Position of "nur" with verb and noun. (Related to another question linked below.)

Question

The Wikipedia article on German modal particles has the following example with translation:

Ich verleihe kein Geld, das zerstört ja nur Freundschaften. -- "I never lend money. Everyone knows that only destroys friendships."

The English is ambiguous, but that's ok because it would be awkward to make the meaning precise and the intent is obvious. Specifically, there are three interpretations:
a) The only thing that lending money might destroy is a friendship.
b) The only thing that lending money might do to a friendship is destroy it.
c) (The intended meaning.) The only thing that lending money might do at all is to destroy a friendship.

My problem is that since nur comes before Freundschaften, and going by the rule that modifiers come before the thing they modify in German, it sounds to me like only the (a) interpretation is possible with the German version. With that in mind, it seems to be that a better translation would be to put the nur at the end:

Ich verleihe kein Geld, das zerstört ja Freundschaften nur.

This just seems wrong to me somehow, but if so then I don't know why. Another possibility is to move the nur to the front:

Ich verleihe kein Geld, nur zerstört ja das Freundschaften.

But this seems awkward in general and may be placing undue emphasis on nur. Maybe a conjunction would help:

Ich verleihe kein Geld, weil es Freundschaften nur zerstört.

Now the only possible meaning is (b), though. Also I don't know where to put ja now and that's the whole point of the example.

So the main question is, in a sentence where nur can be applied to the verb, a noun, or both at once, where you position it to make the meaning clear, or at least not incorrect?

This question seems similar, but it that case it was more about where to put the nur with a conditional, and in this case there is no conditional.

Answer 1

Ich verleihe kein Geld, das zerstört ja nur Freundschaften.

All three interpretations (a b c) that you give for the English version are also possible for the German version. There's no good way to know which one is meant except looking for the most semantically probable. If it's spoken, you can listen to the emphasis for a clue.

You're right of course about the general rule that "nur" normally comes before the thing that it refers to, but in this case having the "ja nur" together seems natural, so this is just the natural position for the "nur" in the sentence.

Your second idea:

Ich verleihe kein Geld, das zerstört ja Freundschaften nur.

... is actually a perfect way to put it and clearer than the first one, because it limits the possible meaning to (b). The only slightly "unnatural" thing about it is that ja and nur are separated, but that's fine, you can definitely say or write that.

You could also say (with the same meaning):

Ich verleihe kein Geld, das zerstört Freundschaften ja nur.

Your third variation:

Ich verleihe kein Geld, nur zerstört ja das Freundschaften.

doesn't work, because the "nur" gets a whole different meaning when you put it in the beginning. It then becomes a conjunction with the meaning of "though", which totally changes the relation between the sentences. In this case you're basically saying that you're not lending money although that (= not lending money) destroys friendships.

If you want be more explicit and use "weil", you can say:

Ich verleihe kein Geld, weil das ja nur Freundschaften zerstört. (= meanings a or c )

or

Ich verleihe kein Geld, weil das Freundschaften ja nur zerstört. (= meaning b)

or

Ich verleihe kein Geld, weil das ja Freundschaften nur zerstört. (= meaning b, the ja is a bit more emphasized)

I think it isn't possible so say it in a way that can only mean (c) withount making it longer, like

Ich verleihe kein Geld, weil das nur eins bewirkt, nämlich Freundschaften zu zerstören.

My general rule for the position of the "ja" would be to put the "ja" (or other Modalpartikel) just before other adverbs like "nur". You can place an object between them if you want, but the Modalpartikel always comes first.

Answer 2

The word "nur" in this sentence is a modal particle. It is quite common to have two modal particles in sequence:

Er ist aber auch ziemlich dämlich.
Das ist nun mal so.
Du hast ja gar nichts an!
Das ist doch bitte unerhört!

and also

Ich mein' ja nur.
Ich träum' ja nur.

Also very common is this construction:

Jemand vermeidet etwas, denn das würde ja nur zu negativen Folgen führen.
Someone avoids something, because that would just/only/merely lead to negative consequences.

And you sentence fits perfectly into this pattern.

Ich verleihe kein Geld, das zerstört ja nur Freundschaften.
I do not lend money, that just destroys friendships.