Confusing headlines and other trips down the garden path
Re: Confusing headlines and other trips down the garden path
Nevermind, I get it. It's disambiguated by context in the second sentence though.
ìtsanso, God In The Mountain, may our names inspire the deepest feelings of fear in urkos and all his ilk, for we have saved another man from his lies! I welcome back to the feast hall kal, who will never gamble again! May the eleven gods bless him!
kårroť
kårroť
Re: Confusing headlines and other trips down the garden path
Of course. But then so are headlines and stuff.
Re: Confusing headlines and other trips down the garden path
From the Guardian:
"Most Conservative MPs don't want Hammond sacked, says ex-minister"
"Most Conservative MPs don't want Hammond sacked, says ex-minister"
- KathTheDragon
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Re: Confusing headlines and other trips down the garden path
What's wrong with that one?
Re: Confusing headlines and other trips down the garden path
Maybe it's because someone who's no longer a minister is talking about what the current ministers don't want? But then if that's a problem, that would seem to be more a conceptual problem than with the headline itself anyway.
Re: Confusing headlines and other trips down the garden path
Not completely clear whether it's referring to most of the conservative MPs, or the most conservative ones among the MPs.KathTheDragon wrote:What's wrong with that one?
Re: Confusing headlines and other trips down the garden path
I immediately interpreted it as the first one. I don't think I've ever seen news media categorize people as "most conservative" before. Also, if it did mean that, then I wouldn't expect to see "Conservative" capitalized; I assume that refers to people within a political party rather than people who are more or less conservative in ideology.
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Re: Confusing headlines and other trips down the garden path
Yes, "Conservative" with a capital C is the Tory party, so it can only be interpreted as "most of the Tory MPs"
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Re: Confusing headlines and other trips down the garden path
In 1935, The Observer (a newspaper) ran a competition, based on its observation that the language of headlines (then called "captions") was becoming weird. Some entries sent in by readers include:
France Orders Two Comets ("not to be taken in an astronomical sense")
Peace Talks: 80,000 Ethiopian Troops Ready (not exactly a misparsing, but at least suggesting some important information has been elided from the headline)
The British Press Back Germans
Three States Hit By Blizzards: One Missing
The first two are cited (the Telegraph), but sadly the brilliant second pair don't mention the source, and may be apocryphal.
France Orders Two Comets ("not to be taken in an astronomical sense")
Peace Talks: 80,000 Ethiopian Troops Ready (not exactly a misparsing, but at least suggesting some important information has been elided from the headline)
The British Press Back Germans
Three States Hit By Blizzards: One Missing
The first two are cited (the Telegraph), but sadly the brilliant second pair don't mention the source, and may be apocryphal.
Blog: [url]http://vacuouswastrel.wordpress.com/[/url]
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!
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!
Re: Confusing headlines and other trips down the garden path
Couldn't "peace talks" in the second headline also be parsed as a complete sentence?
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Re: Confusing headlines and other trips down the garden path
From this very forum: A good friend at work is seeing a longstanding crush bear fruit
I wasn't concentrating, and it it seemed like a normal sentence at first and then suddenly what the hell is going on.
I wasn't concentrating, and it it seemed like a normal sentence at first and then suddenly what the hell is going on.
Blog: [url]http://vacuouswastrel.wordpress.com/[/url]
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!
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!
Re: Confusing headlines and other trips down the garden path
Why would France have ordered a Comet in 1935 is my question.
(The first Comet flew in 1949 if you were wondering.)
(The first Comet flew in 1949 if you were wondering.)
Dibotahamdn duthma jallni agaynni ra hgitn lakrhmi.
Amuhawr jalla vowa vta hlakrhi hdm duthmi xaja.
Irdro. Irdro. Irdro. Irdro. Irdro. Irdro. Irdro.
Amuhawr jalla vowa vta hlakrhi hdm duthmi xaja.
Irdro. Irdro. Irdro. Irdro. Irdro. Irdro. Irdro.
Re: Confusing headlines and other trips down the garden path
Fruit of the crush bear?Salmoneus wrote:From this very forum: A good friend at work is seeing a longstanding crush bear fruit
I wasn't concentrating, and it it seemed like a normal sentence at first and then suddenly what the hell is going on.
JAL
Re: Confusing headlines and other trips down the garden path
I was wondering about that, too. At first, especially considering the author of that quote, I thought he was saying something about a hairy gay man producing fruit.jal wrote:Fruit of the crush bear?Salmoneus wrote:From this very forum: A good friend at work is seeing a longstanding crush bear fruit
I wasn't concentrating, and it it seemed like a normal sentence at first and then suddenly what the hell is going on.
JAL
Re: Confusing headlines and other trips down the garden path
Or who is a fruit?Vijay wrote:I was wondering about that, too. At first, especially considering the author of that quote, I thought he was saying something about a hairy gay man producing fruit.
So many possibilities.
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Re: Confusing headlines and other trips down the garden path
Exactly: the last three words are all both nouns and verbs, and the one least commonly found as a noun ('crush') is meant to be a noun, while the one least commonly found as a verb ('bear' - well, ok, 'bear' and 'fruit' are both relately uncommon as verbs) is actually meant to be a verb. And all three are relatively specialised words that aren't normally seen in the same contexts.
Meanwhile, just to add to the oddness, the preantepenultimate word, "longstanding" is not a noun, but does have a form that would enable interpretation as a noun (or a verb, for that matter). And come to think of it probably is a noun sometimes (someone must use that as the description of the object of a relationship or the like, surely? Their "longstanding (crush, boyfriend, etc)".
Meanwhile, just to add to the oddness, the preantepenultimate word, "longstanding" is not a noun, but does have a form that would enable interpretation as a noun (or a verb, for that matter). And come to think of it probably is a noun sometimes (someone must use that as the description of the object of a relationship or the like, surely? Their "longstanding (crush, boyfriend, etc)".
Blog: [url]http://vacuouswastrel.wordpress.com/[/url]
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!
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!
Re: Confusing headlines and other trips down the garden path
He's a fruit who's a bear you've had a longstanding crush on.linguoboy wrote:Or who is a fruit?Vijay wrote:I was wondering about that, too. At first, especially considering the author of that quote, I thought he was saying something about a hairy gay man producing fruit.
So many possibilities.
Re: Confusing headlines and other trips down the garden path
From Yahoo News:
"Russian helicopter crashes at sea in Arctic, 8 aboard: Norway"
In itself, that wouldn't be a candidate for this thread, but when I first saw it, I somehow overlooked the number 8, so to me it looked like it just said "aboard: Norway".
"Russian helicopter crashes at sea in Arctic, 8 aboard: Norway"
In itself, that wouldn't be a candidate for this thread, but when I first saw it, I somehow overlooked the number 8, so to me it looked like it just said "aboard: Norway".
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Re: Confusing headlines and other trips down the garden path
Not sure where the ambiguity is in that one?
Not a headline, but from a BBC sports feed: Lewis Hamilton is complaining of cuts to his team on the radio
Not a headline, but from a BBC sports feed: Lewis Hamilton is complaining of cuts to his team on the radio
Blog: [url]http://vacuouswastrel.wordpress.com/[/url]
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!
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!
Re: Confusing headlines and other trips down the garden path
Not really ambiguous per se, just confusing (how could a dinosaur realistically have anything to do with a bandit mask?)Salmoneus wrote:Not sure where the ambiguity is in that one?
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Re: Confusing headlines and other trips down the garden path
Well, birds often have them, and birds are just a type of dinosaur, so it's not so surprising that extinct dinosaurs would have them too.
The continuing adventures of BBC online commentators - this one garden-pathed me twice:
That left-hander Max Verstappen kept making a mess off in final practice - we said if he hooked it up there would be time to come and that was a very good lap and he has laid down the gauntlet
The continuing adventures of BBC online commentators - this one garden-pathed me twice:
That left-hander Max Verstappen kept making a mess off in final practice - we said if he hooked it up there would be time to come and that was a very good lap and he has laid down the gauntlet
Blog: [url]http://vacuouswastrel.wordpress.com/[/url]
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!
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!
Re: Confusing headlines and other trips down the garden path
It's not that having plumage around the eyes that happens to resemble a bandit mask is surprising to me; it's that it's confusing to me to say just that some dinosaur had a bandit mask, even if "bandit mask" is surrounded by scare quotes, without any further qualification. Until I started reading the article, I had no idea what that actually was supposed to mean. You could give me any number of possible explanations for what it meant, and I'd believe you. You could tell me it was a facial disfiguration. You could tell me it was an optical illusion. You could tell me some bandit just happened to have a mask that resembled the face of some particular dinosaur. You could tell me there was mud on some dinosaur fossil that happened to look like a bandit's face mask.Salmoneus wrote:Well, birds often have them, and birds are just a type of dinosaur, so it's not so surprising that extinct dinosaurs would have them too.
Re: Confusing headlines and other trips down the garden path
Students get first hand job experience (Pratt[*] Tribune)
[*] Community paper for Pratt, Kansas, lest anyone think this is fake.
[*] Community paper for Pratt, Kansas, lest anyone think this is fake.
Re: Confusing headlines and other trips down the garden path
It kinda trended on Twitter :). More of a typo tough :).linguoboy wrote:Students get first hand job experience
JAL