Understanding Garden Path Sentences

Hi again. I just want to real quick talk about what I think is an interesting language occurrence called a garden path sentence. And I have a few of them here, so we're going to read through them very quickly, sort of analyze how it is they're working, and then maybe challenge you to sort of come up with some of your own. So just follow along as I sort of read these over here. The Old Man the Boat The complex houses married in single soldiers and their families. The horse raced past the barn and fell. The florist sent the flowers, was pleased. The cotton clothing is made of grows in Mississippi. The man who hunts ducks out on weekends. So, garden path sentences, they make complete grammatical sense, but they read... confusing. They generate confusion as you read them, possibly. And they do so because your mind sort of reads them in a certain way that when you get to the end, it realized it didn't quite read it correctly. So for instance, the old man, the boat. So the confusion, if there is any, occurs right here in this phrase here, the old man. Now, when we read it, we see it basically saying, um, the elderly male, the boat. But the sentence, the meaning of the sentence, grammatically correct, and the meaning of the sentence is the old. Old is not an adjective or a descriptor of the male or the man. The old, old is the actual subject, and man is the verb. Like, man the boats. Man the lighthouse. So, the elderly do something, man the boat. So now we can, again, the sentence may make a little more sense. That the elderly man or do something with the boat. The old man the boat. This next one, the confusion sort of occurs in the same area. Where, as we're reading it, we read it as the complicated homes. the complex houses. But the complex here is not a qualifier or an adjective. Complex is the subject, the noun. And then the noun does something. It houses. So a complex, think of like an apartment complex. It's a sort of a large structure or a collection of structures with a wall or something around it. It's a complex. And this apartment complex does something. It houses people. It's a place for them to live. And who is the them that lives there? It's married and single soldiers and their families. So the complex house is married and single soldiers and their families. This next one here, the horse raced past the barn fell. So we could add a couple words here that would make the sentence read. simpler, easier, less garden path. But as it is now, the sentence makes complete grammatical sense as it is, and again it has a particular and specific meaning. But if we wanted to add a couple of words here, the sentence could read, The horse which was raced past the barn fell. So the sentence is, the main sort of subject and predicate here is, the horse fell. What horse was it? It was the one raced past the barn. So now we could see maybe it makes a little bit more sense. The horse raced past the barn fell. Same with this next one here. The florist sent the flowers was pleased. So the confusion is this phrase here, sent the flowers, is sort of an identification mechanism of which florist. So the sort of basic subject predicate issue here is the florist was pleased. Which florist? The one that was sent the flowers. The florist sent the flowers was pleased. Next one. The cotton clothing is made of grows in Mississippi. Maybe at this point your brain, your mind, however that works, is starting to sort of figure out the inner logic of these sentences, these garden path sentences. But here we have the cotton clothing is made of grows in Mississippi. So The cotton that clothing is made out of grows in Mississippi. The cotton grows in Mississippi. What cotton? The cotton that clothing is made of or made out of. So again, I think we can see how it makes sense now. The last one, the last example here. The man who hunts ducks out on weekends. And the confusion is probably happening right here, whereas ducks is the the primary verb. And the man who hunts ducks out on weekends. He doesn't go on the weekend. He ducks out on his friends. He doesn't go hunting or doesn't go whatever. So there we have these garden path sentences. And the reason why they're called garden path sentences is because your brain takes you down one path and you sort of got fooled. And maybe to sort of extend that analogy, you kind of have to back up and go down a different path. And what happens is... As we read sentences, our brain does something called parsing. And parsing is when we sort of split up a sentence into chunks to make the reading quicker, to make it a little bit more practical and pragmatic. So the chunks, the parsing that we do here is usually the first one is here, the old man. We sort of chunk that together and we tell ourselves, okay, the elderly male. And then we have this second chunk, the boat. But Those two chunks, the elderly male or the old man and the boat, they don't quite go together, which is where that confusion of this sort of sentence, a garden path sentence, where that confusion sort of pops up and arises. The same with this one here. We have, as we read it, we sort of break it up into little chunks. And then we sort of, when we have the chunks, like we do, let's go back to that first one. The old man. We sort of say, okay. the elderly male, what does the elderly male do? And when we parse and we chunk up this first part, we sort of make an interpretation. And then we infer the rest of the sentence, where the rest of the sentence is going based on that interpretation. So I chunk the old man as an elderly male, and then I infer, okay, the elderly male is going to verb something, is going to do something. And what does he do? The boat. And that's where it gets confusing. So when we're parsing, we're chunking out the sentences, but we're also making sort of inferences of where we think the sentence will go. And then when you reach the end of a garden path sentence, it went where you didn't think it was going to go, and you're confused. So there's two ways that the people who think about this, they think that the brain sort of parses. And one way leads to a lot of confusion and the other way that people parse may lead to no confusion at all when they hit these sorts of sentences. The first way that people parse sentences is called serial parsing and that's when you sort of take things in a linear series where there's only one possible path through the sentence. So when we hit, I'll give you an example here, the old man. Again we parse, we chunk, and we say okay. This chunk means the elderly male and all other possibilities, all other interpretations are set aside and eliminated and then you go to the next component in this series when you're serial parsing. And then when you go to that next parsing, the next chunk, the boat, that's where again it makes no sense. So that's serial parsing. When you sort of take one interpretation and say that's the one and then eliminate all the other ones and then move on. And depending on how long a sentence is, like this one here, this one has a couple of chunks. The complex houses, married and single, soldiers and their families. So it has at least three sort of chunks in there. Different people will chunk it in different ways. But as we're parsing this long sentence, the brain is sort of, again, parsing, eliminating. options and eliminating all the interpretations and finding and going with one and then going to the next one. And then it's sort of, again, when you have that first one, it tries to, your brain tries to infer what the rest of the sentence is going to do. And then in these longer sentences, you hit that next chunk and it kind of makes sense and your brain tries to interpret it so that it makes sense with the first chunk. And now it's... barely holding on in a sentence like this long second one here. It's barely holding on. And then you get to the latter parts of that sentence and the chunking's not working. All the confusion arises because none of the parts are sort of working together when you serial parse. So that's the first way that people parse out sentences, serial parsing. And that leads to confusion, especially with garden path sentences. The second way that people parse is called parallel parsing. And that's where you do not eliminate interpretations. You sort of leave all interpretations on the table. You have multiple interpretations going of what a sentence is going to do or where a sentence is going to end up when you're inferring. And you have all, in this case, four interpretations sort of moving through the sentence. So someone who is parallel parsing would read the old man. as both the elderly male and the elderly people do something. So they have two interpretations of that chunk. The elderly male and the old people that do something. And then they hit the next chunk and they realize, oh, this was the correct interpretation and they don't really have confusion. By the time they get to, let's say you have four different interpretations going, and by the time you get to maybe the second chunk, this one's been eliminated. By the time you get to a third chunk, that one's eliminated. By the time you get to the end of the sentence, that one's been eliminated. But you had one working interpretation that was giving you meaning that makes it to the end of the sentence. And less, if any, confusion occurs. And is there a way to sort of practice parallel parsing? Who knows? Personally, I think that there is. I think if people who read a lot of literature... especially complex literature or maybe even older literature where different or sentences were structured differently and language sort of was structured just a bit differently at 200 300 years ago Those readers may have a mind that can sort of hold open multiple interpretations and know Multiple interpretations and be familiar with the idea that for instance that man is a verb in that complex is a noun and I think that those individuals who may encounter more complex language are able to parallel parse easier than those who don't encounter complex language vocabulary complex sentence structure Those individuals who don't encounter the complex language usage may rely a lot more on serial parsing and may become more confused inside sentences, especially sentences like garden path sentences. So again, there's an interesting linguistic or language phenomenon, garden path sentences. And maybe in the comments you can try to come up with some of your own. They are very fun to come up with. They're challenging to come up with, but they are it is sort of a little A little something to kill the time. Hope you enjoyed. See you next time.

The Old Man the Boat The complex houses married in single soldiers and their families. The horse raced past the barn and fell. The florist sent the flowers, was pleased. The cotton clothing is made of grows in Mississippi.

The man who hunts ducks out on weekends. So, garden path sentences, they make complete grammatical sense, but they read... confusing.

They generate confusion as you read them, possibly. And they do so because your mind sort of reads them in a certain way that when you get to the end, it realized it didn't quite read it correctly. So for instance, the old man, the boat.

So the confusion, if there is any, occurs right here in this phrase here, the old man. Now, when we read it, we see it basically saying, um, the elderly male, the boat. But the sentence, the meaning of the sentence, grammatically correct, and the meaning of the sentence is the old.

Old is not an adjective or a descriptor of the male or the man. The old, old is the actual subject, and man is the verb. Like, man the boats. Man the lighthouse. So, the elderly do something, man the boat.

So now we can, again, the sentence may make a little more sense. That the elderly man or do something with the boat. The old man the boat. This next one, the confusion sort of occurs in the same area. Where, as we're reading it, we read it as the complicated homes.

the complex houses. But the complex here is not a qualifier or an adjective. Complex is the subject, the noun. And then the noun does something. It houses.

So a complex, think of like an apartment complex. It's a sort of a large structure or a collection of structures with a wall or something around it. It's a complex.

And this apartment complex does something. It houses people. It's a place for them to live.

And who is the them that lives there? It's married and single soldiers and their families. So the complex house is married and single soldiers and their families.

This next one here, the horse raced past the barn fell. So we could add a couple words here that would make the sentence read. simpler, easier, less garden path. But as it is now, the sentence makes complete grammatical sense as it is, and again it has a particular and specific meaning.

But if we wanted to add a couple of words here, the sentence could read, The horse which was raced past the barn fell. So the sentence is, the main sort of subject and predicate here is, the horse fell. What horse was it? It was the one raced past the barn. So now we could see maybe it makes a little bit more sense.

The horse raced past the barn fell. Same with this next one here. The florist sent the flowers was pleased. So the confusion is this phrase here, sent the flowers, is sort of an identification mechanism of which florist.

So the sort of basic subject predicate issue here is the florist was pleased. Which florist? The one that was sent the flowers. The florist sent the flowers was pleased.

Next one. The cotton clothing is made of grows in Mississippi. Maybe at this point your brain, your mind, however that works, is starting to sort of figure out the inner logic of these sentences, these garden path sentences. But here we have the cotton clothing is made of grows in Mississippi. So The cotton that clothing is made out of grows in Mississippi.

The cotton grows in Mississippi. What cotton? The cotton that clothing is made of or made out of.

So again, I think we can see how it makes sense now. The last one, the last example here. The man who hunts ducks out on weekends. And the confusion is probably happening right here, whereas ducks is the the primary verb.

And the man who hunts ducks out on weekends. He doesn't go on the weekend. He ducks out on his friends.

He doesn't go hunting or doesn't go whatever. So there we have these garden path sentences. And the reason why they're called garden path sentences is because your brain takes you down one path and you sort of got fooled.

And maybe to sort of extend that analogy, you kind of have to back up and go down a different path. And what happens is... As we read sentences, our brain does something called parsing.

And parsing is when we sort of split up a sentence into chunks to make the reading quicker, to make it a little bit more practical and pragmatic. So the chunks, the parsing that we do here is usually the first one is here, the old man. We sort of chunk that together and we tell ourselves, okay, the elderly male. And then we have this second chunk, the boat.

But Those two chunks, the elderly male or the old man and the boat, they don't quite go together, which is where that confusion of this sort of sentence, a garden path sentence, where that confusion sort of pops up and arises. The same with this one here. We have, as we read it, we sort of break it up into little chunks.

And then we sort of, when we have the chunks, like we do, let's go back to that first one. The old man. We sort of say, okay.

the elderly male, what does the elderly male do? And when we parse and we chunk up this first part, we sort of make an interpretation. And then we infer the rest of the sentence, where the rest of the sentence is going based on that interpretation.

So I chunk the old man as an elderly male, and then I infer, okay, the elderly male is going to verb something, is going to do something. And what does he do? The boat.

And that's where it gets confusing. So when we're parsing, we're chunking out the sentences, but we're also making sort of inferences of where we think the sentence will go. And then when you reach the end of a garden path sentence, it went where you didn't think it was going to go, and you're confused. So there's two ways that the people who think about this, they think that the brain sort of parses.

And one way leads to a lot of confusion and the other way that people parse may lead to no confusion at all when they hit these sorts of sentences. The first way that people parse sentences is called serial parsing and that's when you sort of take things in a linear series where there's only one possible path through the sentence. So when we hit, I'll give you an example here, the old man.

Again we parse, we chunk, and we say okay. This chunk means the elderly male and all other possibilities, all other interpretations are set aside and eliminated and then you go to the next component in this series when you're serial parsing. And then when you go to that next parsing, the next chunk, the boat, that's where again it makes no sense. So that's serial parsing.

When you sort of take one interpretation and say that's the one and then eliminate all the other ones and then move on. And depending on how long a sentence is, like this one here, this one has a couple of chunks. The complex houses, married and single, soldiers and their families. So it has at least three sort of chunks in there.

Different people will chunk it in different ways. But as we're parsing this long sentence, the brain is sort of, again, parsing, eliminating. options and eliminating all the interpretations and finding and going with one and then going to the next one. And then it's sort of, again, when you have that first one, it tries to, your brain tries to infer what the rest of the sentence is going to do.

And then in these longer sentences, you hit that next chunk and it kind of makes sense and your brain tries to interpret it so that it makes sense with the first chunk. And now it's... barely holding on in a sentence like this long second one here.

It's barely holding on. And then you get to the latter parts of that sentence and the chunking's not working. All the confusion arises because none of the parts are sort of working together when you serial parse. So that's the first way that people parse out sentences, serial parsing. And that leads to confusion, especially with garden path sentences.

The second way that people parse is called parallel parsing. And that's where you do not eliminate interpretations. You sort of leave all interpretations on the table.

You have multiple interpretations going of what a sentence is going to do or where a sentence is going to end up when you're inferring. And you have all, in this case, four interpretations sort of moving through the sentence. So someone who is parallel parsing would read the old man. as both the elderly male and the elderly people do something.

So they have two interpretations of that chunk. The elderly male and the old people that do something. And then they hit the next chunk and they realize, oh, this was the correct interpretation and they don't really have confusion. By the time they get to, let's say you have four different interpretations going, and by the time you get to maybe the second chunk, this one's been eliminated. By the time you get to a third chunk, that one's eliminated.

By the time you get to the end of the sentence, that one's been eliminated. But you had one working interpretation that was giving you meaning that makes it to the end of the sentence. And less, if any, confusion occurs. And is there a way to sort of practice parallel parsing? Who knows?

Personally, I think that there is. I think if people who read a lot of literature... especially complex literature or maybe even older literature where different or sentences were structured differently and language sort of was structured just a bit differently at 200 300 years ago Those readers may have a mind that can sort of hold open multiple interpretations and know Multiple interpretations and be familiar with the idea that for instance that man is a verb in that complex is a noun and I think that those individuals who may encounter more complex language are able to parallel parse easier than those who don't encounter complex language vocabulary complex sentence structure Those individuals who don't encounter the complex language usage may rely a lot more on serial parsing and may become more confused inside sentences, especially sentences like garden path sentences. So again, there's an interesting linguistic or language phenomenon, garden path sentences. And maybe in the comments you can try to come up with some of your own.

They are very fun to come up with. They're challenging to come up with, but they are it is sort of a little A little something to kill the time. Hope you enjoyed.

See you next time.

Transcript for:Understanding Garden Path Sentences

Transcript for:
Understanding Garden Path Sentences