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Here is the sentence:

Techi's brother Data is Painting Dye's husband, Time Line's best friend.

The sentence before that establishes that Time Line is Painting Dye's husband. The meaning trying to be conveyed in this sentence by my friend is that Techi's brother Data is Time Line's best friend, and Time Line being Painting Dye's husband should be re-established.

After careful analysis of this sentence, I have been unable to see how this exact wording conveys the meaning. However, my friend doesn't believe that this sentence cannot convey the intended meaning. Does anyone have a way to convince him of that?

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[These names are very hard to read, so I'm hyphenating them.]

Techi's brother Data is Painting-Dye's husband, Time-Line's best friend.

What your friend thinks he has written is

[Techi's brother Data] is [Painting-Dye's husband Time-Line]'s best friend.

But as written and pointed here, with the comma after husband, the sentence puts the phrase Time-Line's best friend in apposition to the phrase Painting-Dye's husband. It will be parsed

[Techi's brother Data] is [PaintingDye's husband], [TimeLine's best friend].

That is

  • [Techi's brother Data] is [Painting-Dye's husband], WHO IS ALSO
  • [Time-Line's best friend].

All three of these bracketed entities are the same person.

Simply striking the comma will help; but it will make the sentence ambiguous instead of flat wrong.

Your friend needs to recast the sentence in a way which clearly distinguishes the people and their relationship. For example:

Techi's brother Data is the best friend of Painting-Dye's husband, Time-Line.

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  • I'd just analysed 'is Painting Dye' as a wrongly capitalised present participle structure!
    – Edwin Ashworth
    Commented Jan 23, 2014 at 19:27
  • @EdwinAshworth Me too. I'm gonna go back and hyphenate them, for some approach to intelligibility.
    – StoneyB on hiatus
    Commented Jan 23, 2014 at 19:31
  • Of course, I used to think StoneyB was a wrongly capitalised adjectival.
    – Edwin Ashworth
    Commented Jan 23, 2014 at 19:32
  • @EdwinAshworth It's honest. I was named after Gen. Jackson, and 'Stoney' was my stage name for 30 years.
    – StoneyB on hiatus
    Commented Jan 23, 2014 at 19:38
  • This is great! Thanks. I hadn't thought of bracketing the sentence to show him the problem. Accepted.
    – Jonathan Spirit
    Commented Jan 23, 2014 at 20:54

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