Ambiguity in possessive form

Question

"It is the Rishonly's picture." This sentence could mean (a) It is the portrait of Rishonly (b) It is the property of Rishonly. What is the best way to avoid this ambiguity?

Paco2004 · Accepted Answer

I learned this way:

X's picture of Y;
X: the owner of the picture.
Y: the person who is in the picture.

(EX) I like my father's picture of his parents who died when he was my age.

paco

Rishonly · Answer

Thanks, Paco2004. So, the possessive noun and "of" together make the sentence much clear and remove any ambiguities. May I say in following way to imply the picture is really a portrait of X?

It is the picture of X's.

Paco2004 · Answer

Hello Krish

I'm not sure whether I correctly got what you are asking.

"It is a picture of me" is "It is a picture in which I am". "It is my picture" is "It is a picture I have". "It is a picture of mine" is an emphatic/double possessive version of "It is my picture".

paco

CalifJim · Answer

No "the"!!!

Problem:
It is Rishonly's picture.
= It is the portrait of Rishonly
or
= The picture is the property of Rishonly. / The picture belongs to Rishonly.

Solution:
Say [1] or [2] instead.

[1] It is a picture of Rishonly.
= It is the portrait of Rishonly.

[2] It is a picture that belongs to Rishonly.
= The picture belongs to Rishonly.

As Paco points out, you can have both ideas in one sentence:

This picture of Mary belongs to Peter.
This is Peter's picture of Mary.

CJ

Along these lines it may be amusing and/or instructive to read Ray Jackendoff's Semantics and Cognition, the section on the theory of representation. Here he discusses such anomalies as the following.

Mary has brown eyes. John painted a picture of Mary, but he incorrectly painted the eyes blue. Both of the following are now true: John painted a brown-eyed girl. John painted a blue-eyed girl.

Not for the faint-hearted, however.

Rishonly · Answer

Paco2004Hello Krish

I'm not sure whether I correctly got what you are asking.

"It is a picture of me" is "It is a picture in which I am". "It is my picture" is "It is a picture I have". "It is a picture of mine" is an emphatic/double possessive version of "It is my picture".

paco

Oh!. I had something in my mind to ask but asked the question other way around. The actual question: Does the sentence--"It is picture of X's--mean the picture is property of X. However, the further explanations given by you and CJ clarified my doubts. Thanks again.

Rishonly · Answer

Thanks for the explanation CJ.

Ambiguity in possessive form

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