Confusing headlines and other trips down the garden path

Travis B. · Post by **Travis B.** » Thu Mar 01, 2018 7:09 pm

Maybe in the sense of "induce someone else to make pornography". That's the only meaning that makes any sense to me.

mèþru · Post by **mèþru** » Thu Mar 01, 2018 7:14 pm

Like asking someone to send nudes or something?

Travis B. · Post by **Travis B.** » Thu Mar 01, 2018 8:17 pm

mèþru wrote:Like asking someone to send nudes or something?

That would be one example; another would be simply paying someone to make porn.

kanejam · Post by **kanejam** » Thu Mar 01, 2018 9:45 pm

Travis B. wrote:
mèþru wrote:Like asking someone to send nudes or something?
That would be one example; another would be simply paying someone to make porn.

And if you do so in a violent message where the lil chiddrens might see then you go to jail.

From the NZ Herald: Burning prison love forces Corrections to send in the riot squad. It's clear from the article, but it took me a couple of goes to work out what that 'love' was doing there.

linguoboy · Post by **linguoboy** » Fri Mar 02, 2018 4:21 pm

From the most recent issue of the Economist: "Few of the prominent organisations that help veterans think the VA health system requires a radical restructuring."

alynnidalar · Post by **alynnidalar** » Fri Mar 02, 2018 8:50 pm

Had to read this headline three or four times before I parsed it correctly: "This Video Of Trump Hustling Onto Air Force One Before Melania Is Making Twitter Lose It"

linguoboy · Post by **linguoboy** » Thu Mar 08, 2018 9:44 pm

I'm not sure if this is a gardenpath as much as just incomprehensibility caused by poor word choice:
New Research Suggests Social Issues are Down to Neurotypicals more than Autistics

KathTheDragon · Post by **KathTheDragon** » Thu Mar 08, 2018 10:31 pm

What's so incomprehensible about that one?

linguoboy · Post by **linguoboy** » Thu Mar 08, 2018 11:08 pm

KathTheDragon wrote:What's so incomprehensible about that one?

What do you think it says?

jal · Post by **jal** » Fri Mar 09, 2018 4:12 am

linguoboy wrote:What do you think it says?

Without checking the article, I would guess that social issues are caused by non-autistic people more often than by autistic people, or the like.

JAL

KathTheDragon · Post by **KathTheDragon** » Fri Mar 09, 2018 9:01 am

What Jal said.

Travis B. · Post by **Travis B.** » Fri Mar 09, 2018 12:35 pm

I read it how jal did as well.

linguoboy · Post by **linguoboy** » Fri Mar 09, 2018 12:47 pm

I don't recall ever seeing that use of down to in a headline before. It's a very colloquial usage. Until now I've only seen it in sports and entertainment news when talking about elimination contests, e.g. It's down to two. Prior Lake's Becca in finals on 'The Bachelor'.

On top of that, it's a very unusual use of "social issues" for a headline. Normally this means things like poverty, crime, and homelessness, not miscommunication and rudeness.

Put those two background assumptions together and the whole thing literally made no sense to me.

jal · Post by **jal** » Wed Mar 14, 2018 5:17 am

"Nearly every second runner complains about orthopedic problems while running"

I parsed "nearly every second" as a PP and got stuck afterwards.

JAL

Vijay · Post by **Vijay** » Wed Mar 14, 2018 7:24 am

Hmm, you mean an AdvP or something? Nearly isn't a preposition.

jal · Post by **jal** » Wed Mar 14, 2018 10:19 am

Vijay wrote:Hmm, you mean an AdvP or something? Nearly isn't a preposition.

Mmm, I'm bad in syntax :). I assumed a headless PP (if that's a thing), since "nearly every second" feels like a PP of time ("at nearly every second"), butI probably analyse it wrong. Anyway, it doesn't make it any less garden pathy :).

JAL

linguoboy · Post by **linguoboy** » Wed Mar 14, 2018 10:57 am

jal wrote:
Vijay wrote:Hmm, you mean an AdvP or something? Nearly isn't a preposition.
Mmm, I'm bad in syntax . I assumed a headless PP (if that's a thing), since "nearly every second" feels like a PP of time ("at nearly every second"), but I probably analyse it wrong.

"At nearly every second" is unidiomatic IMD. This feels like someone trying to shoehorn a perfectly normal construction (i.e. an NP being used as an adverbial adjunct of time) into a predetermined framework (only prepositional phrases can be adverbial adjuncts of time!).

This isn't really a garden path, just a funny noun pile-up: Pritzker's secret offshore holdings revealed in Chicago duck boat land deal (Chicago Tribune).

jal · Post by **jal** » Wed Mar 14, 2018 11:53 am

linguoboy wrote:"At nearly every second" is unidiomatic IMD.

Yes, I agree, I was just doing the shoehorning to make my point :).

adverbial adjunct of time

That would be the right term, yeah :).

JAL

Salmoneus · Post by **Salmoneus** » Fri Mar 16, 2018 7:43 am

Vatican doctors letter about Pope Francis
I know, it's my fault, but I did at first miss the lack of apostrophe. Which made the follow up, Pope Francis: Vatican doctors letter by Pope Benedict even more puzzling.

In other typo news, regarding the bridge collapse, the university was reported as having said that its focus was building bridge and student safety. It amused me when I realised this was a typo: what they actually said was that their focus was on building bridges and student safety - how the entire structure changes with one letter! Likewise, the hypothetical building, bridge and student safety and building, bridges and student safety. Why reporters should take more care over the details...

Soap · Post by **Soap** » Fri Mar 16, 2018 12:34 pm

Those are good. I misread the Vatican headline even without the apostrophe since it would still be acceptable in headline-ese.
÷÷÷÷÷
This is the second time the former presidential candidate has injured herself on her India after slipping on steps at a 13th century harem
I know harem can be a place but it's still wrong in the middle. Someone was in a hurry.

linguoboy · Post by **linguoboy** » Sun Mar 18, 2018 9:21 am

Big Money As Private Immigrant Jails Boom (NPR)

Raphael · Post by **Raphael** » Sun Mar 18, 2018 11:24 am

Found this on Twitter.

hwhatting · Post by **hwhatting** » Mon Mar 19, 2018 1:35 pm

Raphael wrote:Found this on Twitter.

Priceless.

kanejam · Post by **kanejam** » Sun Mar 25, 2018 6:38 pm

Closing various fisheries to set nets to protect dolphins encouraged

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

Salmoneus · Post by **Salmoneus** » Sun Mar 25, 2018 7:45 pm

linguoboy wrote:Big Money As Private Immigrant Jails Boom (NPR)

Brilliant.

Kanejam: doesn't that just mean what it says? It's ungainly, admittedly, but it seems straightforward?

zompist bboard

Confusing headlines and other trips down the garden path

Re: Confusing headlines and other trips down the garden path

Re: Confusing headlines and other trips down the garden path

Re: Confusing headlines and other trips down the garden path

Re: Confusing headlines and other trips down the garden path

Re: Confusing headlines and other trips down the garden path

Re: Confusing headlines and other trips down the garden path

Re: Confusing headlines and other trips down the garden path

Re: Confusing headlines and other trips down the garden path

Re: Confusing headlines and other trips down the garden path

Re: Confusing headlines and other trips down the garden path

Re: Confusing headlines and other trips down the garden path

Re: Confusing headlines and other trips down the garden path

Re: Confusing headlines and other trips down the garden path

Re: Confusing headlines and other trips down the garden path

Re: Confusing headlines and other trips down the garden path

Re: Confusing headlines and other trips down the garden path

Re: Confusing headlines and other trips down the garden path

Re: Confusing headlines and other trips down the garden path

Re: Confusing headlines and other trips down the garden path

Re: Confusing headlines and other trips down the garden path

Re: Confusing headlines and other trips down the garden path

Re: Confusing headlines and other trips down the garden path

Re: Confusing headlines and other trips down the garden path

Re: Confusing headlines and other trips down the garden path

Re: Confusing headlines and other trips down the garden path