Personal or prepositional "a" here?

Question

La psicóloga le pregunta a ella qué ve.

Is the "a" prepositional or personal in this sentence?

P.S. I get very confused sometimes with "a". On the one hand, instructions I´ve read say to add a prepositional phrase to sentences with ambiguous indirect objects (as applies here). On the other hand, a personal "a" is to be used between verbs and people (as well as other circumstances). So, when I look at a sentence, I can´t tell which is being used and, therefore, have a hard time knowing how to use them properly myself.

Edit: Chileno, in English, what is being said is, "The (female) psychologist is asking her what she sees." The photograph (from my language computer software) that is associated with this sentence shows a psychologist administering a Rorschach test to a patient.

Answer 1

The words "a ella" are added in the sentence to make it clear that the psychiatrist is talking to a female patient. The indirect pronoun "le" can mean to him or to her.

The word "a" is prepositional because this is not a case of using it in front of a person (noun) which is a direct object of the verb. And in this case it really means to her.

Thank you Jubilado. I think that my main confusion is not understanding that prepositional phrases themselves can serve as direct objects. - Trieltor, May 16, 2013

Answer 2

I don't know because I don't know my own grammar.

I can tell though That it means "the (female) psychologist asked (to) her what does she see.

Can you explain that one in your (English) grammar?

Thank you.

Yes. Please look at the edit to the original post. - Trieltor, May 16, 2013