Monday, January 10, 2005

A note on syntax

I love the English language, but sometimes I wish it was a little more precise. It can be quite tricky to disambiguate possible intended senses at times, and especially tricky to do so while trying to craft a sentence with minimal clunk. Consider the phrase,

Your mom has a manbeergut.
There are at least two possible divergent readings here, viz.:
1. Your mom has a man(beergut);
2. Your mom has a (manbeer)gut.
How to tell whether the intended message was 1. (i.e., your mom has a beergut, like a man might) or 2. (i.e., your mom has a protruding gut, borne of overindulging in guzzling manbeer)?

Ans.: 2.

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