Revisit: order of nouns and modifiers

[laepelba]

I know this has been discussed and discussed and discussed again, and I am reviewing many of those older threads. I am specifically looking for feedback about this one particular sentence.

The sentence comes from a translation exercise in my workbook.

The English phrase: If I talk about my gold bracelet, she talks about her Colombian emerald ring.

My translation: Si hablo de mi pulsera de oro, ella habla de su anillo colombiano de esmereldas.

The book's answers gave: Si hable de mi pulsera de oro, ella habla de su anillo de esmereldas colombianas.

I remember from one discussion here awhile back that which words are near which other words will impact meaning. It seems to me that the way I wrote the sentence in my translation, it's a Colombian ring that happens to be made of emeralds.

And it seems to me that the way the book gave the sentence, the emeralds are Colombian, but the origin of the ring is unknown.

Yet, in the English, it seems fairly apparent that the ring itself if Colombian.....

Comments?

[pjt33]

The English is ambiguous. I would interpret it as you did, lacking further context, but the book's interpretation is valid. It makes for a pretty poor example, though.

[laepelba]

Thanks, PJT. That makes me feel a bit better.

[CrOtALiTo]

Originally Posted by pjt33

The English is ambiguous. I would interpret it as you did, lacking further context, but the book's interpretation is valid. It makes for a pretty poor example, though.

What does ambiguous mean?

I knew interpret that word at this moment.

[AngelicaDeAlquezar]

Originally Posted by laepelba

I know this has been discussed and discussed and discussed again, and I am reviewing many of those older threads. I am specifically looking for feedback about this one particular sentence.

The sentence comes from a translation exercise in my workbook.

The English phrase: If I talk about my gold bracelet, she talks about her Colombian emerald ring.

My translation: Si hablo de mi pulsera de oro, ella habla de su anillo colombiano de esmereldas esmeraldas.

The book's answers gave: Si hable hablo de mi pulsera de oro, ella habla de su anillo de esmereldas esmeraldas colombianas.

I remember from one discussion here awhile back that which words are near which other words will impact meaning. It seems to me that the way I wrote the sentence in my translation, it's a Colombian ring that happens to be made of emeralds.

And it seems to me that the way the book gave the sentence, the emeralds are Colombian, but the origin of the ring is unknown.

Yet, in the English, it seems fairly apparent that the ring itself if Colombian.....

Comments?

Clichés immediately associate Colombia and emeralds, so I wouldn't have thought about a Colombian ring.
Which makes me curious: How would you mark in English the nationality of the emeralds and not the ring?

In Spanish it's quite easy to know who is Colombian, as it agrees with gender and number with the noun.

[pjt33]

"Ambiguous" es ambiguo, que puede significar ambas cosas.

Sé que hay una provincia de Ecuador en la frontera colombiana que se llama Esmeraldas, pero no conozco ese cliché. Para desambiguar se puede decir "an emerald ring from Colombia" o "a ring mounted with Colombian emeralds".

[laepelba]

Originally Posted by AngelicaDeAlquezar

Clichés immediately associate Colombia and emeralds, so I wouldn't have thought about a Colombian ring.
Which makes me curious: How would you mark in English the nationality of the emeralds and not the ring?

In Spanish it's quite easy to know who is Colombian, as it agrees with gender and number with the noun. <--Which is why I originally made "colombiano" with "anillo"...

Aha. That little cultural bit escaped me.

If I wanted to say, in English, that a ring (which could be from anywhere) had a particular stone which happened to be, specifically, from Colombia, I would say: "a ring with an emerald from Colombia". If I say "Colombian emerald ring", I really think that the ring itself is probably and entirely from Colombia.

[AngelicaDeAlquezar]

"From" is the magic word! Thank you, Lou Ann and pjt!