Translation of prepositional phrases On encountering an English prepositional phrase, which has to be rendered in Kazakh as a
postpositional phrase, there are three possible outcomes:
(1) The prepositional phrase results in a simple postpositional phrase using the locative “-
{D}{A}”,
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ablative “-{D}{A}н”, etc., but not the genitive “-{N}{I}ң”:
[PP [P in ] [NP the beautiful garden] ] → [PP [NP әдемі бақша] [P -да ] ]
(2) The prepositional phrase results in a simple postpositional phrase using the genitive -NIņ,
which will be marked GenP:
[PP [P of ] [NP the beautiful garden] ] → [GenP [NP әдемі бақша] [P -ның] ]
(3) The prepositional phrase results in a complex postpositional phrase based around a noun
such as аст, үст, etc.:
[PP [P under ] [NP the garden] ] → [PP [NP [GenP [NP бақша ][P -ның]] [NP астын]] [P -да ] ]
In all three cases, the possessor tag of the chunk, which corresponds to the main noun in the PP
or the GenP has to be left open to being determined in later transfer operations (consider, for
instance, the case that the PP in the beautiful garden is part of a larger structure, in the beautiful garden of the city, қаланың әдемі бақшасында, in which the noun бақша 'garden' receives a
possessive ending).
