4 ms·

I’m impressed with anyone who can read English right to left.

by pixelatedindex 6mo ago

einpoklum 6mo ago
Right to Left English - read can, who? Anyone with [which] impressed am I.
- y1n0 6mo ago
  Yoda, you that is?
- adrian_b 6mo ago
  English can be read in a different order than the normal order when the sentences contain words for which it is easy to guess whether they are agents or patients, e.g. when the agents are animate nouns and the patients are inanimate nouns, or when pronouns are used for the agents or patients. Otherwise, the non-standard order can be understood incorrectly. While the distinction between agents and patients is the most important that depends on word order in English, there are also other order-dependent distinctions, e.g. between beneficiary and patient, when the beneficiary is not marked by a preposition, or between a noun and its attribute, e.g. "police dog" is not the same as "dog police" and unless there is a detailed context you cannot know what is meant when the word order is wrong. English is one of the languages with the most rigid word order. There are languages, especially among older languages, where almost any word order can be used without causing ambiguities, because all the possible roles of the words are marked by prepositions, postpositions or affixes (or sometimes by accentuation shifts).
  - einpoklum 6mo ago
    In my example, the RTL reading is indeed a misunderstanding. I even cheated, because it really should have been: > Left to Right English - read can, who? Anyone with [which] impressed am I. and the causation is wrong; instead of the ability being impressive, it's the impressive character than allows reading in the opposite order. So, you're right, and now I'll wait for the dog police to come pick me up.
jlongman 6mo ago
You might like https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boustrophedon https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boustrophedon
- amulyabaral 6mo ago
  Whoa! TIL! I struggled a bit to read this style at first, but felt it get easier after a few tries.

I’m impressed with anyone who can read English right to left.

einpoklum 6mo ago

Right to Left English - read can, who? Anyone with [which] impressed am I.

y1n0 6mo ago
Yoda, you that is?
adrian_b 6mo ago
English can be read in a different order than the normal order when the sentences contain words for which it is easy to guess whether they are agents or patients, e.g. when the agents are animate nouns and the patients are inanimate nouns, or when pronouns are used for the agents or patients. Otherwise, the non-standard order can be understood incorrectly. While the distinction between agents and patients is the most important that depends on word order in English, there are also other order-dependent distinctions, e.g. between beneficiary and patient, when the beneficiary is not marked by a preposition, or between a noun and its attribute, e.g. "police dog" is not the same as "dog police" and unless there is a detailed context you cannot know what is meant when the word order is wrong. English is one of the languages with the most rigid word order. There are languages, especially among older languages, where almost any word order can be used without causing ambiguities, because all the possible roles of the words are marked by prepositions, postpositions or affixes (or sometimes by accentuation shifts).
- einpoklum 6mo ago
  In my example, the RTL reading is indeed a misunderstanding. I even cheated, because it really should have been: > Left to Right English - read can, who? Anyone with [which] impressed am I. and the causation is wrong; instead of the ability being impressive, it's the impressive character than allows reading in the opposite order. So, you're right, and now I'll wait for the dog police to come pick me up.

jlongman 6mo ago

You might like https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boustrophedon https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boustrophedon

amulyabaral 6mo ago
Whoa! TIL! I struggled a bit to read this style at first, but felt it get easier after a few tries.