language comprehension

Often presented to students as a linguistic puzzle, the above sentence demonstrates grammatical ambiguity. Where written language lacks the critical element of a human expressing it, punctuation serves as a necessary substitute for intonation, stress, and pauses used in speech.

Disambiguated, the sentence reads, “It is true for all that, that that “that,” which that “that” refers to, is not the same “that” that that “that” refers to.”

If still unclear, this may help to unravel its meaning: “It is true, despite everything you say, that this word to which this word refers, is not the same word to which this word refers.”

Ambiguity

Ambiguity in language appears in a variety of ways, intentional or not, with some cases more celebrated than others. Consider the difference between the ‘suggestive’ language of poetry and a ‘misleading’ advertisement. Ambiguity can be the result of an absurd juxtaposition or the sudden and hilarious turn in a comedian’s routine. In a world where transparency and clarity seem to be the goal, we are often on guard against social uncertainty, while at the same time giving ourselves wholly to the lyrics in a favorite song – whether we completely understand them or not.

To understand how language works, linguists differentiate lingual ambiguity into a variety of categories, including lexical (words and their definitions), syntactic (words in context), phonological (the sounds of words), and semantic (meaning in language and logic). The research goes further into the field of neurolinguistics; the playground of cognitive scientists who study the neural mechanisms in the human brain that control the comprehension, production, and acquisition of language.

For case studies, there’s no better place to begin than with toddlers, whose rapid acquisition of language brings about valiant but flawed attempts at language construction. Pity the poor parents who, upon pain of an emotional meltdown, must mentally sort compound mashes that only an emphatic toddler can construct.

“The 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?'”

Or consider a casual conversation where one might ask for clarification to fully understand.

A: Alice told her mother she won the lottery.
B: Who won the lottery?

There is a type of sentence known as a ‘garden-path sentence.’ Such sentences are grammatically correct but are often misinterpreted on first read. By definition, they lead you down an unpredictably wrong path. Henry Fowler, known for A Dictionary of Modern English Usage (1926), stated that such sentences unwittingly lay a “false scent.” The first two examples below are simply reduced relative clauses that omit ‘who, which, or that.’ The second two fall into the category of syntactical ambiguity. While a garden-path sentence will give some pause, such sentences make others absolutely livid!

I convinced her children are noisy. (I convinced her that children are noisy.)
The florist sent the flowers was pleased. (The florist who was sent the flowers was pleased.)
The man who hunts ducks out on weekends. (The man who hunts, ducks out on weekends.)
The old man the boat. (The elderly manage the boat.)

Humor

At the crossroads of lingual uncertainty and clarity sits humor. A good comedian is a master manipulator of such language. Combined with comical timing, a standup artist uses the sometimes ambiguous nature of language to trip confusion and, in turn, make you laugh. It’s a linguist’s pleasure to understand the mechanics of humor and how ambiguity, from set-up to punch line, fuels a comedic routine.

Lexical ambiguity, which is the presence of two or more possible meanings within a single word, is the anchor of many children’s riddles and wordplay. One of the first jokes I remember telling was, “Why is the corn angry at the farmer? Because he keeps pulling their ears.” I might have found this especially funny at the time because my own father was an ear-puller.

Syntactical ambiguity, the presence of two or more possible meanings within a single sentence or sequence of words, is part of many comedians’ strategies for surprising their audience.

Phonological ambiguity occurs when words sound identical but have different meanings. The standup talents, Abbot and Costello, rely on this confusion in their legendary “Who’s on First?” comedy routine. Likewise, the puzzling aspect of the sentence, “Rose rose to put rose roes on her rows of roses,” rests on a series of homophonous words. When rewritten for clarity, the sentence is far less lyrical or interesting: “A woman named Rose got up to put red fish eggs on the bands of flowers after which she was named.”

Headlines

There are occasions when syntactical ambiguity enters more sober spheres. Cognitive confusion occurs when it’s difficult to determine if a newspaper headline is purposefully being humorous or not. Headline-ese relies on loaded words and expressions to attract a reader’s attention. This, and a stringent need for lexical brevity, can result in unintended smirking and chortling.

The Last Word

The brain has a particular response to semantic incongruities as well. Sometimes known as senseless or absurd sentences, they result in what some call an absurdist’s humor. The Flaming Lips used this brand of ambiguity in their song, “She Don’t Use Jelly” from the album, Transmissions from the Satellite Heart, to drive a light-hearted song about friends with peculiar habits:

I know a girl who thinks of ghosts
She’ll make ya breakfast
She’ll make ya toast
But she don’t use butter
And she don’t use cheese
She don’t use jelly
Or any of these
She uses Vaseline
Vaseline
Vaseline

If you enjoyed reading about the wonderful ambiguity of our language, you might be interested in proverbs that are often misconstrued, or the conundrums of capitonyms and contronyms!

Go to the previous or next Fun Facts About English.

Continental Bingo is a great review for teachers too! The print-ready pdf files include 30 Bingo game boards, images for use as draw cards, and Flag Charts! Whether you teach ESL, history, or political science, you’ll love having these colorful Bingo sets in your collection of fun! Click here to see the full lineup!

What are stacked adjectives?

Nothing made me feel more inculcated into my own language than the idea of stacked adjectives. As native English speakers, it’s not something we often consciously think about. Nonetheless, I’ve learned that teaching my youngest ESL students adjectival order is not only beneficial to their long-term studies, I’ve discovered a pleasurable approach that insures the lessons stick in their memory. Unlike native speakers, it has to be taught intentionally.

In an English speaker’s subconscious mind, multiple adjectives have a specific order. When they fall out of that learned order, the brain glitches and the meaning can be lost, confused, or even misconstrued.

Let me quote from Katy Waldman’s The Secret Rules of Adjective Order:

Though red big barns and big red barns are semantically identical, the second kind pleases our ears more. These tricky situations – neither pure correlation nor accumulation – generally occur when you cross the border between adjectival regions, such as size and color. When that happens, an invisible code snaps into place, and the eight categories shimmy into one magistral conga line: general opinion, then specific opinion then size then shape then age then color then provenance then material.

Thank you Katy! Think about the following sentences:

A cat.

A black cat.

A big black cat.

A big black plastic cat.

A beautiful big black plastic cat.

A beautiful big old black plastic cat.

A beautiful big old black French plastic cat.

Even the simple sentence, “A black big cat” is a language pothole, difficult for an English speaker to mentally ignore, let alone read when the adjectives are out of their stacked order (did you miss it or did your brain reorder the sentence?) Figure this one out:

A yellow cotton handsome Indian new jacket.

It’s difficult to even say, much less discern what the sentence is trying to convey, coming off more like a word salad to an English speaker’s way of ordering meaning. In their proper sequence, the adjectives should be aligned thusly:

A handsome new yellow Indian cotton jacket.

How did it happen that, without any memory of having learned this, I expect my adjectives to be in a choreographed line dance with each other? It begins when we’re very young and is reinforced in numerous story and picture books, like Lillie’s Purple Plastic Purse, or The Giant Jam Sandwich.

So, don’t be afraid to start exposing your ESL students to adjectival order. In fact, I recommend that you start off very young – even before they learn how to read. With a bit of forward-thinking, it will make their elementary and junior high school English classes a little easier. If you’ve been doing chants such as, “Five Little Monkeys” or “Five Little Ducks,” you’re not only priming your kids to hear the sounds associated with numbers and plurals, but stacked adjectives as well!

Making Sentences Without Words

Start with simple nouns that begin with a consonant, like ‘cat.’ Pull out an ‘A’ card from your ABC deck. Then grab a few of your number, color, size, and emotions cards as well. (Download color and number flashcards from my online store for free!)

Start with a simple minor sentence. Then add a color adjective. Once kids understand this easy pattern, mix the cards up, and have students reorder or make new sentences themselves. It may be helpful to teach your kids that ‘A’ means ‘1’ in this context.* Don’t forget to make a small ‘period’ or ‘full stop’ card as well. And there’s no need to be all academic when explaining it! There will be plenty of time for that in their little futures. Teach a ‘period’ as a ‘bliiiing!’ or ‘ker-dunk’ or a Khoisan click of your tongue and I promise your kids will never forget to include it – to the point of annoyance.

Now, let’s add some more adjectives.

With emotions, colors, size, and an ‘A’ card, your kids have learned to make their first stacks of adjectives – and they can’t even read yet! You’re also teaching them to recognize ‘A’ as their first sight word. Like many teachers, you’ve probably been drilling a lot of vocabulary in separate flashcard sets. This exercise brings that vocabulary together into coherent and ordered meaning that visually mimics language and text. Later on, as your students move from speech to text recognition, and then to decoding language in connected text, it will be helpful to remind them of this simple exercise and the songs they used to sing when little. Let the kids make their own sentences or dictate sentences for an excellent listening exercise. Always ask the students to ‘read’ their sentences and help students who don’t yet understand that the correct order is important.

Upping the Ante

Once students are confident with ordering simple adjectives, start throwing numbers into the mix. By necessity, you’ll also be putting an emphasis on the ‘s’ sounds of plurals that they’re likely already using in songs and regular verbal exercises, like “Five Little Monkeys?” and “I’m four years old.” For more on this topic, be sure to check out my post on teaching plurals to ESL students!

Now that you’ve introduced these concepts to your kids, keep a board or table available with cards so that students can make sentences on their own. You may be surprised at what they put together! It also pays to have a bit of sympathy and patience. Trying to consciously LEARN this order must be terrible! I’m glad I have no memory of it – a sort of potty training of the brain. If you introduce this concept early on, it’s going to be easier as their studies become more sophisticated.

If you’re teaching older students, download a stacked adjective worksheet page from Stories For Young Readers, Book 2, a full textbook available on David Paul’s ETJ Book Service or the Kinney Brothers Publishing web site. The worksheet is very helpful when learning to do the Adjective Conga and includes an answer key. Again, color, number, and more flashcards are available from my Teachers-Pay-Teachers store. Please feel free to visit and download!

To learn more about early reading skills, check out my previous posts Sight Words: What, When, and How and Teaching CVC Words. You might also be interested to learn about the most common adjectives, why Big Bad Wolf follows a different adjectival order, or test your knowledge of stacked adjectives.

Good luck and enjoy!

Donald Kinney

Kinney Brothers Publishing

*OK, you grammar mavens – let’s keep it simple. I understand that ‘a’ is a special kind of adjective called an indefinite article that refers to a singular noun whose specific identity is not known to the listener or reader. Unfortunately, at their age, my kids aren’t going to get that as an explanation – nor should they be expected to. I also use numbers instead of written words in sentences until they learn to read the numbers as sight words. I’m aware that this is a grammatical infraction, but I pay little heed to academic imperatives when it comes to teaching my youngest English learners. Using easy-to-understand concepts (reduced though they may be) to teach young learners is not damaging anyone. If you are so inclined to always be aligned to Elements of Style, simply put the words on the front of all your cards and you’ll be covered.

Fun Facts About English #84 – Grammatical Ambiguity