Lambda the Ultimate

inactiveTopic ambiguous sentences
started 4/13/2001; 4:41:01 AM - last post 7/9/2001; 5:00:11 AM
Ehud Lamm - ambiguous sentences  blueArrow
4/13/2001; 4:41:01 AM (reads: 1982, responses: 1)
Hi guys,

Programming languages must have well defined unambiguous semantics. Human languages are different and have ambiguities. To explain this fact I am looking for nice and funny examples of ambiguous sentences. Any favorites?

Biep - Re: ambiguous sentences  blueArrow
7/9/2001; 5:00:11 AM (reads: 2099, responses: 0)
Well, there is of course the favourite "Time flies like an arrow", which has five parsings.

Another thing you might want to look into is garden path sentences, such as "The old man the boat", or "The horce raced past the barn fell", which at first signt seem to have NO parsing.

"My nose runs and my feet smell" - "Then you are built the wrong way 'round."

"My dog has no nose" - " So how does it smell?" - "Awful!"

"Outside of a dog, a book is a man's best friend. Inside a dog it's too dark to read."

"A man eating hamburger and a man eating shark"

Sentence-final PP's are often ambiguous, as it is unclear to which NP the PP connects: "I saw a man with my binoculars, but I was too late to overtake him and ask them back."