Garden Path Sentence - Examples

Examples

  • The horse raced past the barn fell.
The reader usually starts to parse this as an ordinary active intransitive sentence, but stumbles when reaching the word "fell." At this point, the reader is forced to backtrack and look for other possible structures. It may take some rereading to realize that "raced past the barn" is in fact a reduced relative clause with a passive participle, implying that "fell" is the main verb. The correct reading is then "The horse—(that was) raced past the barn—fell."
This sentence can be parsed in other ways as well: A British reader accustomed to "fell" being a noun (meaning "mountain") may reach the end and still treat "raced" as the verb and "barn fell" as "the fell by or at the barn". Fell is also an adjective that means "dreadful" or "wicked". Chiefly archaically and poetically, adjectives may follow their noun leading to the somewhat nonsensical "The horse raced past the dreadful barn."
The example hinges on the ambiguity of the lexical category of the word "raced": It can be either a past-tense verb or a passive participle. Compare to an unambiguous sentence with the same syntactic structure: The car driven past the barn crashed. Unlike "raced," the verb "driven" is unambiguously passive, thus eliminating the garden path reading.

Occasionally, a second phrase causes the reinterpretation of meaning (see paraprosdokian):

  • Time flies like an arrow; fruit flies like a banana.

Other examples of garden path sentences are:

Sentence Initial likely partial parse Final parse
The old man the boat. The man, who is old... The boat is manned by the old.
The man whistling tunes pianos. The man who is whistling melodies... The whistling man tunes pianos.
The cotton clothing is made of grows in Mississippi. The clothing, which is made of cotton, is made of... The cotton that clothing is made of grows in Mississippi.
The complex houses married and single soldiers and their families. The houses (meaning buildings or families), which are complicated, got married to... Single and married soldiers and their families are housed in the complex.
The author wrote the novel was likely to be a best-seller. The author composed the novel... The author wrote that the novel in question was likely to be a best-seller.
The tomcat curled up on the cushion seemed friendly. The tomcat curled itself up on the cushion... The tomcat that was curled up on the cushion seemed friendly.
The man returned to his house was happy. The man came back to his house... Returned to his house, the man was happy.
The government plans to raise taxes were defeated. The government is planning to raise taxes... The government's plans to raise taxes were defeated.
The sour drink from the ocean. The drink that was sour... Those who are sour drink from the ocean.

Read more about this topic:  Garden Path Sentence

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