4 ms·
That title is a real garden path sentence (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garden-path_sentence https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garden-path_sentence)
by wheybags 2y ago
That title is a real garden path sentence (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garden-path_sentence https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garden-path_sentence)
- chrisweekly 2y agoPicture a comma after the word "soldier" for a chuckle. Reminiscent of "Let's eat grandma" vs "Let's eat, grandma".
- userbinator 2y agoWith a comma there, it remains ambiguous (is "flies" a noun or a verb?) and even more perplexing.
- bankcust08385 2y agoIt would mean "a black soldier and flies."
- notahacker 2y agoThink if "flies" is a noun in that formulation you'd put a semi colon or full stop in there and leave it to the reader to ponder if there actually is any connection between the dubious use of the soldier by the student and the ambitious experimentation by the flies...
- sbelskie 2y agoI think it’s pretty unambiguously a verb in that case. That kind of comma is very commonly used in literary prose and essentially always is an “and” like conjunction that joins multiple actions together.
- dotancohen 2y agoOr helping your uncle Jack off a horse.
- walthamstow 2y agoWhat's correct there, commas before and after Jack?
- defrost 2y agoDepends very much on the uncle's name and occupation, he may well be an equine veterinarian named Steve.
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- sbelskie 2y agoThat avoids the worst ambiguity but you still might be helping Uncle Jack murder a horse.
- dotancohen 2y agoPhrased like that, I suppose that the horse would prefer the uncommaed sentence.
- Narishma 2y agoOr you might be helping your uncle Jack by murdering a horse.
- Dylan16807 2y agoAs in, assuming the grammar on "flies" is wrong and then misinterpreting it? Otherwise I don't really see anywhere to go down the wrong path except for very small things like realizing a possible noun is an adjective on the very next word.
- marcosdumay 2y agoThere's absolutely no grammatical error on the interpretation where the student is out hiring mercenaries to stop the flies' space colonization program.