I found this text under “Proyectos” in an observation I identified:
El observador solo permite a otras personas añadir sus observaciones a proyectos a los que se han unido.
My second native language being French, which uses a two-part construction “ne … que”, I get very annoyed when “only” or “solo” is just before the verb, it’s pretty clear the intent is not to restrict the verb (which would be “solo permite, pero no exige”), and I can’t figure out what’s intended to be restricted. In Spanish I want to use the same “no … que” construction (but I don’t know if someone who speaks Spanish but not French would understand), and in English I put “only” where “que” would go, and if that doesn’t mean the right thing, reword it with two negations or something. So what’s this sentence supposed to mean?
I only speak English and Spanish, not French, so I’m not familiar with how the “ne … que” construction works in French, but the sentence makes sense to me as written in Spanish, and I can’t think of a less awkward way to construct it. It means that si el observador se ha unido al proyecto, otras personas se permiten añadir sus observaciones al proyecto, pero si el observador no se ha unido al proyecto, otras personas no se permiten añadir sus observaciones al proyecto. Así que “permitir” is the verb being restricted in a sense. Se permite in one instance, pero no se permite in another instance. (sorry for the Spanglish answer)
We have two interpretations of the subject of “se han unido / have joined”. It’s the observer, or it’s the other people. Clearly, it’s unclear.
To me, the sentence as written means “The observer only permits (but does not require) other people to add his/her/their (“sus” is ambiguous) observations to projects…”. I’m fairly sure that’s not what’s meant, but I’m not sure what it’s supposed to mean. The observer is of unknown gender, so singular “they” is likely, and is ambiguous with the plural people.
Does the observer permit other people to add only their observations to projects? Or does the observer permit other people to add observations to only some projects?
“Se han unido” is plural, whereas in English there is no distinction between singular and plural “they”. That’s why I interpreted the '“they” to be “others” and not the OP. Hope this helps :)
It’s possible that the Spanish was translated from English by someone who wasn’t sure whether “they” is singular or plural.
A allows B to add A’s observations to P only if A is a member of P.
A allows B to add A’s observations to P only if B is a member of P.
A allows B to add A’s observations to P only if both A and B are members of P.
A allows B to add B’s observations to P only if A is a member of P.
A allows B to add B’s observations to P only if B is a member of P.
A allows B to add B’s observations to P only if both A and B are members of P.
A allows B to add A’s observations to P, which B is a member of, only if B is different from A.
A allows B to add A’s observations to P, which B is a member of, but does not require B to do so.
Any other interpretations? What’s the correct interpretation?