killed _the woman on the street. _= I killed the woman _who was_ on the street. = *Sokaktaki kadını *öldürdüm.

etc.

İyi araştırmalar!


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## 123xyz

Gemmenita, thank you for the reply; I now have all the information I needed  PorFavorDama, you may have misunderstood the essence of my question - I'm sorry if I had formulated it in an unclear way.


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## Rallino

I would solve the ambiguity in another way:

Teleskop*la *adamı gördüm - I saw the man by means of a telescope.

Teleskop*lu *adamı gördüm - I saw the man that has a telescope.


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## 123xyz

Thank you for the additional suggestion. I hadn't thought of the "-lu" suffix.


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