Confusing headlines and other trips down the garden path

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alynnidalar
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Re: Confusing headlines and other trips down the garden path

Post by alynnidalar »

kanejam wrote:Closing various fisheries to set nets to protect dolphins encouraged

I don't even know what's going on there.
I'm going to guess...

It is encouraged for various fisheries to limit/prevent/be closed to "set nets", and this will protect dolphins. (where a "set net" is a certain type of fishing net)

That's a doozy, though...
I generally forget to say, so if it's relevant and I don't mention it--I'm from Southern Michigan and speak Inland North American English. Yes, I have the Northern Cities Vowel Shift; no, I don't have the cot-caught merger; and it is called pop.

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Re: Confusing headlines and other trips down the garden path

Post by Vijay »

Maybe they're recommending closing fisheries to put out nets that would somehow help protect dolphins?

EDIT: Nope, never mind. Apparently, you're right!

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kanejam
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Re: Confusing headlines and other trips down the garden path

Post by kanejam »

Ah, I didn't get the 'closing to' reading and couldn't parse it. It's still pretty ugly.
If you cannot change your mind, are you sure you have one?

Here's a thread on Oscan.

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Re: Confusing headlines and other trips down the garden path

Post by Salmoneus »

Oh OK, I guess there is an ambiguity there between [closing to] [set nets] and [closing] [to [set nets]]...
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Re: Confusing headlines and other trips down the garden path

Post by Vijay »

Also, "set" can be a verb...

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Re: Confusing headlines and other trips down the garden path

Post by alynnidalar »

Wall Street Journal headline this morning: "New York Fed Eyes Its New Leader"

I initially read it as "New York fed eyes [to] its new leader" and was deeply concerned...
I generally forget to say, so if it's relevant and I don't mention it--I'm from Southern Michigan and speak Inland North American English. Yes, I have the Northern Cities Vowel Shift; no, I don't have the cot-caught merger; and it is called pop.

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Re: Confusing headlines and other trips down the garden path

Post by Vijay »

Omg, so did I! :D

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Re: Confusing headlines and other trips down the garden path

Post by Salmoneus »

alynnidalar wrote:Wall Street Journal headline this morning: "New York Fed Eyes Its New Leader"

I initially read it as "New York fed eyes [to] its new leader" and was deeply concerned...
Whereas actually it's saying that New York fed its new leader to some terrifying carnivorous eyes.

vijay: yes, that's what my brackets were trying to indicate.
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But the river tripped on her by and by, lapping
as though her heart was brook: Why, why, why! Weh, O weh
I'se so silly to be flowing but I no canna stay!

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Re: Confusing headlines and other trips down the garden path

Post by Vijay »

Ah, OK. :)

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Re: Confusing headlines and other trips down the garden path

Post by Salmoneus »

US cop sacked for shooting dead black man
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But the river tripped on her by and by, lapping
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I'se so silly to be flowing but I no canna stay!

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Re: Confusing headlines and other trips down the garden path

Post by Vijay »

OK, why's that one ambiguous or confusing? Because of who did the shooting?

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Re: Confusing headlines and other trips down the garden path

Post by KathTheDragon »

[shooting dead] [black man] vs. [shooting] [dead black man]

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Re: Confusing headlines and other trips down the garden path

Post by Salmoneus »

Exactly. And when I originally saw it, it was actually arranged as:
US cop sacked for shooting
dead black man


Which emphasises the wrong construction. Although it's also the syntactically normal construction: if you see the headline "man paints blue house", you assume that the house begins blue, rather than ends up blue.

[there's also of course an ambiguity with "shooting", as the syntactic object can be the target ("cop shoots black man"), the projectile ("machine shoots tennis balls"), or often the weapon ("child shoots machinegun"), though the pedants would prefer "fire" for the third option there]
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I'se so silly to be flowing but I no canna stay!

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Re: Confusing headlines and other trips down the garden path

Post by Vijay »

I'm still more confused by the confusion than I am by the headline. I still don't get it. :P I'll try thinking about it later, though.

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Re: Confusing headlines and other trips down the garden path

Post by jal »

Vijay wrote:I'm still more confused by the confusion than I am by the headline. I still don't get it.
Sure you get it. Either the police shot a man that was already dead (i.e. fired bullets in a corpse), or they shot a man that was still alive, killing him ("they shot him dead").


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Re: Confusing headlines and other trips down the garden path

Post by Vijay »

Ah, OK, now I get it! Thanks! :)

EDIT: I think the way I intuitively read that headline is actually different from both of those interpretations, i.e. there is a black man who is now dead, a cop shot him, and now the cop has been sacked, regardless of whether the cop shot him before or after he died.

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Re: Confusing headlines and other trips down the garden path

Post by jal »

Vijay wrote:EDIT: I think the way I intuitively read that headline is actually different from both of those interpretations, i.e. there is a black man who is now dead, a cop shot him, and now the cop has been sacked, regardless of whether the cop shot him before or after he died.
You're right, that's a third interpretation!


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Re: Confusing headlines and other trips down the garden path

Post by Travis B. »

This one is prone to misinterpretation because for resultatives in English the resultative adjective normally comes after the object, or the resultative adjective is separated from the noun by a determiner.
Dibotahamdn duthma jallni agaynni ra hgitn lakrhmi.
Amuhawr jalla vowa vta hlakrhi hdm duthmi xaja.
Irdro. Irdro. Irdro. Irdro. Irdro. Irdro. Irdro.

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Re: Confusing headlines and other trips down the garden path

Post by linguoboy »

Sinclair Broadcasting under fire for fake news script (Salon)

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Re: Confusing headlines and other trips down the garden path

Post by Qwynegold »

Not a headline, but something that really confused me:

www.goodseattickets.com

First I read it as "goods E at tickets", then as "goods eat tickets". :-D
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Re: Confusing headlines and other trips down the garden path

Post by jal »

There's so much more where that came from :).


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Re: Confusing headlines and other trips down the garden path

Post by linguoboy »

Porn star's attorney alleging Trump affair to offer reward (WaPo)

First three times reading this, it was just word salad.

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Re: Confusing headlines and other trips down the garden path

Post by Vijay »

I feel like that almost is word salad. (Even after starting to read the article).

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Re: Confusing headlines and other trips down the garden path

Post by jal »

Vijay wrote:I feel like that almost is word salad. (Even after starting to read the article).
I think they wanted to avoid "Porn star alleging Trump afair's attorney", which wouldn't be much more comprehensible, but at least would parse right...


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Re: Confusing headlines and other trips down the garden path

Post by Risla »

Hither Green burglar death flowers 'an insult'

Not a garden path, but I was pretty confused about it until I read the article.

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