List of linguistic example sentences

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The following is a partial list of linguistic example sentences illustrating various linguistic phenomena.

Ambiguity

Different types of ambiguity which are possible in language.

Lexical ambiguity

Demonstrations of words which have multiple meanings dependent on context.

• Will, will Will will Will Will's will? – Will (a person), will (future tense auxiliary verb) Will (a second person) will (bequeath) Template:Bracket Will (a third person) Will's (the second person) will (a document)? (Someone asked Will 1 directly if Will 2 plans to bequeath his own will, the document, to Will 3.)<ref name="Han 2015">Template:Cite journal</ref>
• Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo. – Bison (the plural of "buffalos" or "buffalo" is also accepted) from Buffalo, New York, whom bison from Buffalo bully, bully bison from Buffalo.
• Police police Police police police police Police police.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> – Police officers from Police, Poland, whom police officers from Police patrol, patrol police officers from Police.
• Rose rose to put rose roes on her rows of roses. (Robert J. Baran) – Rose [a person] rose [stood] to put rose [pink-colored] roes [fish eggs as fertilizer] on her rows of roses [flower].
• James while John had had had had had had had had had had had a better effect on the teacher<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

|CitationClass=web }}</ref> – With punctuation: "James, while John had had 'had', had had 'had had'. 'Had had' had had a better effect on the teacher", or "James, while John had had 'had had', had had 'had'. 'Had had' had had a better effect on the teacher"

• That that is is that that is not is not is that it it is. – Grammatically corrected as: "That that is, is. That that is not, is not. Is that it? It is".<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
• Can can can can can can can can can can. – "Examples of the can-can dance that other examples of the same dance are able to outshine, or figuratively to put into the trashcan, are themselves able to outshine examples of the same dance". It could alternatively be interpreted as a question, "Is it possible for examples of the dance that have been outshone to outshine others?" or several other ways.
• Martin Gardner offered the example: "Wouldn't the sentence 'I want to put a hyphen between the words Fish and And and And and Chips in my Fish-And-Chips sign' have been clearer if quotation marks had been placed before Fish, and between Fish and and, and and and And, and And and and, and and and And, and And and and, and and and Chips, as well as after Chips?"<ref name="Gardner 2006">Template:Cite book</ref>
• The bears bear hard hard yarn yarns. (Lemony Snicket) – The bears endure tiring and unpleasant long stories about hard yarn.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
• Fish fish fish fish fish. – With nesting clarified: Fish fish (fish that fish fish). Alternatively: Fish (that fish fish) fish fish. <ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
• Foot heads arms body – Foot [name] heads [leads] arms [weapons] body [group of people].<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Syntactic ambiguity

Template:See Demonstrations of ambiguity between alternative syntactic structures underlying a sentence.

• I made her duck.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
• One morning I shot an elephant in my pajamas. How he got in my pajamas, I don't know.<ref name="Fodor Lepore 2004">Template:Cite journal</ref>
• Time flies like an arrow; fruit flies like a banana.
• Eats shoots and leaves

Syntactic ambiguity, incrementality, and local coherence

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Demonstrations of how incremental and (at least partially) local syntactic parsing leads to infelicitous constructions and interpretations.

• Reduced relative clauses
  • The horse raced past the barn fell.
  • The coach smiled at the player tossed the frisbee (by the opposing team).<ref name="Tabor Galantucci Richardson 2004">Template:Cite journal</ref>
  • While the man was hunting the deer ran through the forest.<ref name="Christianson Hollingworth Halliwell Ferreira 2001">Template:Cite journal</ref>
  • The weasel that a boy that startles the cat thinks loves smiles eats.

Scope ambiguity and anaphora resolution

• Every farmer who owns a donkey beats it.<ref name="Barker 1999">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

|CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Embedding

• The rat the cat the dog bit chased escaped.<ref name="Kempen Vosse 1989">Template:Cite journal</ref>
• The editor authors the newspaper hired liked laughed.<ref name="Braine2014">Template:Cite book</ref>
• The man who the boy who the students recognized pointed out is a friend of mine.<ref name="Braine2014"/>

Punctuation

Punctuation can be used to introduce ambiguity or misunderstandings where none needed to exist. One well known example,<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> for comedic effect, is from A Midsummer Night's Dream by William Shakespeare (ignoring the punctuation provides the alternate reading).

Enter QUINCE for the Prologue

Prologue

If we offend, it is with our good will.

That you should think, we come not to offend,

But with good will. To show our simple skill,

That is the true beginning of our end.

Consider then we come but in despite.

We do not come as minding to content you,

Our true intent is. All for your delight

We are not here. That you should here repent you,

The actors are at hand and by their show

You shall know all that you are like to know.

—ACT V, Scene i

Word order

Ending sentence with preposition

Some prescriptive grammar prohibits "preposition stranding": ending sentences with prepositions.<ref name="Huddleston Pullum 2012 627">Template:Cite book</ref>

Avoidance

• This is the sort of English up with which I will not put. (Attributed by Gowers to Winston Churchill. There is no convincing evidence that Churchill said this, and good reason to believe that he did not.)<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

|CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name="Zimmer 2004">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> The sentence "does not demonstrate the absurdity of using Template:Bracket fronting instead of stranding; it merely illustrates the ungrammaticality resulting from fronting something that is not a constituent".<ref name="Huddleston Pullum 2012 629">Template:Cite book</ref><ref name="Pullum 2004">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Compound use

• "A father of a little boy goes upstairs after supper to read to his son, but he brings the wrong book. The boy says, 'What did you bring that book that I don't want to be read to out of up for?Template:'"<ref name="White 2011">Template:Cite book</ref>

Neurolinguistics

Sentences with unexpected endings.

• She spread the bread with socks.<ref name="Kutas Hillyard 1980">Template:Cite journal</ref>

Comparative illusion:

• More people have been to Russia than I have.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

Combinatorial complexity

Demonstrations of sentences which are unlikely to have ever been said, although the combinatorial complexity of the linguistic system makes them possible.

• Colorless green ideas sleep furiously (Noam Chomsky): example that is grammatically correct but based on semantic combinations that are contradictory and therefore would not normally occur.
• Hold the news reader's nose squarely, waiter, or friendly milk will countermand my trousers.<ref name="Fry 1989">Template:Cite episode</ref>

Semantics and context

Demonstrations of sentences where the semantic interpretation is bound to context or knowledge of the world.

• The large ball crashed right through the table because it was made of Styrofoam: ambiguous use of a pronoun: The word "it" refers to the table being made of Styrofoam; but "it" would immediately refer to the large ball if we replaced "Styrofoam" with "steel" without any other change in its syntactic parse.<ref name="Etzioni 2014">Template:Cite book</ref>
• The bee landed on the flower because it had nectar: The pronoun "it" refers to the "flower" but changes to the "bee" if we replace "had" with "wanted".
• We bought the boys apples because they were so hungry: "they" refers to the boys, but if "hungry" is replaced with "cheap", with no grammatical change, it refers to the apples.<ref name="Haugeland1989">Template:Cite book</ref>

Relevance conditionals

Conditionals where the prejacent ("if" clause) is not strictly required for the consequent to be true.

• There are biscuits on the table if you want some ("biscuit conditional").
• If I may be honest, you're not looking good.<ref name="Language Log">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

|CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Non-English examples

Ojibwe

• {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} meaning "We should fetch Ana, shouldn't we?".<ref name="Valentine 2001">Template:Cite book</ref>

Latin

• John, Archbishop of Esztergom (Kingdom of Hungary) was pressed to make a statement on the assassination of Gertrude of Merania, and on the first hand the assassination would have been beneficial for the Church but on the other hand taking part in an assassination might have caused him to lose his position and possibly life; so he wrote in 1213: "{{#invoke:Lang|lang}}". The sentence can be read as "{{#invoke:Lang|lang}}" ("don't kill the Queen, it is good to be afraid, even if all agree I do not. I object."), or the opposite meaning "{{#invoke:Lang|lang}}" ("Do not be afraid to kill the Queen, it is good, if all agree then I do not object.").<ref name="hermann">Hermann of Altach: Annales Hermanni (1137-1173), ed. Philipp Jaffé, in Monumenta Germaniae Historica: Scriptorum, vol. 17 (Hanover, 1861), p. 386.</ref><ref name="alberic">Alberic of Trois-Fontaines: Chronica Albrici Monachi Trium Fontium (1232-1251), ed. Paulus Scheffer-Boichorst, in Monumenta Germaniae Historica: Scriptorum, vol. 23 (Hanover, 1874), p. 898.. </ref><ref name="ujember">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

|CitationClass=web }}</ref> It has been quoted by Boncompagno da Signa is his work Rhetorica novissima in 1235 and from there it has been part of the rhetorical education.<ref name="rhetorica">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

• • King Edward II of England was killed, reportedly after Adam of Orleton, one of his gaolers, received a message, probably from Mortimer, reading "{{#invoke:Lang|lang}}". This can be read either as "{{#invoke:Lang|lang}}" ("Do not kill Edward; it is good to be afraid Template:Bracket") or as "{{#invoke:Lang|lang}}" ("Do not be afraid to kill Edward; Template:Bracket is good"). This ambiguous sentence has been much discussed by various writers, including John Harington.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>
• {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}

Mandarin Chinese

• Various sentences using the syllables Template:Linktext, Template:Linktext, Template:Linktext, Template:Linktext, and Template:Linktext are often used to illustrate the importance of tones to foreign learners. One example: Template:Zh.<ref name="隔壁小谁 2010">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

|CitationClass=web }}</ref>

• Lion-Eating Poet in the Stone Den: poem of 92 characters, all with the sound shi (in four different tones) when read in Modern Standard Mandarin

Japanese

• Although at first glance the single character sentence Template:Ill does not seem to make sense, when this sentence is read using the right readings of the kanji {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} (in the example it only borrows the pronunciation but not the meaning of the logograms, like man'yōgana), it means "the young of cat, kitten, and the young of lion, cub". This would be "猫之子、子猫、獅子之子、子獅子" if it were to be written semantically, with the genitive construction being inferred in the original. It is told in the work Ujishūi Monogatari that the Japanese poet Ono no Takamura used this reading to escape death.

Czech

• {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}, meaning either "they ate elderberries on a mountain using a stick" or "they ate on a mountain without any sticks" or "they ate elderberry using a stick to eat their sorrow away"; depending on the phrasing or a correct placement or punctuation, at least 7 meanings can be obtained. By replacing "na hoře" by "nahoře", one obtains 5 more meanings. If separating words using spaces is also permitted, the total number of known possible meanings rises to 58.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

|CitationClass=web }}</ref>

• Czech has the syllabic consonants {{#invoke:IPA|main}} and {{#invoke:IPA|main}}, which can stand in for vowels. A well-known example of a sentence that does not contain a vowel is {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}, meaning "stick your finger through the neck."

Korean

• In Gyeongsang dialect, the repetition of the syllable {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} ("ga") with the right intonation can form meaningful phrases. For example:
  • "{{#invoke:Lang|lang}}" which means "Are they the one we talked about?"
  • "{{#invoke:Lang|lang}}" which means "Since they took it away"
  • "{{#invoke:Lang|lang}}" which means "Are they the one with the surname Ga?"<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

|CitationClass=web }}</ref>

German

• A famous example for lexical ambiguity is the following sentence: "{{#invoke:Lang|lang}}", meaning "When flies fly behind flies, then flies fly in pursuit of flies."<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

|CitationClass=web }}</ref>Template:Circular reference It takes advantage of some German nouns and corresponding verbs being homonymous. While not noticeable in spoken language, in written language the difference shows: "Fliegen" ("flies"), being a noun, is written with a capital "F", whereas "fliegen" ("to fly"), being a verb, is not. The comma can be left out without changing the meaning. There are several variations of this sentence pattern, although they do not work as smoothly as the original. Dutch language shares this same example, with the noticeable difference of not capitalising the initials of nouns, making it "{{#invoke:Lang|lang}}"

Dutch

• Kees Torn expanded on the example given in the German section ("{{#invoke:Lang|lang}}"), from which he created: "{{#invoke:Lang|lang}}"<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

|CitationClass=web }}</ref> which uses the fact that "zeven" has multiple roles: it is a number (seven), a verb (to sieve), a plural noun (sieves) and the name of a German town (Zeven). As such the translation is: "If, in the town where the easy to sieve sieves seven sieves sieve seven sieves, Zeven, seven sieves sieve seven sieves, seven sieves sieve seven sieves".

Persian

A famous example for lexical ambiguity in Persian is the following sentence:<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

{{#invoke:Lang|lang}}

It can be read either as:

• {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}

which means "Forgiveness! no need to execute him/her"

Or as:

• {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}

which means "Forgiveness not needed! execute her/him"

Russian

• The same phrase as in Persian: "{{#invoke:Lang|lang}}" can be interpreted as "{{#invoke:Lang|lang}}" or as "{{#invoke:Lang|lang}}", which means respectively "Executing is impossible/disallowed, [you should] pardon" and "Execute her/him, pardon is impossible/disallowed".
• {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} — "Very very drunk cockeyed hare named Kosoy with askew braid mowed with bent scythe on bevel foreland".

Polish

• {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} which means "The young otter of the otter will steal the young otter from otter"
• {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} which means "The artillery department was knitting"
• {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} which means "Let's burn the palm trees in Palma"

Finnish

• The phrase {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} is frequently used as an example of polysemy in Finnish. It has up to nine meanings, since each word can be individually interpreted in three ways: kuusi can be "six", "spruce" or "your moon", while palaa can be "returns", "burns" or "pieces".<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

|CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Indonesian

• The sentence {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} means "why do my toenails look a bit rigid, my sisters/brothers?". Note that {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} in Indonesian is an informal form of {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} means "look like" or "kind of".Template:Are you sure?
• The sentence {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} means "hit the hammer beater that hit the hammer 'riotly' and hit the beater with [a] hammer at 2 o'clock so the beater feels depressed because he was beaten by hammer".Template:Are you sure?

See also

• Garden-path sentence, sentences that illustrate that humans process language one word at a time
• Gradient well-formedness
• Grammaticality
• One-syllable article, Chinese phonological ambiguity
  • Template:Anl
• Paraprosdokian, a figure of speech in which the latter part of a sentence or phrase is surprising or unexpected in a way that causes the reader or listener to reframe the first part
• Longest words

External links

• Template:Cite journal Demonstrations of why these and similar examples are hard for computers to deal with when attempting natural language processing.