| T.R | Title | User | Personal
Name | Date | Lines |
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| 284.1 | | BEING::POSTPISCHIL | Always mount a scratch monkey. | Tue Dec 09 1986 20:29 | 25 |
| <<< UCOUNT::DISK$USER01:[NOTES$LIBRARY]JOYOFLEX.NOTE;1 >>>
-< The Joy of Lex >-
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Note 136.0 Down the Garden Path 11 replies
GNUVAX::BKETTLER 18 lines 9-JAN-1986 12:59
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The horse raced past the barn fell.
The above sentence is perfectly grammatical. It just has to be read correctly.
Sentences like the above are known in linguistic terminology as "Garden Path"
sentences since they lead the reader down the wrong path. When the reader
reaches the end of the sentence he/she typically goes "Huh?" at the unexpected
word(s) at the end.
Can anybody think of other "Garden Path" sentences?
/brian
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| 284.2 | | FDCV01::BEAIRSTO | | Wed Dec 10 1986 09:19 | 13 |
| Do you want ambiguity, like
"He broke the window with his little sister."
Or would you prefer flat-out impossibility"
"Colorless green stones sleep furiously."
Or something that makes perfect sense (eventually),
"The cow the girl the boy kissed milked was brown."
Rob (who writes this way without even trying to, sometimes)
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| 284.3 | | GOBLIN::MCVAY | Pete McVay, VRO (Telecomm) | Wed Dec 10 1986 10:08 | 2 |
| Everyone was surprised by the shooting of the Ambassador because
he was such an excellent marksman.
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| 284.4 | Noam who? | HOMBRE::CONLIFFE | Store in a horizontal position | Wed Dec 10 1986 14:20 | 5 |
| (one from the early days of NL processing)
"I saw the Grand Canyon flying to New York"
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| 284.5 | Sorta | INK::KALLIS | Support Hallowe'en | Wed Dec 10 1986 16:18 | 6 |
| Jerry Lewis had one he liked, which I will paraphrase slightly:
Up the street, the soldiers are coming down.
Steve Kallis, Jr.
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| 284.6 | moe? | BUCKY::MPALMER | De Mortuis nil nisi bonum. | Mon Dec 15 1986 17:36 | 14 |
| re: .2: what I was hoping for was humor! With the keen wits
in this file, it should be possible to develop "garden path"
constructions into a separate kind of joke - more difficult
than with, say, Tom Swifties (see #255). #136 was more a
discussion of their characteristics.
re: .4 Pretty funny. And I saw the statue of liberty on a boat
to Iran....
MP
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| 284.7 | | DECWET::SHUSTER | Writers on the storm... | Mon Dec 15 1986 18:45 | 3 |
| He picked up the check that bounced off the floor.
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| 284.8 | Title goes here | TOPDOC::SLOANE | | Tue Dec 16 1986 09:48 | 9 |
| "What's that coming down the road ahead?"
"And just who do you think you are, anyhow?"
[Somewhat off the track -] Moses tied his ass to a tree and went
into the house.
-bs
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| 284.9 | Did he really leave his behind? | APTECH::RSTONE | | Wed Dec 17 1986 09:55 | 4 |
| Re: .8
I heard that Moses tied his ass to a tree then walked into town.
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| 284.10 | Moses supposes? | TOPDOC::SLOANE | | Wed Dec 17 1986 10:15 | 8 |
| Sorry about Moses - it sounds like he's a hard ass.
Then there's the fellow who came running out of the woods with a
bear behind.
(I think I first heard that in the 3rd grade.)
-bs
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| 284.11 | The hurrier I go the behinder I get! | APTECH::RSTONE | | Wed Dec 17 1986 10:30 | 4 |
| Sounds similar to the secretary who made a practise of sitting on
her boss's desk while taking dictation. He frequently got a little
behind on his work.
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| 284.12 | Yes, I mean, no | KBOV07::TINIUS | Kaufbeuren, Germany | Tue Dec 23 1986 16:18 | 5 |
|
Watcha got on, your mind?
Stephen
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| 284.13 | | TKOV52::DIAMOND | | Wed Feb 21 1990 07:49 | 8 |
| He has to eat now or to sleep first as options.
It sounds a little better if ambiguity is accepted:
That is all the food he has to eat.
Up a slightly divergent garden path, here is one of my favorites
from "MASH":
I loved a girl in San Francisco once.... No, twice!
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