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Is it (AとB)のC, Aと(BのC), or (AのC)と(BのC) ...?
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2018-01-11T09:09:22.537
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particle-の particle-と parsing ambiguity
General meaning of AとBのC?
This would probably depend on context, as in English.

For instance, I think the following sentence would be ambiguous in both
English and Japanese:

> 田中さんと島田さんのメモ帳のおかげでいろいろと分かりました。  
>  I found out all kinds of things thanks to Tanaka and Shimada's notebook.

It could mean that the speaker spoke to Tanaka and read Shimada's notebook, or
it could mean that the speaker read a notebook belonging to both Tanaka and
Shimada.

Of course, in the vast majority of sentences, semantics would be enough to
clear up any such ambiguities. Failing that, it's often possible to
disambiguate using intonation (in speech) or punctuation (in written text).
For instance:

> 田中さんと、島田さんのメモ帳のおかげでいろいろと分かりました。

A pause or comma after the first name would help to indicate that the notebook
belongs to Shimada only. Similarly, a clear _lack_ of pause between the names
in speech would indicate the opposite (I don't think there's any easy way of
representing this explicitly in text, but I think a lack of comma would make
it the more likely interpretation.)

EDIT: I just realised that there's actually a _third_ possible interpretation
for the sentence in Japanese, which is that the speaker read multiple
notebooks, one or more of which belonged to each of Tanaka and Shimada. This
particular ambiguity is of course resolved in the English sentence by the use
of the singular "notebook", but there's no way of resolving it in Japanese
without adding extra verbal clarification, just as the English "Tanaka and
Shimada's notebooks" would be ambiguous with regard to the number of notebooks
and who owned which ones.
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2018-01-11T11:12:59.223
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It depends on the context.

For example, in the case of 彼と私の娘は、昨年同じ小学校に入学した. When he is a child, it means
Aと(BのC). When he is an adult, it means (AのC)と(BのC). When he is the daughter's
father and the sentence is 彼と私の娘は、昨年小学校に入学した, it means (AとB)のC.

In the case of 彼と私の娘は、頭が良い, it also could mean the three patterns. If you
clearly want to mean (AのC)と(BのC), you should say 彼の娘と私の娘は、頭が良い.
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2018-01-11T11:54:07.320
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answer
Usually ambiguities are resolved by context, and if not, then they are
declared "bad writing" (or "bad expression").

In the case at hand, AとBのC can mean all of Aと（BのC）, （AとB）のC, （AのC）と（BのC） —
actually just like "A and B's C" in English:

> AちゃんとB君の親も来る。  
>  A and B's parents also come
>
>   1. Aと（BのC）  
>  A comes and B's parents come
>
>   2. （AとB）のC  
>  (A and B)'s parents come
>
>   3. （AのC）と（BのC）  
>  (A and B)'s parents come
>
>

If you are mathematically inclined, you could think of と corresponding to +
and の to ×.

In mathematics, the ambiguity of A+B×C is resolved by declaring A+B×C =
A+(B×C) ("order of operations"). In natural languages, there are no order of
operations, so AとBのC is still ambiguous.

However, I think we usually have (2) = (3) corresponding to (A+B)×C =
(A×C)+(B×C) ("distributive law").

* * *

Ambiguous contexts aside, context often gives the natural interpretation:

> AちゃんとB君の靴がぬれた。
>
> (A and B)'s shoes got wet. _more likely interpretation_  
>  A got wet and B's shoes got wet. _less likely interpretation_
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2018-01-11T12:11:06.873
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answer