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When we have 2 prepositional phrases modifying the same verb, mainly the sentence:

“After their vanquishing, the Sumerians will be victorious in 15 years” (it’s part of an ancient Sumerian poem I read online a couple years ago)

Does the first prepositional phrase have an effect (including meaning) on the rest of the sentence (including the verb and second propositional sentence) or only the verb?

second: is the meaning produced by the sentence that the counting of the 15 years starts from the defeat or from the proclamation of statement?

I asked a similar question somewhere else, and someone said that the first part “after their vanquishing” is a dependent clause so it has an effect on the rest and not vice versa.

Is this correct? And if not what’s the relation between “after their vanquishing”, “will be victorious” and “in 15 years”?

Thanks alot!

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After their vanquishing, the Sumerians will be victorious in 15 years.

After their vanquishing is an adverbial preposition phrase, not a dependent clause. It modifies the entire clause that follows.

The 15 years starts from the vanquishing.

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  • I see, thanks alot! Is there a grammatical reason for this? From what I know, adverbial prepositions modify only the verbal sentence, and “in 15 years” is also an adverbial preposition, so why does it modify the whole thing?
    – Zaid Abubaker
    Commented Dec 4 at 17:15
  • It is wise to take care with one’s word choice. In 15 years is not a “preposition” (adverbial or otherwise), it’s a prepositional phrase. The preposition is in, which is called the head of the prepositional phrase.
    – Paul Tanenbaum
    Commented Dec 4 at 17:45
  • @PaulTanenbaum oh sorry about that, how does this affect the meaning overall?
    – Zaid Abubaker
    Commented Dec 4 at 17:53
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After their vanquishing, the Sumerians will be victorious in 15 years.

The prepositional phrase "after their vanquishing" refers to the stretch of time that commences with their vanquishing; and "in fifteen years" states how much time will pass in that stretch of time before they're victorious.

You could make that sentence more succinct:

The Sumerians will be victorious fifteen years after their vanquishing.

Or "after their defeat" if you want it to have a more contemporary style.

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  • Is this related to the concept of “deixis”?
    – Zaid Abubaker
    Commented Dec 5 at 14:28
  • No, deixis is not involved in that sentence.
    – TimR
    Commented Dec 5 at 14:44
  • I see, then what’s the reason that it starts from the moment of defeat/vanquishing?
    – Zaid Abubaker
    Commented Dec 5 at 14:58
  • The original sentence uses English words but it is not a truly idiomatic English sentence. In order to make sense of "in fifteen years" we understand "after their vanquishing" as a span of time that started with their vanquishing, such that the sentence could be paraphrased "Fifteen years after their vanquishing the Sumerians will be victorious". If we don't assume "after" refers to a span of time that begins with their vanquishing, but refers to some future time, then "in fifteen years" would have to mean that the later war lasted 15 years, but that seems a very strained reading.
    – TimR
    Commented Dec 5 at 15:17
  • I see, so basically we can’t make the point start with the moment of utterance (which is the alternate understanding I had) because It would lead to an erroneous reading, am I correct?
    – Zaid Abubaker
    Commented Dec 5 at 15:24

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