crash blossom in main NYT article

[Laurence Horn]

I forget what the front page extreme right piece is called, but today's is a minor crash blossom inviting misparsing (and succeeding in my case) although not a major misinterpretation:

"Confident Syria Used Chemicals, U.S. Mulls Action"

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/26/world/middleeast/syria-says-un-will-get-access-to-site-of-possible-chemical-attack.html

I processed the first part of this not as a modifying relative clause, but rather as the main clause, i.e. attributing the confidence to Syria rather than to the mulling Americans.

LH

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