FIRSCHEIN@SRI-AI.ARPA (02/20/86)
Here is the file of ambiguous sentences. I have responded to the
responants with this file. If you want to post any or all of it, be my
guest.
From: BATES@G.BBN.COM
The all-time classic is "Time flies like an arrow", which has at least
5 ambiguous interpretations if you allow it to be the first part of
an unfinished sentence (which is how a parser would have to consider it) as
well as a complete sentence. The interps are:
1. The cliche we all understand the sentence to mean.
2. An imperative, as in "Take this stopwatch and time these flies the same way
you would time an arrow in flight."
3. An imperative, as in "Take this stopwatch and time these flies the same way
an arrow would time the flies if an arrow could use a stopwatch"
4. "Time flies (which are like Horse Flies or Bluebottle Flies) are fond
of an arrow"
5. "Time flies (as above), in a manner similar to an arrow, ..." (The end
of the sentence could be something like "move through the air rapidly")
There may even be another interp in there somewhere, but that's what I
remember for now. If you get other sentences that are that heavily
ambiguous, I would very much appreciate seeing a list of them.
Thanks,
Lyn Bates
BATES@BBNG.ARPA
From: Shrager.pa@Xerox.COM
Subject: multiple ambiguity
John made Jim die by swallowing his tongue.
E.g., John forced Jim's tongue down Jim's throat.
John ate Jim's tongue (the rudest version).
John swallowed his own tongue and Jim died laughing.
John ate the cow's tongue that Jim had tainted with hot peppers
so Jim died laughing. It was on John's plate.
<Same>, but it was on Jim's plate.
The tongue belongs to some third person (referent of "his").
From: FRAMPTON%northeastern.csnet@CSNET-RELAY.ARPA
The following is only four ways ambiguous, but the ambiguity is purely
syntatic and the sentence isn't overly contrived. It is a good test of
a syntatic parser.
"I sent the man who is too stubborn to talk to Jack."
The four readings can be deduced from:
(1) I sent X to Jack
(2) I sent X
(3) I sent X to talk to Jack
(4) I sent X Jack (dative shift)
Please either post the results of your inquiry on the AILIST or csnet-mail
the results to me. I'm quite curious.
From: Stephen G. Rowley <SGR@SCRC-STONY-BROOK.ARPA>
One classic example is the phrase "pretty little girls school". One
source of ambiguity is "pretty", which could mean either "beautiful" or
"moderately". However, most of the ambiguity comes from binding powers,
i.e., where you attach the adjectives. J. C. Brown, in his work on
Loglan, gives 17 meanings. Here they are, always interpreting "pretty"
as "beautiful".
P = pretty; L = little; G = Girls; S = school. The problem is how to
insert parentheses into P L G S. (Actually, it's more complex than
that, since you can put in a connective between adjectives to
effectively make a compound sentence; see [5ff]. Also, the some
adjectives can be present in both components of the compound; see
[9ff].)
Binding Meaning
======= =======
[1] (((P L) G) S) A school for girls who are small; the
smallness of the girls is beautiful. [This
is purely left-associative.]
[2] (P ((L G) S)) A school for girls who are small; the
speaker's opinion is that such schools are
beautiful. [Cf. [15].]
[3] ((P L) (G S)) A school for girls; the school is small and
the smallness is beautiful.
[4] (P (L (G S))) A school for girls; the school is small;
the speaker's opinion is that such schools
are beautiful. [This is purely
right-associative.]
[5] ((P G) S) & ((L G) S) A school for girls who are both beautiful
and small. [Both components left-associate.
G is duplicated.]
[6] (P (G S)) & ((L G) S) A school for girls; the school is pretty;
the girls are small. [First component
right-associates, second component
left-associates. G is duplicated.]
[7] ((P G) S) & (L (G S)) A school for pretty girls; the school is
also small. [First componentleft-associates,
second component right-associates. G is
duplicated.]
[8] (P (G S)) & (L (G S)) A school for girls; the school is both
pretty and small. [Both components
right-associate. G is duplicated.]
[9] ((P L) S) & ((P G) S) A beautifully small school for beautiful
girls. [Note duplication of P; both
components left-associate.]
[10] (P (L S)) & ((P G) S) A small school which is thought to be
pretty; also it's for pretty girls. [P
duplicated; association is right/left.]
[11] ((P L) S) & (P (G S)) A school which is small and whose smallness
the speaker considers beautiful; also a
school for girls which is itself pretty. [P
duplicated; association is left/right.]
[12] (P (L S)) & (P (G S)) A small school which is pretty; also a
school for girls which is pretty. [P
duplicated; both components
right-associate.]
[13] ((P L) S) & (G S) A school which is small and the speaker
considers that smallness to be beautiful;
also it's a school for girls.
[14] (P (L S)) & (G S) A small school which is beautiful and which
is a school for girls.
[15] (P S) & ((L G) S) A beautiful school which is for small girls.
[Unlike [2], the beauty of the school is
independent of L & G.]
[16] (P S) & (L (G S)) A pretty school which is for girls and small
as girls schools go.
[17] (P S) & (L S) & (G S) A school which enjoys all 3 properties of
being beautiful, small, and for girls.
[There's another set of 4 sentences that Brown didn't exhibit in his
book. They're of the same class as [5-8] and [9-12], but duplicate L
instead of P or G:
[18] ((P L) S) & ((L G) S)
[19] (P (L S)) & ((L G) S)
[20] ((P L) S) & (L (G S))
[21] (P (L S)) & (L (G S))
That brings the total to 21. However, since we're both getting bored
with this by now, and you've undoubtedly gotten the point, we won't
analyze them!]
One of Brown's points in Loglan was that, in order to be unambiguous,
the language needs pronounceable parentheses and connectives so that the
groupings above become apparent. Each of the 17 (or 21) above meanings
has a separate pronounciation in Loglan; you're not allowed to be vague
about binding of adjectives. (The default is left-associativity.)
One might object that I've left out cues to understanding, such as
punctuation (commas and apostrophes) and tone of voice. That's true;
many cues to understanding sentences like these come from lexical or
prosodic factors like that. However, tone of voice gets lost in writing
and punctuation is lost in speaking (at least partially; consider
"girls" vs "girl's"). Therefore, coping without some of these cues is
still a valid problem.
From: mab@aids-unix (Mike Brzustowicz)
My favorite is "The technician made the robot fast."
-Mike Brzustowicz
<mab@aids-unix>
From: William Dowling <Dowling%upenn.csnet@CSNET-RELAY.ARPA>
Re the recently posted question seeking multiply ambiguous
sentences: the easiest way to make multiply ambiguous sentences
or phrases is to exploit the tree inequality X(YZ) <> (XY)Z.
For example "a book and a stapler or some tape" is doubly
ambiguous, and "a book and a stapler or some tape and a newspaper"
is 5-ways ambiguous. The same trick makes "the man with a hat
and a monkey in pajamas" heavily ambiguous. Of course if n1 and
n2 are noun phrases k1- and k2-ways ambiguous then "<n1> is no <n2>"
is a sentence that is k1.k2-ways ambiguous. Bob Wall once told
me that an early automatic translation program picked up many of
the readings of "Applicants who apply for licenses wearing shorts
From: Walter Hamscher <hamscher@MIT-HTVAX.ARPA>
There's always the old standby "I saw the man on the hill with the
telescope." This is used in Winston's textbook. I count six meanings.
From: John DeCarlo <M14051%mwvm@mitre.arpa>
My favorite is:
"Mary had a little lamb."
It supposedly has at least a dozen meanings, most of which I can't think
of off the top of my head, but I know it is in at least one of my textbooks.
Mary owned some meat from a young sheep
ate an actual live animal
had intercourse with
was accompanied by
...
John DeCarlo
<M14051%mwvm@mitre.arpa>ice@TRWRBA.UUCP (03/05/86)
I'm not sure that this is precisely what you are looking for, but I remember a sentence whose meaning changes slightly when different words are stressed: I never said he stole that money. I NEVER said he stole that money. I never SAID he stole that money. I never said HE stole that money. I never said he STOLE that money. I never said he stole THAT money. I never said he stole that MONEY. --Doug Ice.
ART@GODOT.THINK.COM (03/07/86)
One of my favorites, which I seem to remember first reading in the instructions for solving the Atlantic magazine puzzle is: "I fancy you have one." which has more meanings when spoken than when written. Art Medlar <art@think> Thinking Machines Corporation
anw%maths.nottingham.ac.uk@CS.UCL.AC.UK ("A. N. Walker") (03/12/86)
English is supposed to be right associative, so "pretty little girls school" is (relatively) unambiguously a pretty schoolette for girls. Similarly, "second hand book shop" should probably be as opposed to a third automatic drug store. The other possible associations should be obtained by hyphenation or concatenation, as "second handbook shop", "second-hand book shop" or [the usual meaning] "secondhand-book shop". Sadly, English has no good way of writing a third-level bracket, so more complicated examples can be very hard to write down. Andy Walker, Maths Dept, Nottingham Univ., UK.