Hello,

I came across this sentence: εχω ιππον τω του νεου ανθρωπου διδασκαλω ( I apologize for not using the breathing and accent marks, I cannot find them on my keyboard; I hope it doesn't alter the meaning of the sentence).

There could be two alternative ways to translate this sentence:

1) I have the young man's horse for the teacher.
2) I have a horse for the young man's teacher.

To whom is the attributive "του νεου ανθρωπου" attributed? Is it attributed to the horse, or to the teacher? Does the attributive construction allow us to tell that the teacher belongs to the young man, rather than the horse to the young man?

Hi Laellius,

To mean "I have the young man's horse for the teacher" it should say "ἔχω τὸν τοῦ νέου ἵππον τῷ διδασκάλῳ". They way you write it now, ἔχω ἵππον τῷ τοῦ νέου διδασκάλῳ, the genitive belongs to the teacher, as is enclosed in the dative. It is also common for such a genitive to precede the subject (think of it in English as "the man's teacher" instead of "the teacher of the man")

Thank you Georges