On 3/21/2018 9:40 AM, mayqel qunenoS wrote:

What would happen though, if we had only two things ? "the vulcans, caused the federation to accept them (the "them" referring to themselves, the vulcans)". Here we have only two things: the federation and the vulcans.

So how would we say that ? Instinctively, I would write:

{yuQjIjDI'vI'vaD vulqanganpu' lajmoH vulqanganpu'}

But, my problem is, that the {vulqanganpu'} which precedes and follows the {lajmoH} is the same, i.e. it refers to the same people.

As I understand it, the "they-them" zero-prefix, is to be used only when the "they" is other than the "them".

Your understanding is flawed. When an entity is both the doer of an action and the done upon, you use one of the reflexive suffixes to indicate this, and the entity is the subject. jIqIp'egh jIH I hit myself. When an entity is both the causer and the one caused to do the action, you use one of the reflexive suffixes. mabom'eghmoH maH We cause each other to sing. But in your example you have the same entity as the causer and the done upon, which is not one of the times you use a reflexive suffix. So your instincts are correct.

If you don't like having the same entity on both sides of a single verb, do something like this: vulqanganpu' laj yuQjIjDIvI' 'e' qaSmoH vulqanganpu'. Or go with a syntactic noun: vulqanganpu'mo' vulqanganpu' laj yuQjIjDIvI'.

-- 
SuStel
http://trimboli.name

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