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Classroom Activities:
Word Funs for
English Classrooms:
Ambiguities
Ambiguity & Garden Path Sentences
If a
sentence is ambiguous, it can have more than one meaning.
There are many types of ambiguity. For example, in the
following sentence the word bank could mean the edge of a
river, or a financial institution:
John went to the bank.
This
is called lexical ambiguity because it is the result of one
of the words having more than one possible meaning. This
next sentence is syntactically ambiguous (the syntax, or
grammar, can be understood in more than one way):
Put
the box on the table in the kitchen.
Is the
box already on the table, and to be put in the kitchen? Or
is the box to be put on the table which is in the kitchen?
From the sentence alone we cannot tell.
Try
reading the following sentences. They are called garden path
sentences because they are easily misunderstood (they lead
you down the garden path) even though they are all
grammatical! Don't worry if some of these sentences seem
like nonsense at first (you have been garden pathed); they
will be explained below.
The
prime number few.
Fat
people eat accumulates.
The
cotton clothing is usually made of grows in Mississippi.
Until
the police arrest the drug dealers control the street.
The
man who hunts ducks out on weekends.
When
Fred eats food gets thrown.
Mary
gave the child the dog bit a bandaid.
The
girl told the story cried.
I
convinced her children are noisy.
Helen
is expecting tomorrow to be a bad day.
The
horse raced past the barn fell.
I know
the words to that song about the queen don't rhyme.
She
told me a little white lie will come back to haunt me.
The
dog that I had really loved bones.
That
Jill is never here hurts.
The
man who whistles tunes pianos.
The
old man the boat.
Have
the students who failed the exam take the supplementary.
The
raft floated down the river sank.
We
painted the wall with cracks.
The
tycoon sold the offshore oil tracts for a lot of money
wanted to kill JR.
All of
these sentences are grammatical. Did you understand them
all? Unless you are a linguist who has studied syntax and
garden path sentences, the answer is probably "no".
Here
the sentences are clarified by adding some extra words:
The
prime (people) number few.
(The)
fat (that) people eat accumulates (in their bodies).
The
cotton (that) clothing is usually made of grows in
Mississippi.
Until
the police (make the) arrest, the drug dealers control the
street.
The
man, who hunts (animals), ducks out on weekends.
When
Fred eats (his dinner) food gets thrown.
Mary
gave the child (that) the dog bit a bandaid.
The
girl (who was) told the story, cried.
I
convinced her (that) children are noisy.
Helen
is expecting (for) tomorrow to be a bad day.
The
horse (which was) raced past the barn, fell (down).
I know
(that) the words to that song about the queen don't rhyme.
She
told me (that) a little white lie will come back to haunt
me.
The
dog that I had (as a pet) really loved bones.
(The
fact) that Jill is never here hurts (me).
The
man who whistles (all the time) tunes pianos (for a living).
The
old (people) man the boat.
(Please) have the students who failed the exam take the
supplementary.
The
raft (that was) floated down the river, sank.
We
painted the wall (that was covered) with cracks.
The
tycoon, (who was) sold the offshore oil tracts for a lot of
money, wanted to kill JR.
Notice
that there are two types of ambiguous sentence: either there
is a local ambiguity (one that is cleared up once you have
heard the whole sentence) or it is a global ambiguity (one
that remains even after the entire sentence has been heard).
Garden Path sentences normally have local ambiguity.
Locally ambiguous: The old train...
"Train" could be a noun ("The old train left the station")
or a verb ("The old train the young").
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