Garden-path sentences

(en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garden-path_sentence)

If you can understand the sentences in the list below, congrats! You're great at English! Most natives have to read them twice or thrice or ten times before they get it.

Here's where encoding spoken language in written form really breaks down, beyond just the usual failure to encode sounds faithfully. In these examples, it would be really important to write out the length of delay between words and which words are said with stress or intonation. It's easier to understand when spoken out loud.

• "The old man the boat."
• "The horse raced past the barn fell."
• "Time flies like an arrow; fruit flies like a banana."
• "The complex houses married single soldiers and their families."

See explanations below. But first, try to understand for yourself!

…

Explanations:

• "The old man the boat."
  • the old people are manning the boat
• "The horse raced past the barn fell."
  • You know the horse that was made to race past the barn? Yeah, that horse, it fell down.
• "Time flies like an arrow; fruit flies like a banana."
  • this is a pointless sentence meant to confuse you, but it says that time passes fast, and also, that fruit flies enjoy bananas
• "The complex houses married single soldiers and their families."
  • i.e. there are married soldiers living in the apartment complex (or in some other type of building that can be called a 'complex'), and they are living there together with their families, and there are not multiple soldiers and families per apartment but only one (thus 'single')

What links here

• 2023-10-23
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