Answers
Jul 28, 2015 - 04:59 PM
Hmm, when I read the sentence I think of it the opposite hehe: That the cake was made yesterday and the birthday is ambiguous. :) I see your point on the ambiguity though, both would work in English and I think clarification would come from context. I think of German as a mostly "head final" language meaning the main concept is at the end behind all the other components and specifics. And English is a mostly "head initial" language where the main part is first. You can see it in this sentence: the main concept is "made" : that you made something. In English it is up front. I MADE. In German it is dead last: "gemacht". So the further back in a German sentence (most cases never say all in languages) a word is the more important it is; and the least interesting words or information would go close to the beginning. I think it would be akin to saying in English: I YESTERDAY made a cake for his birthday. One would say to themselves "why is he putting so much emphasis on yesterday?" You still get the point across but it isn't too natural. So when you put "gestern" at the end (gemacht must go at the very end) you would need a very big justification for doing so because it is not in its natural position creating tension. Because "gestern" in itself isn't the most important word, or very interesting in this sentence. You are putting a big emphasis on "gestern" by putting it before gemacht. Ich habe gestern einen Kuchen fuer seinen Geburtstag gemacht or Ich habe gestern fuer seinen Geburtstag einen Kuchen gemacht would be more natural then having gestern at the end. Hope this helps!
Jul 29, 2015 - 08:44 AM
Thanks for your thoughts...I guess my main point is that the English that is written for the user to translate to German should not be ambiguous, and this one is. For me, it's work enough to write the German so that it says what the English does without having to figure out what the English means as well! I probably would have made the English be "Yesterday I made a cake for his birthday"....then there's basically no ambiguity since yesterday modifies "made". The way it's given in the lesson seems to me one of those cases of "misplaced modifiers" that we were warned about in high school English. The example is the lesson is analogous to "We ate the lunch that we had brought slowly"....which should be "We slowly ate the lunch that we had brought". English usually places the adverb near the verb...and it's not in the lesson's English sentence. Sort of like when people say "God only knows" when what they (usually) mean is "Only God knows"...the former implies the deity knows but is powerless otherwise while the latter means the deity is alone in knowing.
Jul 29, 2015 - 02:18 PM
I understand completely the ambiguity. And I agree with your example with yesterday leading the sentence would make it more clearer. I think it is composed in that particular manner to be consistent with the sentence structures that you are learning; and that learners would be more familiar with, because they have never really started a sentence with time? (just a guess) However.. no matter what the "yesterday" is modifying in this sentence, you still wouldn't really put "gestern" at the end. That was more my point.
Ich habe gestern einen Kuchen...
Ich habe gestern fuer seinen...
Gestern hab ich einen Kuchen..
Ich habe gestern einen Kuchen...
Ich habe gestern fuer seinen...
Gestern hab ich einen Kuchen..