Intro

Ambiguity in Language

Unusual grammatical constructions with unexpected meaning can be used to (deliberately) mislead a human reader. These are called garden path sentences. Consider some of the best-known examples:

• Fat people eat accumulates.
• The horse raced past the barn fell.
• The government plans to raise taxes were defeated.

But everyday sentences actually contain countless ambiguities which humans resolve so naturally that they do not even notice them. Knowledge of the world and context are essential.

The plant is next to the bank.

• plant
  • factory?
  • flower?
• bank
  • financial institution?
  • river side?