On Mon, May 20, 2019, 15:25 Daniel Dadap, <daniel@dadap.net> wrote:

> On May 20, 2019, at 07:57, mayqel qunen'oS <mihkoun@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> What I'm wondering though is this: Assume we have a N-N-N-N (quadruple
> noun construction); are *all* combinations possible ? i.e. (N-N)-N-N,
> N-(N-N)-N, N-N-(N-N), (N-N-N)-N, N-(N-N-N) ?

I don’t see why not. Context might make exclude some interpretations and common sense might make some more unlikely, but all of those should be possible, as well as (N-N)-(N-N).

As an example, consider {tlhIngan wo' Qang DevwI' je}. Sure, you *could* read this as "a Klingon, an empire, a Chancellor, and a leader", but I bet no one has any trouble parsing this as "Chancellor and Leader of the Klingon Empire".

-- 
De'vID