List of linguistic example sentences

This is a list of linguistic example sentences. They illustrate various linguistic phenomena.

Independence

Independence of syntax

• Colorless green ideas sleep furiously. (Noam Chomsky)

Ambiguity

Lexical ambiguity

• Time flies like an arrow. Fruit flies like a banana. (Groucho Marx)
• Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo.
• Rose rose to put rose rose on her rows of roses. (Robert J. Baran)
• James while John had had had had had had had had had had had a better effect on the teacher (With punctuation: "James, while John had had 'had', had had 'had had'. 'Had had' had had a better effect on the teacher.")
• That that is is that that is not is not is that it it is (Grammatically corrected as: "That that is, is. That that is not, is not. Is that it? It is.")
• If it is it, it is it, if it is, it is it, it is!
• For my sign, please put more room between the Smith and and and and and Sons. ("The 'Smith' and 'and,' and 'and' and 'Sons'.)
• If the police police police police, who polices the police police? Police police police police police police.
• It was and I said not are and and and are are different. ("It was 'and', I said, not 'are,' and 'and' and 'are' are different.")
• But and and and and and and and and and so are all pairs of conjuctions. ("But and and, and, and and and, and, and and so, are pairs of conjunctions.)
• Can cancan can can cancan can? Yes cancan can can can cancan cans"
• If one toucan can can-can, then two toucans can can-can too!
• Dear dear dear. ("Dear! dear, dear.")

Syntactic ambiguity

• The man saw the boy with the binoculars.
• We saw her duck.
• They are hunting dogs.
• The criminal experienced a seizure.
• Police help dog bite victim.
• While the man was hunting the deer ran through the forest.

Syntactic ambiguity and incrementality

• Reduced relative clauses
  • The horse raced past the barn fell.

Semantic scope ambiguity and anaphora resolution

• Every farmer who owns a donkey beats it.

Embedding

• The rat the cat the dog bit chased escaped.

Word order

Order of adjectives

• The red big balloon.

Paraprosdokian

• I haven't slept for ten days, because that would be too long. (Mitch Hedberg)
• Silence is golden, duct tape is silver.

Syllepsis

• He carried a strobe light and the responsibility for the lives of his men. (Tim O'Brien, The Things They Carried)
• We must all hang together, or assuredly we shall all hang separately. (Benjamin Franklin)
• She lowered her standards by raising her glass, her courage, her eyes and his hopes. (Michael Flanders, Have Some Madeira M'Dear)

Ending sentence with preposition

Avoidance

• This is the sort of English up with which I will not put. (Attributed by Gowers to Winston Churchill)
• Throw your father down the stairs his hat.
• Throw the baby out the window a piece of bread.

Extreme non-avoidance

• The little girl says to her father, "What did you bring that book that I did not want to be read to out of up for?"
• What did you turn your socks from inside out to outside in for?

Parallels

Parallel between noun phrases and verb phrases with respect to argument structure

• The enemy destroyed the city.
• The enemy's destruction of the city.

Neurolinguistic examples

N400

• She spread the bread with socks.

Non-English examples

German

• Die Männer, die vor dem Schokoladenladen Laden laden, laden Ladenmädchen zum Tanzen ein, meaning "The men, who loaded chests in front of the chocolate shop, asked shop girls for a dance".
• Wenn hinter Fliegen Fliegen fliegen, fliegen Fliegen Fliegen nach, meaning "When flies fly behind flies, flies fly after flies".
• Wenn hinter Rumkugeln Rumkugeln rumkugeln, kugeln hinter Rumkugeln Rumkugeln rum, meaning "When rum truffles roll around behind rum truffles, rum truffles roll around behind rum-truffles".
• Wenn Albert albert, ruht Ruth. Wenn Albert ruht, albert Ruth, meaning "When Albert fools about, Ruth reposes. When Albert reposes, Ruth fools about.".
• Selten ess' ich Essig. Ess' ich Essig, ess' ich Essig zum Salat, meaning "Rarely I eat vinegar. [When] I eat vinegar, I eat vinegar to the salad.", phonetically Essig (vinegar) and Ess' ich (I eat) sound the same (ɛssɪç).

Danish, Swedish, and Norwegian

• Bar barbarbarbarbar bar bar barbarbarbarbar, meaning "naked barbarian-bar-barbarian [barbarian usually hanging out in bars for barbarians] carried naked barbarian-bar-barbarian."
• Når graver Graver graver grave, graver graver Graver grave for andre, meaning "When digger Graver [his name is Graver] digs graves, digger Graver digs graves for others."

Glaswegian/Southwestern Scots

• "Fit fit fits fit ski", meaning "Which foot fits which Ski."

Finnish

• Kokko, kokoo kokoon koko kokko! Koko kokkoko? Koko kokko., meaning "Kokko (a surname), gather up a full bonfire! A full bonfire? A full bonfire."
• Vihdoin vihdoin vihdoin, meaning "Finally I was bathing in a sauna with a bunch of birch branchs".
• Etsivät etsivät etsivät etsivät etsivät, meaning "The searching detectives are searching the searching detectives".
• Piilevät piilevät piilevät, meaning "The hiding diatoms are hiding".
• Katos katos katos katos, "Look out, the shed disappeared on the roof".
• Hae lakkaa satamasta kun lakkaa satamasta, "Get varnish from the harbor when it ceases raining".

Spanish

• ¿Cómo como? ¿Cómo cómo como? Como como como, meaning "How do I eat? What do you mean, how do I eat? I eat how I eat".

Dutch

• Als achter vliegen vliegen vliegen vliegen vliegen vliegen achterna, meaning "If flies fly behind flies, then those flies are flying behind flies".
• Als achter vliegen vliegen vliegen vliegen vliegen vliegensvlug, meaning "If flies fly behind flies, then those flies are flying as fast as a fly".
• Als Graven Graven graven graven graven Graven Graven graven, meaning "When counts dig graves for other counts, counts are digging graves for other counts".
• Als bergen bergen bergen bergen bergen, bergen bergen bergen bergen bergen., meaning "When loads of mountains store loads of (other) mountains, then loads of mountains store loads of mountains."
• Voor was was was was was is, meaning "Before (the word) was was (the word) was, (the word) was was (the word) is".
• Van alle zagen die wij ooit zagen zagen zagen zagen wij nog nooit zo zagen zagen zoals wij onze zagen zagen zagen zagen, meaning "Of all saws that ever we observed sawing saws, we never observed saws sawing saws like we observed our own saws sawing saws".
• Wat Kan kan kan Kan alleen, meaning "Whatever Kan could do, only Kan could do".

French

• Si ton tonton tond ton tonton, ton tonton sera tondu, meaning "If your uncle shears your uncle, your uncle'll be shorn".
• Si six scies scient six cyprès, six cents scies scient six cents cyprès, meaning "If six saws saw six cypresses, six hundred saws saw six hundred cypresses".

Icelandic

• Ái á Á á á í á, meaning "A farmer named Ái who lives on a farm by the name of Á, owns a female sheep that is in a river".

Italian

• "Chi ara mente"? Chiaramente, Chiara mente (meaning "'Who plows lies?' Clearly, Chiara lies").

Swedish

• Farfar, får får får? Nej, sonson, får får inte får, får får lamm. meaning, "Grandfather, may sheep give birth to sheep? No, grandson, sheep may not give birth to sheep, sheep may give birth to lambs."

Japanese

• Buta wo butta no wa buta. Butareta buta ga butta buta wo butta. (豚をぶったのは豚。ぶたれた豚がぶった豚をぶった。) meaning "What hit the pig was a pig. The pig that was hit hit the pig that hit it."
• Shikashi, kashi ka shika shika shikaranakatta. (しかし、菓子か鹿しか叱らなかった。) meaning "However, I didn't scold anyone but the deer or the pastries."

Malay

• Sayang, sayang sayang sayang, sayang sayang sayang? meaning "Darling, I love you dear, do you love me?"

Romanian

• Stanca sta-n castan ca Stan, meaning "(The girl named) Stanca stood in a chestnut tree like (the boy named) Stan".

Russian

• Косил косой косой косой косой косой, meaning "A drunk cross-eyed hare was mowing grass with a curved scythe".
• Косил косой косой косой косой на косой косой косой косой с косой косой косой косой косую косу, meaning "A drunk cross-eyed curved hare astride a drunk cross-eyed curved doe-hare with curved plait was mowing grass on curved spit with a curved scythe".
• Проворонила вороная ворона вороного воронёнка, meaning "The black crow letted the black fledgeling of the crow".

Hungarian

• A követ követ követ, meaning "The envoy follows a stone".

Estonian

• Vahetevahel on vahede vahel vahed vahel, "Sometimes are breaks between cracks"

Mandarin Chinese

• Ma mãma qí ma. Ma màn má. Ma mãma mà ma ma?, written as "馬媽媽騎馬. 馬慢嘛. 馬媽媽罵馬嗎?", means "Mother Ma (a surname) rides a horse. The horse is slow, obviously. Does Mother Ma scold the horse?"

• 下雨天留客天留我不留 comes from a story involving a clever guest and his tight-fisted host. The sentence can be punctuated as either 下雨,天留客.天留,我不留! which means "It rains, the sky detains the guest. The sky keeps him, I don't!" from the host's perspective, OR it can be punctuated as 下雨天,留客天,留我不?留! meaning "Day of rain, day of keeping guests. Keep me or not? Keep." from the guest's perspective.

Tagalog

• Bababa ba? Bababa!, meaning "(Is it) going down? It is!"

See also

• Garden path sentence, a sentence that illustrates that humans process language one word at a time
• Gradient well-formedness
• Grammaticality
• Paraprosdokian, a figure of speech in which the latter part of a sentence or phrase is surprising or unexpected in a way that causes the reader or listener to reframe the first part

External links

• The Trouble with NLP: Some additional demonstrations of why these and similar examples are hard for computers to deal with when attempting natural language processing.