The quick brown fox

[Robert A. Rothstein]

On 3/28/2011 12:46 PM, Stephanie Briggs wrote:
> Does it really have to make sense?
>
> After all, in another case of linguistic trickery, there is the phrase "the
> horse raced past the barn fell" and that definitely doesn't make any sense.
> It's not supposed to.
>
It does indeed make sense: The horse [that someone] raced past the barn 
fell. It's an example of a so-called "garden-path sentence," i.e., one 
where you're led down the garden path of reading the beginning one way 
until you get to the end and see that your initial reading was 
incorrect. Cf. "The man whistling tunes pianos" or "The Eskimos can fish 
in a new factory three miles from the sea" or "Fat people eat accumulates."

Bob Rothstein

-------------------------------------------------------------------------
 Use your web browser to search the archives, control your subscription
  options, and more.  Visit and bookmark the SEELANGS Web Interface at:
                    http://seelangs.home.comcast.net/
-------------------------------------------------------------------------