In a certain code language, 'tenant pays rent' is coded as 'mh si pa', 'owner…

Concept — In sentence-based coding, each distinct word of the original sentence is replaced by one fixed code that keeps the same meaning in every statement, and the codes of a statement are written in a scrambled order. A code is therefore identified by intersection: the code that two coded statements have in common must stand for the word that those two statements have in common, and once a statement's shared codes are settled, the code left over must stand for the word left over.

Application — The three coded statements are:

• 'tenant pays rent' → 'mh si pa'

• 'owner receive rent' → 'zy pa cu'

• 'owner pays tax' → 'si zy ke'

Intersecting them two at a time:

1. 'tenant pays rent' and 'owner receive rent' have the word 'rent' in common, and their codes 'mh si pa' and 'zy pa cu' have 'pa' in common, so rent = pa.

2. 'owner receive rent' and 'owner pays tax' have the word 'owner' in common, and their codes 'zy pa cu' and 'si zy ke' have 'zy' in common, so owner = zy.

3. 'tenant pays rent' and 'owner pays tax' have the word 'pays' in common, and their codes 'mh si pa' and 'si zy ke' have 'si' in common, so pays = si.

4. In 'tenant pays rent' coded as 'mh si pa', taking away pays = si and rent = pa leaves the word 'tenant' against the code 'mh', so tenant = mh.

5. Therefore 'tenant owner' = 'mh' + 'zy', and because the codes of a group are written in a scrambled order this pair is presented as 'zy mh'.

Cross-check — The two codes not used above fall out of the remaining statements: 'cu' is what is left in 'owner receive rent' coded as 'zy pa cu' after owner = zy and rent = pa, so receive = cu; 'ke' is what is left in 'owner pays tax' coded as 'si zy ke' after owner = zy and pays = si, so tax = ke. The full dictionary is:

Re-encoding with this dictionary reproduces every given line: 'tenant pays rent' gives mh si pa, 'owner receive rent' gives zy pa cu, and 'owner pays tax' gives zy si ke, which is the given 'si zy ke' in scrambled order. Each word carries one code and each code one word, so the mapping is consistent.

Result — the probable code for 'tenant owner' is 'zy mh'.