Confusing headlines and other trips down the garden path

linguoboy · Post by **linguoboy** » Mon Feb 24, 2014 3:31 pm

Cameron Diaz Encourages Women to Keep Their Pubic Hair in Her New Book

KathTheDragon · Post by **KathTheDragon** » Mon Feb 24, 2014 5:10 pm

That's a good one!

din · Post by **din** » Wed Feb 26, 2014 2:15 pm

There's no better place! My mom always puts leaves and flowers in big books that are rarely read. Why not preserve your pubes for posterity?

Kereb · Post by **Kereb** » Wed Feb 26, 2014 4:26 pm

din wrote:posterity

inb4 shm jay

linguoboy · Post by **linguoboy** » Fri Feb 28, 2014 1:51 pm

Bitcoin exchange files for bankruptcy

Somehow I managed to read this as "An entity named 'Bitcoin' gave someone some files in exchange for bankruptcy."

KathTheDragon · Post by **KathTheDragon** » Fri Feb 28, 2014 1:54 pm

I did that too.

jal · Post by **jal** » Wed Mar 19, 2014 3:42 am

Multiple paths from here:

"The founder’s wife discussed in the media reports has never had hiring or firing power at GitHub and will no longer be permitted in the office"

1) Interpreted "founder's" as "founder is", as "founder" was the topic
2) Thought that the founder's wife had "discussed [something] in the media", while instead she was discussed
3) While backtracking after "reports" made the reading "discussed in the media" impossible, assumed the wife discussed in the media reported something

JAL

Risla · Post by **Risla** » Mon Mar 31, 2014 2:33 am

Parents who starve children of love face jail

It took me a few seconds to figure out that this isn't about people depriving their lovechildren of food.

Kereb · Post by **Kereb** » Tue Apr 01, 2014 2:58 am

you love face jail!

linguoboy · Post by **linguoboy** » Tue Apr 01, 2014 3:15 pm

Courtesy of Language Log, the first crash blossom of the 2014 baseball season: Mets Blow a Save and Fan 18 Times in Opening Loss.

[For those confused as to the intended meaning, "fan" is sports jargon for "strike out".]

Risla · Post by **Risla** » Thu Apr 24, 2014 8:04 pm

Just swooping in to bring up this one: Police make Syria appeal to UK women.

Salmoneus · Post by **Salmoneus** » Fri Apr 25, 2014 10:33 am

Damnit, I saw that one but didn't spot the double meaning until you mentioned it.

This one confused me, though:
Scot already in Spurs' bad books over TWO red cards and a pair of separate nasty fouls on Bale crocked the Brazilian in December

Turns out it's "[the] Scot crocked the Brazilian in December" with a large and confusing unindicated relative clause thrust up into the middle.

din · Post by **din** » Sun Apr 27, 2014 6:31 pm

I still have no idea what's going on.

jal · Post by **jal** » Mon Apr 28, 2014 4:10 am

Risla wrote:Just swooping in to bring up this one: Police make Syria appeal to UK women.

The editors caught it too. It now reads "Police make Syria plea to UK Muslim women". Which is still a bit odd.

JAL

jal · Post by **jal** » Mon Apr 28, 2014 4:14 am

Salmoneus wrote:Scot already in Spurs' bad books over TWO red cards and a pair of separate nasty fouls on Bale crocked the Brazilian in December
Turns out it's "[the] Scot crocked the Brazilian in December" with a large and confusing unindicated relative clause thrust up into the middle.

For the non-Brits (and especially the Americans): "crocked" doesn't mean "to be intoxicated", but is a transitive verb meaning "to injure". I didn't have much trouble with the sentence though.

JAL

Salmoneus · Post by **Salmoneus** » Mon Apr 28, 2014 7:09 am

Specifically "to render unfit to play". Somebody who is crocked either can't be picked for a competition, or is picked but turns out to be massively below-par due to an injury (although I think I've also seen it used wrt mental injuries). Normally it's just found as an adjective describing the injuried party.

din · Post by **din** » Tue Apr 29, 2014 6:21 am

I see. I still had to reread it 5 times before I got it.

jal · Post by **jal** » Wed Apr 30, 2014 3:23 am

din wrote:I see. I still had to reread it 5 times before I got it.

Well, the "already" automatically triggers a subordinate clause, and the whole run from "already" to "Bale" has no garden path possibility, I think? And even without knowing what "crocked" means, it's clearly the main verb as "on" renders it the reading "Bale crocked" impossible.

JAL

Kereb · Post by **Kereb** » Thu May 01, 2014 4:56 pm

jal wrote:Well, the "already" automatically triggers a subordinate clause, and the whole run from "already" to "Bale" has no garden path possibility, I think?

confusion arises because "already" doesn't necessarily trigger a subordinate clause here. remember this is Headline Register, in which dropped copulas are common; by the time you've assumed "(the) Scot (is) already in Spurs' bad books..." you're off in the wrong direction

Post by **zompist** » Thu May 01, 2014 6:03 pm

Toronto Mayor Rob Ford Suspends Campaign to Seek Help

KathTheDragon · Post by **KathTheDragon** » Thu May 01, 2014 6:20 pm

Where's the other meaning in that one? All I can get is that Rob Ford, the mayor of Toronto, suspended a campaign.

Matrix · Post by **Matrix** » Thu May 01, 2014 6:35 pm

He's either suspending a campaign so that he can get some help, or he is suspending a campaign intended to get help.

Salmoneus · Post by **Salmoneus** » Fri May 02, 2014 7:34 am

"War between two axes"

---- · Post by **----** » Fri May 02, 2014 10:26 am

Man, that one's really good because even the misreading makes sense.

KathTheDragon · Post by **KathTheDragon** » Fri May 02, 2014 11:09 am

Is 'axes' meant to be a verb? That's the only way I can make it make sense, but even then, it still doesn't seem right.

zompist bboard

Confusing headlines and other trips down the garden path

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