Garden Path Sentences

As if learning a foreign language isn't hard enough already, there are unfortunately ambiguous sentences which have more than one meaning, which can be easily misinterpreted without context or understanding. We call these “garden path sentences“ because they are easily misunderstood (they lead you down the garden path) even though they are all grammatically correct. There are two different types of ambiguity when it comes to sentences. Lexical ambiguity, where one of the words have more than one meaning, and syntactical ambiguity, in which the syntax, or grammar, can be understood in more than one way. For example:

• Put the box on the table in the kitchen.
  

Is the box already on the table, and to be put in the kitchen? Or is the box to be put on the table which is in the kitchen? What do you want me to do, mum?! It is not clear from the sentence where exactly the box should go.

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FUN TIME.


Try reading the following sentences. Do you understand them? Don't worry if some of the sentences don't make sense at first, they will be explained below.

1. Fat people eat accumulates.
2. When Fred eats food gets thrown.
3. I convinced her children are noisy.
4. I know the words to that song about the queen don't rhyme.
5. The dog I had really loved bones.
6. That Jill is never here hurts.
7. The old man the boat.
8. We painted the wall with cracks.
   
   
   Did you understand them all? The answer is probably “No, no, no. Absolutely not. That's not what we learned in English. In fact, that's not even proper English. You can't just make stuff like this up.“ BUT. Before you get angry and reach for your fourth edition “English Grammar In Use“, take a look at the sentences below. I clarified them for you:
   
   
   1. (The) fat (that) people eat accumulates (in their bodies).
   2. When Fred eats (his dinner) food gets thrown.
   3. I convinced her (that) children are noisy.
   4. I know (that) the words to that song about the queen don't rhyme.
   5. The dog (that) I had (as a pet) really loved bones.
   6. (The fact) that Jill is never here hurts (me).
   7.The old (people) man the boat.
   8. We painted the wall (that was covered) with cracks.

Do you see how missing out just a couple of words can completely change the meaning of a sentence? This is happening more and more in the English language. Words are being dropped all of the time and it's becoming quite normal now to miss out the relative pronoun (see numbers 3, 4 and 5), despite being grammatically incorrect. Below is a great example of how missing just one word can perhaps get you into some trouble:

I know more beautiful women than you.

This could mean "I know women who are more beautiful than you" (Excuse me?!) or "I know more beautiful women than you do" (All of my friends are super models).

Do you see the importance of little words and their emphasis and impact on a sentence? Maybe your language works the same, with a total misinterpretation being possible when you have just one word missing. Comment below and let us know!