メアリーがアメリカに帰って悲【かな】しいです meaning


This is an example て-form sentence from bunpro where the translation is "Mary
returned to the USA and I am sad."

I'm wondering if this could also mean "Mary returned to the USA and she is
sad" as well since this is what I thought it meant at first before looking at
the translation.

As a follow up question, if it can mean both, would it be more clear to say
something like 「メアリーがアメリカに帰って私は悲【かな】しいです」? I'm thinking maybe if this is the
case, out of context, even Japanese people might think it means "Mary returned
to the USA and she is sad" but correct me if I'm wrong.




> I'm wondering if this could also mean "Mary returned to the USA and she is
> sad" as well since this is what I thought it meant at first before looking
> at the translation.

It's possible but not likely. The te form is a weak association between cause
and effect, and the かなしい here is completely unqualified, so it looks like the
speaker's emotion. You can throw a そうだ or らしい on the end, and it will end up
looking like Mary is sad, or change the て to たら ending to make it look more
like the two parts of the sentence are related, so

メアリーがアメリカに帰ったら悲しくなったそうです

sounds a bit more like it is Mary who's sad, not the speaker. For added
effect, change ga to wa to make Mary the topic:

メアリーはアメリカに帰ったら悲しくなったそうです

That way it looks a lot more like かなしい is related to Mary.




> I'm wondering if this could also mean "Mary returned to the USA and she is
> sad" as well since this is what I thought it meant at first before looking
> at the translation.

It's possible but not likely. The te form is a weak association between cause
and effect, and the かなしい here is completely unqualified, so it looks like the
speaker's emotion. You can throw a そうだ or らしい on the end, and it will end up
looking like Mary is sad, or change the て to たら ending to make it look more
like the two parts of the sentence are related, so

メアリーがアメリカに帰ったら悲しくなったそうです

sounds a bit more like it is Mary who's sad, not the speaker. For added
effect, change ga to wa to make Mary the topic:

メアリーはアメリカに帰ったら悲しくなったそうです

That way it looks a lot more like かなしい is related to Mary.

