List of linguistic example sentences
Encyclopedia
The following is a partial list of linguistic example sentences illustrating various linguistic
phenomena.
Syntactic ambiguity and increment
Demonstrations of how incremental syntactic parsing leads to infelicitous constructions and interpretations.
Scope ambiguity and anaphora
has in the past prohibited "preposition stranding
": ending sentences with prepositions (traditionally defined). This "rule" appears to have been invented in 1672 by John Dryden
; for a long time thereafter it was uncritically recited. It had no basis in linguistic fact in 1672 and has none now.
Combinatorial
Demonstrations of sentences which are unlikely to have ever been said, although the combinatorial complexity of the linguistic system makes them possible.
Anishinaabemowin/Ojibwe
Linguistics
Linguistics is the scientific study of human language. Linguistics can be broadly broken into three categories or subfields of study: language form, language meaning, and language in context....
phenomena.
Independence
Syntax and meaning can be independent from each other - such that while a sentence may be syntactically valid, it is meaningless. Examples of this type of sentence include:- Colorless green ideas sleep furiouslyColorless green ideas sleep furiously"Colorless green ideas sleep furiously" is a sentence composed by Noam Chomsky in his 1957 Syntactic Structures as an example of a sentence that is grammatically correct but semantically nonsensical. The term was originally used in his 1955 thesis "Logical Structures of Linguistic Theory"...
. (Noam ChomskyNoam ChomskyAvram Noam Chomsky is an American linguist, philosopher, cognitive scientist, and activist. He is an Institute Professor and Professor in the Department of Linguistics & Philosophy at MIT, where he has worked for over 50 years. Chomsky has been described as the "father of modern linguistics" and...
) - JabberwockyJabberwocky"Jabberwocky" is a nonsense verse poem written by Lewis Carroll in his 1872 novel Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There, a sequel to Alice's Adventures in Wonderland...
(Lewis CarrollLewis CarrollCharles Lutwidge Dodgson , better known by the pseudonym Lewis Carroll , was an English author, mathematician, logician, Anglican deacon and photographer. His most famous writings are Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and its sequel Through the Looking-Glass, as well as the poems "The Hunting of the...
) - The gostak distims the doshesGostakGostak is a meaningless noun that is used in the phrase "the gostak distims the doshes", an example of how it is possible to derive meaning from the syntax of a sentence even if the referents of the terms are entirely unknown. This can be seen in the following dialogue:In Amazing Stories, Dr...
. Andrew IngrahamAndrew IngrahamAndrew Ingraham was Headmaster of Swain School before 1903.He is credited with the invention of the Gostak concept. He also edited various prefaces to standard literary texts....
.
Lexical ambiguity
Demonstrations of words which have multiple meanings dependent on context.- Will Will will the will to Will?
- Time flies like an arrow. Fruit flies like a banana.
- Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo. (Buffaloes from Buffalo, NY, whom buffaloes from Buffalo bully, bully buffaloes from Buffalo.)
- Rose rose to put rose roes on her rows of roses. (Robert J. Baran){ Rose (a girl) 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 teacherJames while John had had had had had had had had had had had a better effect on the teacher"James while John had had had had had had had had had had had a better effect on the teacher" is an English sentence used to demonstrate lexical ambiguity and the necessity of punctuation,which serves as a substitute for the intonation,...
(With punctuation: "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 isThat that is is that that is not is not is that it it isThat that is is that that is not is not is that it it is is an English word sequence demonstrating lexical ambiguity. It is used as an example illustrating the importance of proper punctuation....
(Grammatically corrected as: "That that is, is. That that is not, is not. Is that it? It is.") - If it is it, it is it, if it is, it is it, it is!
- If the police police police police, who polices the police police? Police police police police police police!
- In a similar vein, Martin GardnerMartin GardnerMartin Gardner was an American mathematics and science writer specializing in recreational mathematics, but with interests encompassing micromagic, stage magic, literature , philosophy, scientific skepticism, and religion...
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?"
Syntactic ambiguity
Demonstrations of ambiguity between alternate syntactic structures underlying a sentence.- The man saw the boy with the binoculars.
- They are hunting dogs.
- Free whales.
- Police help dog bite victim.
- He saw that gas can explode.
- We saw her duck.
- Hole found in changing room wall; police are looking into it.
- The old man the boats.
- In a humorous example, Groucho MarxGroucho MarxJulius Henry "Groucho" Marx was an American comedian and film star famed as a master of wit. His rapid-fire delivery of innuendo-laden patter earned him many admirers. He made 13 feature films with his siblings the Marx Brothers, of whom he was the third-born...
quipped: "I once shot an elephant in my pajamas. How he got into my pajamas, I'll never know." - As a special treat for our Easter service, Mrs. Smith will lay an egg on the altar.
Syntactic ambiguity and incrementIncrementAn increment is an increase of some amount, either fixed or variable. For example one's salary may have a fixed annual increment or one based on a percentage of its current value...
ality
Demonstrations of how incremental syntactic parsing leads to infelicitous constructions and interpretations.
- Reduced relative clauseReduced relative clauseA reduced relative clause is a relative clause that is not marked by an overt complementizer . Reduced relative clauses often give rise to ambiguity or garden path effects, and have been a common topic of psycholinguistic study, especially in the field of sentence processing.-Description:Relative...
s- The horse raced past the barn fell.Garden path sentenceA garden path sentence is a grammatically correct sentence that starts in such a way that the readers' most likely interpretation will be incorrect; they are lured into an improper parse that turns out to be a dead end. Garden path sentences are used in psycholinguistics to illustrate the fact that...
- The horse raced past the barn fell.
- While the man was hunting the deer ran through the forest.
Scope ambiguity and anaphoraAnaphora (linguistics)In linguistics, anaphora is an instance of an expression referring to another. Usually, an anaphoric expression is represented by a pro-form or some other kind of deictic--for instance, a pronoun referring to its antecedent...
resolution
- Every farmer who owns a donkey beats it.
Ending sentence with preposition
Prescriptive grammarLinguistic prescription
In linguistics, prescription denotes normative practices on such aspects of language use as spelling, grammar, pronunciation, and syntax. It includes judgments on what usages are socially proper and politically correct...
has in the past prohibited "preposition stranding
Preposition stranding
Preposition stranding, sometimes called P-stranding, is the syntactic construction in which a preposition with an object occurs somewhere other than immediately adjacent to its object...
": ending sentences with prepositions (traditionally defined). This "rule" appears to have been invented in 1672 by John Dryden
John Dryden
John Dryden was an influential English poet, literary critic, translator, and playwright who dominated the literary life of Restoration England to such a point that the period came to be known in literary circles as the Age of Dryden.Walter Scott called him "Glorious John." He was made Poet...
; for a long time thereafter it was uncritically recited. It had no basis in linguistic fact in 1672 and has none now.
Avoidance
- This is the sort of English up with which I will not put. (Attributed by GowersErnest GowersSir Ernest Arthur Gowers GCB GBE Hon. D.Litt Hon. ARIBA was a British civil servant, now best known for work on style guides for writing the English language.-Life:...
to Winston ChurchillWinston ChurchillSir Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill, was a predominantly Conservative British politician and statesman known for his leadership of the United Kingdom during the Second World War. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest wartime leaders of the century and served as Prime Minister twice...
. There is no convincing evidence that Churchill said this, and good reason to believe that he did not.) The sentence "does not demonstrate the absurdity of using [prepositional phrase] fronting instead of stranding; it merely illustrates the ungrammaticality resulting from fronting something that is not a constituentConstituent (linguistics)In syntactic analysis, a constituent is a word or a group of words that functions as a single unit within a hierarchical structure. The analysis of constituent structure is associated mainly with phrase structure grammars, although dependency grammars also allow sentence structure to be broken down...
". - Throw the baby out the window a piece of bread.
Compound use
- The little boy says to his father, "Daddy, what did you bring that book that I don't want to be read to out of up for?"
- What did you turn your socks from inside out to outside in for?
Parallels
Parallel between noun phrases and verb phrases with respect to argument structure- The enemy destroyed the city.
- The enemy's destruction of the city.
CombinatorialCombinatoricsCombinatorics is a branch of mathematics concerning the study of finite or countable discrete structures. Aspects of combinatorics include counting the structures of a given kind and size , deciding when certain criteria can be met, and constructing and analyzing objects meeting the criteria ,...
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 furiouslyColorless green ideas sleep furiously"Colorless green ideas sleep furiously" is a sentence composed by Noam Chomsky in his 1957 Syntactic Structures as an example of a sentence that is grammatically correct but semantically nonsensical. The term was originally used in his 1955 thesis "Logical Structures of Linguistic Theory"...
(Noam ChomskyNoam ChomskyAvram Noam Chomsky is an American linguist, philosopher, cognitive scientist, and activist. He is an Institute Professor and Professor in the Department of Linguistics & Philosophy at MIT, where he has worked for over 50 years. Chomsky has been described as the "father of modern linguistics" and...
) - example that is grammatically correct but based on semantic combinations that are contradictory and therefore would not normally occur. - Hold the newsreader's nose squarely, waiter, or friendly milk will countermand my trousers. (Stephen FryStephen FryStephen John Fry is an English actor, screenwriter, author, playwright, journalist, poet, comedian, television presenter and film director, and a director of Norwich City Football Club. He first came to attention in the 1981 Cambridge Footlights Revue presentation "The Cellar Tapes", which also...
, in A Bit of Fry & Laurie, series 1, episode 2)
Anishinaabemowin/OjibweOjibwe languageOjibwe , also called Anishinaabemowin, is an indigenous language of the Algonquian language family. Ojibwe is characterized by a series of dialects that have local names and frequently local writing systems...
- Gdaa-naanaanaa, Aanaa, naa?, meaning "We should fetch Anna, shouldn't we?".
Mandarin Chinese
- Various sentences using the syllables , , , , and are often used to illustrate the importance of toneTone (linguistics)Tone is the use of pitch in language to distinguish lexical or grammatical meaning—that is, to distinguish or inflect words. All verbal languages use pitch to express emotional and other paralinguistic information, and to convey emphasis, contrast, and other such features in what is called...
s to foreign learners. One example: . - Lion-Eating Poet in the Stone DenLion-Eating Poet in the Stone DenThe Lion-Eating Poet in the Stone Den is a famous example of constrained writing by Yuen Ren Chao which consists of 92 characters, all with the sound shi in different tones when read in Mandarin....
– poem of 92 characters, all with the sound shi (in 4 different tones) when read in Modern Standard Mandarin
See also
- Garden path sentenceGarden path sentenceA garden path sentence is a grammatically correct sentence that starts in such a way that the readers' most likely interpretation will be incorrect; they are lured into an improper parse that turns out to be a dead end. Garden path sentences are used in psycholinguistics to illustrate the fact that...
, a sentence that illustrates that humans process language one word at a time - Gradient well-formednessGradient well-formednessGradient well-formedness is a problem that arises in the analysis of data in generative linguistics, in which a linguistic entity is neither completely grammatical nor completely ungrammatical. A native speaker may judge a word, phrase or pronunciation as "not quite right" or "almost there," rather...
- GrammaticalityGrammaticalityIn theoretical linguistics, grammaticality is the quality of a linguistic utterance of being grammatically well-formed. An * before a form is a mark that the cited form is ungrammatical....
- ParaprosdokianParaprosdokianA paraprosdokian is 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 or reinterpret the first part. It is frequently used for humorous or dramatic effect, sometimes producing an anticlimax...
, 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 - One syllable articleOne syllable articleA one-syllable article is a type of constrained writing found in Chinese literature. They take advantage of the large number of homophones in the Chinese language, particularly when writing in Classical Chinese...
, Chinese phonological ambiguity
External links
- The Trouble with NLP: Some additional demonstrations of why these and similar examples are hard for computers to deal with when attempting natural language processingNatural language processingNatural language processing is a field of computer science and linguistics concerned with the interactions between computers and human languages; it began as a branch of artificial intelligence....
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