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The sentence can be given as a grammatical puzzle [7] [8] [9] or an item on a test, [1] [2] for which one must find the proper punctuation to give it meaning. Hans Reichenbach used a similar sentence ("John where Jack had...") in his 1947 book Elements of Symbolic Logic as an exercise for the reader, to illustrate the different levels of language, namely object language and metalanguage.
The following sentences illustrate subject–verb inversion. They compare canonical order with the more marked inversion order, and they demonstrate that subject–verb inversion is unlikely if the subject is a weak (non-stressed) definite pronoun: a. Jim sat under the tree. b. Under the tree sat Jim. - Subject–verb inversion c. *Under the ...
For example, French can form questions using verb-subject inversions like a Germanic language: tu aimes le chocolat is a declarative sentence meaning "you like the chocolate". When the order of the subject tu ("you") and the verb aimes ("like") is switched, a question is produced: aimes-tu le chocolat? ("do you like the chocolate?").
Jedli na hoře bez holí, 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 ...
The sentence is unpunctuated and uses three different readings of the word "buffalo". In order of their first use, these are: a. a city named Buffalo. This is used as a noun adjunct in the sentence; n. the noun buffalo, an animal, in the plural (equivalent to "buffaloes" or "buffalos"), in order to avoid articles.
Avoid obscurity of expression — i.e., avoid language that is difficult to understand. Avoid ambiguity — i.e., avoid language that can be interpreted in multiple ways. Be brief — i.e., avoid unnecessary verbosity. Be orderly — i.e., provide information in an order that makes sense, and makes it easy for the recipient to process it. [9]
The sentence could be misread as the turning action attaching either to the handsome school building or to nothing at all. As another example, in the sentence "At the age of eight, my family finally bought a dog", [3] the modifier At the age of eight is dangling. It is intended to specify the narrator's age when the family bought the dog, but ...
We can mean different and distinct things while using the same sentence in different situations. For example, suppose Smith has been brutally murdered. When the person who discovers Smith's body says, "Smith's murderer is insane", we may understand this as the attributive use of the definite description "Smith's murderer", and analyse the ...