77374
The sentence: 守りたいのはあなた

This sentence can either mean "The one I want to protect is you" or it can
mean "the one who wants to protect (someone else) is you". Any way to
distinguish besides context?
CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-05-17T02:02:09.613
77371
2020-05-17T08:44:49.477
2020-05-17T08:44:49.477
7944
31222
question
relative-clauses ambiguity
Object of a sentence ambiguity
> This sentence can either mean "The one I want to protect is you" or it can
> mean "the one who wants to protect (someone else) is you".

Yes, it can mean both.

> Any way to distinguish besides context?

No, there is no way to distinguish besides context. But when you write a
sentence like this, you can simply add a が-/を-phrase to disambiguate. When a
が-marked phrase is already present before のは, あなた will be automatically
interpreted as the object.

  * **僕が** 守りたいのはあなた。  
It's you who I want to protect.

  * **彼を** 守りたいのはあなた。  
It's you who wants to protect him.

* * *

Your sentence is a [cleft
sentence](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/a/19208/5010), but 守りたいあなた is
already ambiguous. There are many similar questions:

  * [Clarification about how 惚れた should be translated](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/q/60895/5010)
  * [Relative Clause Ambiguous](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/q/60385/5010)
  * [The meaning of ”あれは魔術師に与えられた祝福”](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/q/76392/5010)
  * [が in subordinate clauses](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/q/30171/5010)

For example 惚れたのは君だ means both "It's you who fell in love [to me]" and "It's
you who [I] fell in love to". 好きなのは彼女だ means both " _She_ loves [him]" and
"[He] loves _her_ ".
CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-05-17T02:48:49.160
77374
2020-05-17T03:33:16.217
2020-05-17T03:33:16.217
5010
5010
77371
answer