List of linguistic example sentences

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

Contents

Ambiguity

Different types of ambiguity which are possible in language.

Lexical ambiguity

Demonstrations of words which have multiple meanings dependent on context.

Syntactic ambiguity

Demonstrations of ambiguity between alternative syntactic structures underlying a sentence.

Syntactic ambiguity, incrementality, and local coherence

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

Scope ambiguity and anaphora resolution

Embedding

Punctuation

Punctuation can be used to introduce ambiguity or misunderstandings where none needed to exist. One well known example, [16] 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. [17]

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.) [18] [19] 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 constituent". [20] [21]

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?'" [22]

Neurolinguistics

Sentences with unexpected endings.

Comparative illusion:

Combinatorial complexity

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

Semantics and context

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

Relevance conditionals

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

Non-English examples

Ojibwe

Latin

Mandarin Chinese

Japanese

Czech

Korean

German

Dutch

Persian

A famous example for lexical ambiguity in Persian is the following sentence: [41]

بخشش لازم نیست اعدامش کنید

It can be read either as:

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

Or as:

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

Polish

Finnish

Indonesian

See also

Related Research Articles

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">English passive voice</span> Grammatical voice in the English language

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Preposition stranding or p-stranding is the syntactic construction in which a so-called stranded, hanging or dangling preposition occurs somewhere other than immediately before its corresponding object; for example, at the end of a sentence. The term preposition stranding was coined in 1964, predated by stranded preposition in 1949. Linguists had previously identified such a construction as a sentence-terminal preposition or as a preposition at the end.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">English possessive</span> Possessive words and phrases in the English language

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">English adjectives</span> Adjectives in the English language

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Comprised of is an expression in English that means "composed of". This is thought by language purists to be improper because to "comprise" can already mean to "be composed of". By that definition, "comprised of" would be ungrammatical as it implies "composed of of". However, another widely accepted definition of to "comprise" is to "compose", hence the commonly accepted meaning of "comprised of" as "composed of".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">English subordinators</span> Subordinators in the English language

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