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A sentence where you begin parsing one way, find it it impossible to complete, and have to backtrack substantially (so that the intended meaning changes drastic
by evanb 9y ago
A sentence where you begin parsing one way, find it it impossible to complete, and have to backtrack substantially (so that the intended meaning changes drastically) is called a garden path sentence
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garden_path_sentence https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garden_path_sentence
My favorite is "The old man the boat" :)
- propman 9y agoGreat read! The see also links have a lot of other peculiar sentences that I've come across frequently but never considered they were constructed deliberately nor that there were actual terms describing the oddities.
- beaconstudios 9y agoHa, it's like a branch misprediction but for language, very cool
- somberi 9y ago"Time flies like an arrow; fruit flies like a banana" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_flies_like_an_arrow;_fruit_flies_like_a_banana https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_flies_like_an_arrow;_frui...
- mirimir 9y agoTrying to imagine time flies, here. Generally, I hate flies. I imagine that time flies bite something. But what?
- adamkruszewski 9y agobanana? ;)
- mirimir 9y agoSomething out of Lovecraft, I think.
- ronjouch 9y agoTIL, thanks. The wiki page was posted on HN earlier this year, here's the post: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10613213 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10613213