The present study offers the comprehension data on three types of ambiguous possessive structures in Mandarin, including compound possessives (e.g., “ xuēshéng zhuō” or “student desk”), two-level possessives (e.g., “Xiǎomíng de xuēshén zhuō” or “Xiaoming’s student desk”), and three-level possessives (e.g., “ Xiǎomíng de xuēshéng de xuēshéng zhuō” or “Xiaoming’s student’s student desk”). Each of these structures has both a generic and a regular possessive interpretation. The findings indicate that children of all ages can identify the difference in generic regular possessives in each type of ambiguous structures. As regards the two-level and three-level possessives, the results reveal that children are more inclined to adopt a recursive analysis compared to young adults, who tend to adopt a generic analysis. These findings suggest that the reluctance to use recursive possessives is intervened by prelinguistic representations (such as generic interpretations).