Can one say
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a. One of my cousins’ children came here yesterday.
?
If one can, what does it mean?
- The children of one of my cousins…
or - One of the children of my cousins…
?
Many thanks.
It can mean either.
They are still ambiguous since they do not mean the same. The second needs to be ‘The children of a cousin of mine’ so as to be in consonance with the first. We had better avoid sentences like one of my cousins’ children (Question a.) for clarity. (‘One of the children of one of my cousins’ is a bit awkward)
How about: “A child of one of my cousin’s" (=One of my cousins’ children).
If you meant otherwise, it would be “the children of one of my cousin’s” or “One of my cousin’s children” (= all children)
I don’t think it means as you have indicated. ‘A child of one of my cousin’s children’ will make it clear but it is not natural.
Really?
‘A child of … my cousin’s children’ = my cousin’s grandchild if I’m not mistaken.
Whoever invented them, I wouldn’t shake hands with the person; double possessives is a hard nut to crack. Forget my previous post.
Trying again: One of my cousins’/friends’ children = my cousins/friends own the children. So it reads that children, that is more than one child arrived. (=1)
To mean 2, it could read ‘a child of a cousin of mine’. ‘A child’ = one of two or more; a cousin = one of two or more. Would anybody really utter things like that? I believe it would be, “One of my first cousins once removed came here yesterday.” Simple? able2know.org/topic/32745-1
Stop the world, I’m getting off.
I think your previous post had good reasoning, Eugene.
‘A child of’ needs to be construed as ‘A child from among’ lest it should mean a grandchild as you say. Anyway, a double possessive with the ‘one of’ structure is really a hard nut to crack!
Of course it refers to a grandchild, however you try to ‘construe it’.
Yes, how you try to ‘construe it’.