なんて言わないで自己申告制, meaning of で?


I'm kinda at a lost here. In what I'm translating (a song), a character says:

> なんて言わないで
>
> 自己申告制

My main issue is...I have no clue how で is meant to be used here. One person I
spoke to translated this as:

> "Don't say things like that."
>
> A self-reporting system.

But with で, wouldn't it be:

> A self-reporting system [that requires/by means of] no talking.

However, the rest of the sentence after で has no verb, so I don't think that
would work either...there was no comma in the original line, so I don't know
if it'd be a conjunction, either (and if it were, wouldn't 言わないで be 言わなくて?)

Sorry if the answer is actually simple, but I haven't been able to figure this
one out. Am I missing something?




ないで is the te-form of ない, but it can be a continuation marker (if it's in the
middle of a sentence) or a request marker (if it's at the end of a sentence).

  * 見ないで!  
Don't look!

  * 見ないで答える  
To answer without looking

You seem to understand this. So the real question here is **" Is there an
imaginary period between 言わないで and 自己申告制"?** However, no one can tell yes or
no only from this short fragment of the lyrics. Even when a noun follows a te-
form, it can still be part of a sentence, especially in lyrics (see this
question for examples: [Can te-form be used to modify a
noun?](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/q/57580/5010)). To answer a question
like this, you need to access the entire lyrics and fully understand the
context. So I googled for the [original
lyrics](https://www.kkbox.com/jp/ja/song/gFn00w-MN5Z1TpAf1TpAf0XL-index.html):

> 今日もココロがランアウト  
>  現実だってシャットアウト  
>  起きたらすぐにシットダウン  
>  試しにファイティンポーズ  
>  とってはみるけど  
>  維持できないなら意味ないじゃん  
>  なんて言わないで自己申告制  
>  これでも頑張ってる「つもり」  
>  やっぱりめんどくさい ムリみ〜

After reading this, the role of で still looked ambiguous to me, so I listened
to [this song on
Spotify](https://open.spotify.com/track/6BmdP5fYhESNDRG08VAvHt). My conclusion
is that there **is** a period after 言わないで. That is, this 言わないで is a request
("don't say"), and 自己申告制 is associated with the next line. Here's my
interpretation:

  * 「維持できないなら意味ないじゃん」なんて言わないで。  
Don't say "If you cannot maintain, it's meaningless".

  * 自己申告制(では)、これでも頑張ってる「つもり」。  
According to me, I'm doing my best.




ないで is the te-form of ない, but it can be a continuation marker (if it's in the
middle of a sentence) or a request marker (if it's at the end of a sentence).

  * 見ないで!  
Don't look!

  * 見ないで答える  
To answer without looking

You seem to understand this. So the real question here is **" Is there an
imaginary period between 言わないで and 自己申告制"?** However, no one can tell yes or
no only from this short fragment of the lyrics. Even when a noun follows a te-
form, it can still be part of a sentence, especially in lyrics (see this
question for examples: [Can te-form be used to modify a
noun?](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/q/57580/5010)). To answer a question
like this, you need to access the entire lyrics and fully understand the
context. So I googled for the [original
lyrics](https://www.kkbox.com/jp/ja/song/gFn00w-MN5Z1TpAf1TpAf0XL-index.html):

> 今日もココロがランアウト  
>  現実だってシャットアウト  
>  起きたらすぐにシットダウン  
>  試しにファイティンポーズ  
>  とってはみるけど  
>  維持できないなら意味ないじゃん  
>  なんて言わないで自己申告制  
>  これでも頑張ってる「つもり」  
>  やっぱりめんどくさい ムリみ〜

After reading this, the role of で still looked ambiguous to me, so I listened
to [this song on
Spotify](https://open.spotify.com/track/6BmdP5fYhESNDRG08VAvHt). My conclusion
is that there **is** a period after 言わないで. That is, this 言わないで is a request
("don't say"), and 自己申告制 is associated with the next line. Here's my
interpretation:

  * 「維持できないなら意味ないじゃん」なんて言わないで。  
Don't say "If you cannot maintain, it's meaningless".

  * 自己申告制(では)、これでも頑張ってる「つもり」。  
According to me, I'm doing my best.

