Suppose we are modeling a complex society seething with interpersonal relations of every kind.
{*}"The Abolition of Love"
Section 1 - Relation types
Loving relates one person to one person.
Noticing relates various people to one person.
Impressing relates one person to various people.
Fancying relates various people to various people.
Acquaintance relates people to each other.
Marriage relates one person to another.
Alliance relates people to each other in groups.
The Chapel is a room. Elizabeth, Wickham and Darcy are people in the Chapel. Mr Bennett and Mrs Bennett are people in the Chapel. Georgiana is a person in the Chapel.
The verb to love means the loving relation.
The verb to notice means the noticing relation.
The verb to impress means the impressing relation.
The verb to fancy means the fancying relation.
The verb to know means the acquaintance relation.
The verb to be married to means the marriage relation.
The verb to be related to means the alliance relation.
Elizabeth loves Darcy. Elizabeth fancies Darcy. Elizabeth notices Darcy. Elizabeth impresses Darcy.
Mr Bennett is related to Mrs Bennett and Elizabeth. Mr Bennett is married to Mrs Bennett.
Now we want ways to set and unset all of these relations. (In the interests of thoroughness, we may get a bit far-fetched here. It is not recommended in practice that we make the player guess the verb "traduce".)
{**}Section 2 - Setting and Unsetting Love (1-1)
Understand "infatuate [someone] with [someone]" as infatuating it with. Infatuating it with is an action applying to two visible things.
say "Now [the noun] loves [a random person loved by the noun][if the second noun loves someone], while [the second noun] loves [a random person loved by the second noun][end if]."
Understand "embitter [someone] toward [someone]" as embittering it toward. Embittering it toward is an action applying to two visible things.
say "[The noun] sees [the second noun] in a different light and no longer feels any affection."
Because love is a 1-1 relation, a person cannot love more than one other character at a time. Whenever we set a character to love a new person, that person ceases to love the character loved before. It is a fickle world.
One to various relations are a bit more open: we can say someone impresses multiple other characters, and our additions to the list do not override the initial ones.
{**}Section 3 - Setting and Unsetting Impressed (1-V)
Understand "commend [someone] to [someone]" as commending it to. Commending it to is an action applying to two visible things.
say "Now [the noun] impresses [the list of people who are impressed by the noun]."
Note that the above unsetting is not equivalent to "now the noun does not impress every person" -- which would be ambiguous in spoken English, as well. Various-to-one relations are similar:
{**}Section 4 - Setting and Unsetting Noticing (V-1)
Understand "draw the attention of [someone] to [someone]" as drawing the attention of it to. Drawing the attention of it to is an action applying to two visible things.
When we unset the symmetrical relation on one side, it is automatically set or unset on the other. It is not necessary to say "the second noun is married to the noun" or "the second noun is not married to the noun", even though that is the case.
say "You introduce [the noun] to [the second noun]. Now [the noun] is acquainted with [the list of people who are known by the noun], and [the second noun] is acquainted with [the list of people who are known by the second noun]."
say "Now [the second noun] is related to [the list of people who are related to the second noun], and [the noun] is related to [the list of people who are related to the noun]."
Notice that when we say "the second noun is not related", we remove that person from the group: they are now in a separate group of their own, while the rest of the group's members remain related to one another.
And finally, a long litany of test cases, complete with the relations lists:
{**}Test acquaintance with "relations / introduce darcy to elizabeth / introduce darcy to wickham / announce mr bennett / relations / ostracise wickham / introduce georgiana to wickham / relations".
Test impression with "commend georgiana to elizabeth / relations / celebrate Mrs bennett / relations / traduce mrs bennett to darcy / relations / slander mrs bennett / relations".
Test notice with "draw the attention of darcy to elizabeth / relations / draw attention to mr bennett / relations / distract darcy from mr bennett / relations / outshine mr bennett / relations".
Test love with "embitter elizabeth toward darcy / relations / infatuate elizabeth with wickham / relations".
Test marriage with "marry elizabeth to darcy / relations / divorce elizabeth from darcy / relations".
Test alliance with "make mr bennett adopt georgiana / relations / make mrs bennett disown georgiana / relations".
Test fancying with "admire elizabeth / relations / loathe elizabeth / relations / flatter elizabeth / relations / unflatter elizabeth / relations / cause chaos / relations / relieve chaos / relations".
Test me with "test acquaintance / test impression / test notice / test love / test alliance / test fancying / test marriage".