View source for List of linguistic example sentences

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The following is a partial '''list of linguistic example sentences''' illustrating various [[Linguistics|linguistic]] phenomena.

== Ambiguity ==
Different types of ambiguity which are possible in language.

=== Lexical ambiguity ===
Demonstrations of words which have multiple meanings dependent on [[Context (language use)|context]].
* Will, will Will will Will Will's will? – Will (a person), will (future tense auxiliary verb) Will (a second person) will (bequeath) {{bracket|to}} Will (a third person) Will's (the second person) will (a document)? (Someone asked Will&nbsp;1 directly if Will&nbsp;2 plans to bequeath his own will, the document, to Will&nbsp;3.)<ref name="Han 2015">{{cite journal|last=Han |first=Bianca-Oana |date=2015 |title=On Language Peculiarities: when language evolves that much that speakers find it strange |url=http://upm.ro/cercetare/studia%20website/Studia18.2015.pdf#page=140 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151014032026/http://upm.ro/cercetare/studia%20website/Studia18.2015.pdf |archive-date=14 October 2015 |url-status=live |journal=Philologia |issue=18 |page=140 |issn=1582-9960}}</ref>
* [[Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo]]. – Bison (the plural of "buffalos" or "buffalo" is also accepted) from [[Buffalo, New York]], whom bison from Buffalo bully, bully bison from Buffalo.
* Police police Police police police police Police police.<ref>{{cite news |last=Sterbenz |first=Christina |year=2014 |title=9 Sentences That Are Perfectly Accurate |work=Business Insider Australia |url=https://www.businessinsider.com/weird-sentences-2014-1 |access-date=10 June 2018 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140821000531/https://www.businessinsider.com.au/weird-sentences-2014-1 |archive-date=2014-08-21}}</ref> – [[Police officer]]s from [[Police, West Pomeranian Voivodeship|Police]], Poland, whom police officers from Police patrol, patrol police officers from Police.
* Rose rose to put rose roes on her rows of roses. (Robert J. Baran) – Rose [a person] rose [stood] to put rose [pink-colored] roes [fish eggs as fertilizer] on her rows of roses [flower].
* [[James while John had had had had had had had had had had had a better effect on the teacher]]<ref>{{cite web|url=https://icpcarchive.ecs.baylor.edu/external/38/3802.pdf |title=Operator Jumble |issue=3802 |website=ACM-ICPC Live Archive |publisher=Baylor University |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150309185345/http://icpcarchive.ecs.baylor.edu/external/38/3802.pdf |archive-date=9 March 2015 |url-status=live |access-date=10 October 2015 }}</ref> – With punctuation: "James, while John had had 'had', had had 'had had'. 'Had had' had had a better effect on the teacher", or "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".<ref>{{cite book | last = Wieringa, Moore & Barnes | title = Procedure Writing: Principles and Practices | publisher = Battelle Press | year = 1993 | pages = 54 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=Tm5RAAAAMAAJ&q=%22That+that+is+is+that+that+is+not+is+not+is+that+it+it+is%22 | isbn = 0-935470-68-9 }}</ref><ref>{{cite book | last = Brewer | first = Ebenezer Cobham | author-link = Ebenezer Cobham Brewer | title = Dictionary of Phrase and Fable | publisher = Harper | date = 1953 | pages = 896}}</ref>
* Can can can can can can can can can can. – "Examples of the [[can-can]] dance that other examples of the same dance are able to outshine, or figuratively to put into the trashcan, are themselves able to outshine examples of the same dance". It could alternatively be interpreted as a question, "Is it possible for examples of the dance that have been outshone to outshine others?" or several other ways.
* [[Martin Gardner]] offered the example: "Wouldn't the sentence 'I want to put a hyphen between the words Fish and And and And and Chips in my Fish-And-Chips sign' have been clearer if quotation marks had been placed before Fish, and between Fish and and, and and and And, and And and and, and and and And, and And and and, and and and Chips, as well as after Chips?"<ref name="Gardner 2006">{{cite book |last=Gardner |first=Martin |author-link=Martin Gardner |title=Aha! A Two Volume Collection: Aha! Gotcha Aha! Insight |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3HzwNVMQOZkC&pg=RA1-PA141 |date=2006 |publisher=The Mathematica Association of America |isbn=978-0-88385-551-5 |page=141}}</ref>
* [[The End (novel)|The bears bear hard hard yarn yarns]]. ([[Lemony Snicket]]) – The bears endure tiring and unpleasant long stories about hard yarn.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Snicket |first=Lemony |url=https://archive.org/details/endaseriesofunfo00lemo |title=The End |date=13 October 2006 |publisher=[[HarperCollins]] |isbn=978-0-06-441016-8 |pages=45–46 |language=en |author-link=Lemony Snicket |access-date=3 November 2022 |url-access=registration}}</ref>

=== Syntactic ambiguity ===
{{see|Syntactic ambiguity}}
Demonstrations of ambiguity between alternative syntactic structures underlying a sentence.
* I made her duck.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Jurafsky |first1=Daniel |last2=Martin |first2=James H. |title=Speech and Language Processing: An Introduction to Natural Language Processing, Computational Linguistics, and Speech Recognition: an introduction to natural language processing, computational linguistics, and speech recognition |date=2000 |publisher=Prentice Hall |location=Upper Saddle River, N.J. |isbn=0-13-095069-6 |pages=4–5}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Nirenburg |first1=Sergei |last2=McShane |first2=Marjorie J. |editor1-last=Chipman |editor1-first=Susan E. F. |title=The Oxford Handbook of Cognitive Science |date=2017 |publisher=Oxford University Press |location=New York |isbn=978-0-19-984417-3 |page=338 |chapter=Natural Language Processing |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hD1dDgAAQBAJ&pg=PA338 |doi=10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199842193.013.13}}</ref>
* [[Animal Crackers (1930 film)|One morning I shot an elephant in my pajamas. How he got in my pajamas, I don't know.]]<ref name="Fodor Lepore 2004">{{cite journal |last1=Fodor |first1=Jerry |last2=Lepore |first2=Ernie |date=2004 |title=Out of Context |journal=Proceedings and Addresses of the American Philosophical Association |volume=78 |issue=2 |pages=83–84 |issn=0065-972X |doi=10.2307/3219726 |jstor=3219726  |s2cid=18454403 |quote=[[Groucho Marx|Groucho]] said, as everybody knows, 'I shot an elephant in my pajamas.' This sets up the infamous joke: 'How an elephant got into my pajamas I can't imagine. {{bracket|Laughter}}.' What, exactly, happened here? We take the following to be untendentious as far as it goes: the conventions of English are in force, and they entail that there are two ways to read the set-up sentence. Either it expresses the thought (I, in my pajamas, shot an elephant) or it expresses the thought (I) (shot (an elephant in my pajamas)).}}</ref>
* [[Time flies like an arrow; fruit flies like a banana]].
* [[Eats, Shoots & Leaves|Eats shoots and leaves]]

=== Syntactic ambiguity, incrementality, and local coherence ===
{{main|Garden-path sentence}}

Demonstrations of how ''incremental'' and (at least partially) ''local'' syntactic parsing leads to infelicitous constructions and interpretations.
* [[Reduced relative clause]]s
** [[Garden-path sentence#"The horse raced past the barn fell."|The horse raced past the barn fell]].
** The coach smiled at the player tossed the frisbee (by the opposing team).<ref name="Tabor Galantucci Richardson 2004">{{cite journal|last1=Tabor |first1=Whitney |last2=Galantucci |first2=Bruno |last3=Richardson |first3=Daniel |title=Effects of merely local syntactic coherence on sentence processing |journal=Journal of Memory and Language |volume=50 |issue=4 |date=2004 |pages=355–370 |issn=0749-596X |doi=10.1016/j.jml.2004.01.001 |url=http://psychology.uconn.edu/labs/solab/papers/tabor04eomlscosp.pdf |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150701150939/http://psychology.uconn.edu/labs/solab/papers/tabor04eomlscosp.pdf |archive-date=1 July 2015 |citeseerx=10.1.1.77.3953 }}</ref>
** While the man was hunting the deer ran through the forest.<ref name="Christianson Hollingworth Halliwell Ferreira 2001">{{cite journal |last1=Christianson |first1=Kiel |last2=Hollingworth |first2=Andrew |last3=Halliwell |first3=John F. |last4=Ferreira |first4=Fernanda |title=Thematic Roles Assigned along the Garden Path Linger |journal=Cognitive Psychology |volume=42 |issue=4 |date=2001 |pages=368–407 |issn=0010-0285 |doi=10.1006/cogp.2001.0752|pmid=11368528 |citeseerx=10.1.1.580.9677 |s2cid=4130879 }}</ref> 
** The weasel that a boy that startles the cat thinks loves smiles eats.

=== Scope ambiguity and anaphora resolution ===
* [[Donkey sentence|Every farmer who owns a donkey beats it.]]<ref name="Barker 1999">{{cite web|url=http://www.csi.uottawa.ca/~kbarker/teach/5386/donkey.html |title=CSI 5386: Donkey Sentence Discussion |last=Barker |first=Ken |date=2 October 1999 |website=University of Ottawa School of Information Technology and Engineering |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070516212356/http://www.csi.uottawa.ca/~kbarker/teach/5386/donkey.html |archive-date=16 May 2007 |url-status=dead |quote='Every farmer who owns a donkey beats it' .&nbsp;.&nbsp;.&nbsp;: there is some single thing Y in the universe such that for every X in the universe if X is a farmer and Y is a donkey and X owns Y, then X beats Y. So the problem with the donkey sentence is that the scope of the variable corresponding to the donkey must be ''contained within the antecedent'' of the implication to prevent requiring the unconditional existence of the donkey. But the scope of the donkey variable must ''contain the consequent'' of the implication to allow the anaphoric reference! }}</ref>

=== Embedding ===
{{See also|Center embedding}}
* The rat the cat the dog bit chased escaped.<ref name="Kempen Vosse 1989">{{cite journal|url=http://pubman.mpdl.mpg.de/pubman/item/escidoc:1145652:1/component/escidoc:1145651/Kempen_Vosse_Connection_Science_1989.pdf#page=11 |title=Incremental Syntactic Tree Formation in Human Sentence Processing: a Cognitive Architecture Based on Activation Decay and Simulated Annealing |last1=Kempen |first1=Gerard |last2=Vosse |first2=Theo |date=1989 |journal=Connection Science |volume=1 |issue=3 |page=282 |doi=10.1080/09540098908915642 |issn=1360-0494 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151014035944/http://pubman.mpdl.mpg.de/pubman/item/escidoc%3A1145652%3A1/component/escidoc%3A1145651/Kempen_Vosse_Connection_Science_1989.pdf |archive-date=14 October 2015|quote=The rat the cat the dog bit chased escaped. |hdl=11858/00-001M-0000-0012-25F8-8 |hdl-access=free }}</ref>
* The editor authors the newspaper hired liked laughed.<ref name="Braine2014">{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tG1TAwAAQBAJ|title=Language and Human Understanding|last=Braine|first=David|year=2014|publisher=CUA Press|isbn=9780813221748|page=614}}</ref>
* The man who the boy who the students recognized pointed out is a friend of mine.<ref name="Braine2014"/>

=== Punctuation ===
Punctuation can be used to introduce ambiguity or misunderstandings where none needed to exist. One well known example,<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.cliffsnotes.com/literature/m/a-midsummer-nights-dream/summary-and-analysis/act-v-scene-1 |title=A Midsummer Night's Dream |issue=3802 |website=CliffsNotes |access-date=18 October 2018 }}</ref> for comedic effect, is from ''[[A Midsummer Night's Dream]]'' by William Shakespeare (ignoring the punctuation provides the alternate reading).

:Enter [[Peter Quince|QUINCE]] for the Prologue
:'''Prologue'''
::If we offend, it is with our good will.
::That you should think, we come not to offend,
::But with good will. To show our simple skill,
::That is the true beginning of our end.
::Consider then we come but in despite.
::We do not come as minding to content you,
::Our true intent is. All for your delight
::We are not here. That you should here repent you,
::The actors are at hand and by their show
::You shall know all that you are like to know.
::—''ACT V, Scene i''

== Word order ==

=== Ending sentence with preposition ===
Some [[Linguistic prescription|prescriptive grammar]] prohibits "[[preposition stranding]]": ending sentences with prepositions.<ref name="Huddleston Pullum 2012 627">{{cite book |date=2012 |orig-year=1st pub. 2002 |editor1-last=Huddleston |editor1-first=Rodney D. |editor1-link=Rodney Huddleston |editor2-last=Pullum |editor2-first=Geoffrey K. |editor2-link=Geoffrey K. Pullum |title=The Cambridge Grammar of the English Language |others=5th printing |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-0-521-43146-0 |lccn=2001025630 |oclc=46641801 |ol=4984064W |chapter=Prepositions and preposition phrases §&nbsp;4.1&nbsp;Preposition stranding:&nbsp;''What was she referring to?'' |chapter-url=https://archive.org/stream/TheCambridgeGrammarOfTheEnglishLanguage/The%20Cambridge%20grammar%20of%20the%20English%20language#page/n640 |last1=Pullum |first1=Geoffrey K. |author1-link=Geoffrey K. Pullum |last2=Huddleston |first2=Rodney |author2-link=Rodney Huddleston |page=627 |quote=The 'rule' was apparently created [[wikt:ex nihilo|ex&nbsp;nihilo]] in 1672 by the essayist John Dryden, who took exception to Ben Jonson's phrase ''the bodies that those souls were frighted from'' (1611). Dryden was in effect suggesting that Jonson should have written ''the bodies from which those souls were frighted'', but he offers no reason for preferring this to the original.}}</ref>

==== Avoidance ====
* This is the sort of English up with which I will not put. (Attributed by [[Ernest Gowers|Gowers]] to [[Winston Churchill]]. There is no convincing evidence that Churchill said this, and good reason to believe that he did not.)<ref>{{cite web|url=http://winstonchurchill.org/resources/quotations/famous-quotations-and-stories |title=Famous Quotations and Stories |website=The Churchill Centre |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150910121948/http://winstonchurchill.org/resources/quotations/famous-quotations-and-stories |archive-date=10 September 2015 |url-status=live |access-date=10 October 2015 |quote='This is the kind of tedious {{bracket|sometimes "pedantic"}} nonsense up with which I will not put!' .&nbsp;.&nbsp;. Verdict: An invented phrase put in Churchill's mouth |date=March 2009 }}</ref><ref name="Zimmer 2004">{{cite web|url=http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/001715.html |title=A misattribution no longer to be put up with |last=Zimmer |first=Ben |author-link=Ben Zimmer |date=12 December 2004 |website=Language Log |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150907191637/http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/001715.html |archive-date=7 September 2015 |url-status=live |access-date=10 October 2015 }}</ref> The sentence "does not demonstrate the absurdity of using {{bracket|prepositional phrase}} fronting instead of stranding; it merely illustrates the ungrammaticality resulting from fronting something that is not a [[Constituent (linguistics)|constituent]]".<ref name="Huddleston Pullum 2012 629">{{cite book |date=2012 |orig-year=1st pub. 2002 |editor1-last=Huddleston |editor1-first=Rodney D. |editor1-link=Rodney Huddleston |editor2-last=Pullum |editor2-first=Geoffrey K. |editor2-link=Geoffrey K. Pullum |title=The Cambridge Grammar of the English Language |others=5th printing |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-0-521-43146-0 |lccn=2001025630 |oclc=46641801 |ol=4984064W |chapter=Prepositions and preposition phrases §&nbsp;4.1&nbsp;Preposition stranding:&nbsp;''What was she referring to?'' |chapter-url=https://archive.org/stream/TheCambridgeGrammarOfTheEnglishLanguage/The%20Cambridge%20grammar%20of%20the%20English%20language#page/n642 |last1=Pullum |first1=Geoffrey K. |author1-link=Geoffrey K. Pullum |last2=Huddleston |first2=Rodney |author2-link=Rodney Huddleston |page=629 |quote=This example is based on a much-quoted joke attributed to Sir Winston Churchill, who is said to have annotated some clumsy evasion of stranding in a document with the remark: ''This is the sort of English up with which I will not put''. Unfortunately, the joke fails because it depends on a mistaken grammatical analysis: in ''I will not put up with this sort of English'' the sequence ''up with this sort of English'' is not a constituent, ''up'' being a separate complement of the verb (in the traditional analysis it is an adverb). Churchill's example thus does not demonstrate the absurdity of using [[prepositional phrase|PP]] fronting instead of stranding: it merely illustrates the ungrammaticality resulting from fronting something which is not a constituent.}}</ref><ref name="Pullum 2004">{{cite web|url=http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/001702.html |title=A Churchill story up with which I will no longer put |last=Pullum |first=Geoffrey K. |author-link=Geoffrey K. Pullum |date=8 December 2004 |website=Language Log |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150910054515/http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/001702.html |archive-date=10 September 2015 |url-status=live }}</ref>

==== Compound use ====
* "A 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?{{'"}}<ref name="White 2011">{{cite book |editor-last=White |editor-first=Martha |title=In the Words of E.&nbsp;B.&nbsp;White: Quotations from America's Most Companionable of Writers |date=2011 |publisher=Cornell University Press |isbn=978-0-8014-6367-9 |page=120}}</ref>

== Neurolinguistics ==
Sentences with unexpected endings.
* She spread the bread with socks.<ref name="Kutas Hillyard 1980">{{cite journal |title=Reading senseless sentences: brain potentials reflect semantic incongruity |last1=Kutas |first1=Marta |last2=Hillyard |first2=Steven A. |journal=Science |date=1980 |volume=207 |issue=4427 |pmid=7350657 |doi=10.1126/science.7350657 |pages=203–205|bibcode=1980Sci...207..203K }}</ref>
[[Comparative illusion]]:
* More people have been to Russia than I have.<ref>{{cite book |last1 = Phillips |first1 = Colin |last2 = Wagers |first2 = Matthew W. |last3 = Lau |first3 = Ellen F. |date = 2011 |chapter = Grammatical Illusions and Selective Fallibility in Real-Time Language Comprehension |chapter-url = https://escholarship.org/uc/item/6z3671x8 |editor1-last = Runner |editor1-first = Jeffrey T. |title = Experiments at the Interfaces |publisher = Emerald |location = Bingley |isbn = 978-1-78052-374-3 |pages = 147–180 |doi = 10.1163/9781780523750_006 |series = Syntax and Semantics |volume = 37 |s2cid = 40053259 }}</ref>

== Combinatorial complexity ==
Demonstrations of sentences which are unlikely to have ever been said, although the combinatorial complexity of the linguistic system makes them possible.
* [[Colorless green ideas sleep furiously]] ([[Noam Chomsky]]): example that is grammatically correct but based on semantic combinations that are contradictory and therefore would not normally occur.
* Hold the news reader's nose squarely, waiter, or friendly milk will countermand my trousers.<ref name="Fry 1989">{{cite episode |last=Fry |first=Stephen |url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0526461/quotes?item=qt2070024 |series=A Bit of Fry & Laurie |network=BBC |date=20 January 1989 |title=Series&nbsp;1, Episode&nbsp;2 |quote=Hold the news reader's nose squarely waiter, or friendly milk will countermand my trousers.}}</ref>

== Semantics and context ==
Demonstrations of sentences where the semantic interpretation is bound to context or knowledge of the world.
* The large ball crashed right through the table because it was made of Styrofoam: ambiguous use of a pronoun: The word "it" refers to the table being made of Styrofoam; but "it" would immediately refer to the large ball if we replaced "Styrofoam" with "steel" without any other change in its syntactic parse.<ref name="Etzioni 2014">{{cite book |last=Etzioni |first=Oren |title=Proceedings of the 20th ACM SIGKDD international conference on Knowledge discovery and data mining |chapter=The battle for the future of data mining |chapter-url=http://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=2630816|date=2014 |pages=1 |chapter-url-access=registration |quote=The large ball crashed right through the table because it was made of Styrofoam.|doi=10.1145/2623330.2630816 |isbn=9781450329569 |series=KDD '14 |s2cid=27515801 }}</ref>
* The bee landed on the flower because it had nectar: The pronoun "it" refers to the "flower" but changes to the "bee" if we replace "had" with "wanted".
* We bought the boys apples because they were so hungry: "they" refers to the boys, but if "hungry" is replaced with "cheap", with no grammatical change, it refers to the apples.<ref name="Haugeland1989">{{cite book | title = Artificial Intelligence: The Very Idea | last1 = Haugeland | first1 = John | author-link = John Haugeland | page = 195 | year = 1989 | publisher = Penguin Random House LLC | isbn = 9780262580953 }}</ref>

=== Relevance conditionals ===
Conditionals where the prejacent ("if" clause) is not strictly required for the consequent to be true.
* There are biscuits on the table if you want some ("biscuit conditional").
* If I may be honest, you're not looking good. <ref name="Language Log">{{Cite web|url=https://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=1469|title=Language Log » If you think about it}}</ref>

== Non-English examples ==
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     Any information that does not have a source cited will be deleted.
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=== [[Ojibwe language|Ojibwe]] ===
<!-- Please only add an example if you can cite a source to support its notability, or if it already has its own article on Wikipedia.
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     Any sentence that is a joke or tongue-twister but not a sourced LINGUISTIC EXAMPLE will be removed -->
* ''{{lang|oj|Gdaa-naanaanaa, Aanaa, naa?}}'' meaning "We should fetch Ana, shouldn't we?".<ref name="Valentine 2001">{{cite book |last=Valentine |first=J.&nbsp;Randolph |date=2001 |chapter=18.9.1.1.&nbsp;Yes/No (Polar) Question |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TBUcyYZDsO0C&pg=PA978 |title=Nishnaabemwin Reference Grammar |language=en, oj |publisher=University of Toronto Press |page=978 |isbn=978-0-8020-8389-0 |lccn=2002284190 |oclc=46625840 |ol=3585700M |quote=''Gdaa-naanaanaa, Aanaa, naa?'' .&nbsp;.&nbsp;. 'We should fetch Anna, shouldn't we?'}}</ref>

=== [[Latin]] ===
<!-- Please only add an example if you can cite a source to support its notability, or if it already has its own article on Wikipedia.
     Any information that does not have a source cited will be deleted.
     Any sentence that is a joke or tonguetwister but not a sourced LINGUISTIC EXAMPLE will be removed -->
* [[John, Archbishop of Esztergom]] ([[Kingdom of Hungary]]) was pressed to make a statement on the [[Assassination of Gertrude of Merania|assassination]] of [[Gertrude of Merania]], and on the first hand the assassination would have been beneficial for the Church but on the other hand taking part in an assassination may have caused him to lose his position and possibly life; so he wrote in [[1213]]: "''{{lang|la|Reginam occidere nolite timere bonum est si omnes consentiunt ego non contradico}}''". The sentence can be read as "''{{lang|la|Reginam occidere nolite, timere bonum est, si omnes consentiunt, ego non. Contradico.}}''" ("don't kill the Queen, it is good to be afraid, even if all agree I do not. I object."), or the opposite meaning "''{{lang|la|Reginam occidere nolite timere, bonum est; si omnes consentiunt ego non contradico.}}''" ("Do not be afraid to kill the Queen, it is good, if all agree then I do not object.").<ref name="hermann">[[Hermann of Altach]]: [https://www.dmgh.de/mgh_ss_17/index.htm#page/386/mode/1up Annales Hermanni (1137-1173), ed. Philipp Jaffé, in Monumenta Germaniae Historica: Scriptorum, vol. 17 (Hanover, 1861), p. 386.]</ref><ref name="alberic">[[Alberic of Trois-Fontaines]]: [https://www.dmgh.de/mgh_ss_23/index.htm#page/898/mode/1up Chronica Albrici Monachi Trium Fontium (1232-1251), ed. Paulus Scheffer-Boichorst, in Monumenta Germaniae Historica: Scriptorum, vol. 23 (Hanover, 1874), p. 898.]. </ref><ref name="ujember">{{cite web | url=http://ujember.katolikus.hu/Archivum/2003.01.19/1105.html | title=A királynét megölni... | trans-title=To kill the Queen… | author=Péter Horváthy | language=hu | archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20070722195350/http://ujember.katolikus.hu/Archivum/2003.01.19/1105.html | archive-date=2007-07-22 | accessdate=2007-07-22 }}</ref> It has been quoted by [[Boncompagno da Signa]] is his work ''Rhetorica novissima'' in 1235 and from there it has been part of the [[rhetoric]]al education.<ref name="rhetorica">{{Cite web | url=http://scrineum.unipv.it/wight/rn7.htm |title=Rhetorica novissima | author=Boncompagno da Signa | year=1235 | accessdate=2015-03-26 | archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20160416121529/http://scrineum.unipv.it/wight/rn7.htm |archivedate=2016-04-16 | language=la }}</ref>
** King [[Edward II]] of England was killed, reportedly after [[Adam Orleton|Adam of Orleton]], one of his gaolers, received a message, probably from Mortimer, reading "''{{lang|la|Edwardum occidere nolite timere bonum est}}''". This can be read either as "''{{lang|la|Edwardum occidere nolite; timere bonum est}}''" ("Do not kill Edward; it is good to be afraid {{bracket|to do so}}") or as "''{{lang|la|Edwardum occidere nolite timere; bonum est}}''" ("Do not be afraid to kill Edward; {{bracket|to do so}} is good"). This ambiguous sentence has been much discussed by various writers, including [[John Harington (writer)|John Harington]].<ref>{{cite book |last=Collier |first=John Payne |author-link=John Payne Collier |date=1825 |chapter=Edward&nbsp;II |chapter-url=https://archive.org/stream/aselectcollecti06collgoog#page/n406 |editor1-last=Reed |editor1-first=Isaac |editor1-link=Isaac Reed |editor2-last=Gilchrist |editor2-first=Octavius |editor2-link=Octavius Graham Gilchrist |title=A Selection of Old Plays in Twelve Volumes |volume=II |publisher=Septimus Prowett |location=London |page=393 |lccn=12002796 |oclc=2075486 |quote=Sir J.&nbsp;Harington has an Epigram (L.&nbsp;i.&nbsp;E.&nbsp;83.) 'Of writing with double pointing,' which is thus introduced. 'It is said that King Edward, of Carnarvon, lying at Berkeley Castle, prisoner, a cardinal wrote to his keeper, ''Edwardum occidere noli, timere bonum est'', which being read with the point at ''timere'', it cost the king his life.'}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last=Addis |first=John, Junior |date=18 July 1868 |title=Adam of Orleton's Saying |url=https://archive.org/stream/notesqueries4221unse#page/66 |journal=[[Notes and Queries]] |department=Replies |page=66 |series=4 |volume=s4-II |issue=29 |issn=0029-3970 |id=ADDIS18071868|doi=10.1093/nq/s4-II.29.66c }}</ref>
* {{lang|la|[[Ibis redibis nunquam per bella peribis]].}}

=== [[Mandarin Chinese]] ===
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* Various sentences using the syllables {{linktext|mā}}, {{linktext|má}}, {{linktext|mǎ}}, {{linktext|mà}}, and {{linktext|ma}} are often used to illustrate the importance of [[tone (linguistics)|tones]] to [[Chinese as a second language|foreign learners]]. One example: {{zh|s=妈妈骑马马慢妈妈骂马|p=māma qí mǎ, mǎ màn, māma mà mǎ|l=Mother is riding a horse... the horse is slow... mother scolds the horse}}.<ref name="隔壁小谁 2010">{{cite web |url=http://tieba.baidu.com/f?ct=335675392&tn=baiduPostBrowser&sc=8745192375&z=814581286#8745192375 |title=老外学中文都要从 "妈妈骑马马慢妈妈骂马" 开始么 |author=隔壁小谁 |date=1 July 2010 |website=[[Baidu]] |language=zh |trans-title=Do all foreigners learning Chinese start with "''māma qí mǎ, mǎ màn, māma mà mǎ''" ("Mother is riding a horse, the horse is slow, mother scolds the horse")? |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160303233217/http://tieba.baidu.com/f?ct=335675392&tn=baiduPostBrowser&sc=8745192375&z=814581286#8745192375 |archive-date=3 March 2016 |url-status=live |quote=妈妈骑马马慢妈妈骂马}}</ref>
* [[Lion-Eating Poet in the Stone Den]]: poem of 92 characters, all with the sound ''shi'' (in four different tones) when read in Modern Standard Mandarin

=== [[Japanese language|Japanese]] ===
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* Although at first glance the single character sentence {{ill|子子子子子子子子子子子子|ja|vertical-align=sup}} does not seem to make sense, when this sentence is read using the right readings of the [[kanji]] {{lang|ja|子}} (in the example it only borrows the pronunciation but not the meaning of the [[Chinese family of scripts|logogram]]s, like [[man'yōgana]]), it means "the young of cat, kitten, and the young of lion, cub". This would be "猫之子、子猫、獅子之子、子獅子" if it were to be written semantically, with the genitive construction being inferred in the original. It is told in the work [[Ujishūi Monogatari]] that the Japanese poet [[Ono no Takamura]] used this reading to [[Ono no Takamura#Takamura in later literature|escape death]].

=== [[Czech language|Czech]] ===
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* ''{{lang|cs|Jedli na hoře bez holí}}'', meaning either "they ate [[elderberries]] on a mountain using a stick" or "they ate on a mountain without any sticks" or "they ate elderberry using a stick to eat their sorrow away"; depending on the phrasing or a correct placement or punctuation, at least 7 meanings can be obtained. By replacing "na hoře" by "nahoře", one obtains 5 more meanings. If separating words using spaces is also permitted, the total number of known possible meanings rises to 58.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://ja.kub.cz/index.php?id=detail&idk=71 |publisher=Sbírka kalambůrů Jakuba Těšínského |title=Registrační záznam kalambůru č. 71 |date=31 July 2010 |access-date=1 July 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140714234458/http://ja.kub.cz/index.php?id=detail&idk=71 |archive-date=14 July 2014 |url-status=dead }}</ref>
* Czech has the [[syllabic consonants]] {{IPA|[r]}} and {{IPA|[l]}}, which can stand in for vowels. A well-known example of a sentence that does not contain a vowel is {{lang|cs|[[Strč prst skrz krk]]}}, meaning "stick your finger through the neck."

=== [[Korean language|Korean]] ===
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* In [[Gyeongsang dialect]], the repetition of the syllable {{lang|ko|가}} ("ga") with the right intonation can form meaningful phrases. For example:
** "{{lang|ko|가가 가가?}}" which means "Are they the one we talked about?"
** "{{lang|ko|가가 가가가}}" which means "Since they took it away"
** "{{lang|ko|가가 가가가?}}" which means "Are they the one with the surname Ga?"<ref>{{cite web|url=http://rigvedawiki.net/%EA%B0%80%EA%B0%80%20%EA%B0%80%EA%B0%80 |title=가가 가가 |date=26 February 2015 |website=[[Rigveda Wiki|리그베다 위키]] |language=ko |trans-title=Gaga Gaga |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151010201814/http://rigvedawiki.net/%EA%B0%80%EA%B0%80%20%EA%B0%80%EA%B0%80 |archive-date=10 October 2015 |url-status=live |access-date=10 October 2015 }}</ref>

=== [[German language|German]] ===
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*A famous example for lexical ambiguity is the following sentence: "''{{lang|de|Wenn hinter Fliegen Fliegen fliegen, fliegen Fliegen Fliegen hinterher.}}''", meaning "When flies fly behind flies, then flies fly in pursuit of flies."<ref>{{cite web |url=https://yourdailygerman.com/2016/12/09/crazy-german-sentence-structure/ |title=German is easy: "Lord of the Flies" |date=4 April 2017}}</ref>{{Circular reference|date=May 2017}} It takes advantage of some German nouns and corresponding verbs being homonymous. While not noticeable in spoken language, in written language the difference shows: "Fliegen" ("flies"), being a noun, is written with a capital "F", whereas "fliegen" ("to fly"), being a verb, is not. The comma can be left out without changing the meaning. There are several variations of this sentence pattern, although they do not work as smoothly as the original. Dutch language shares this same example, with the noticeable difference of not capitalising the initials of nouns, making it "''{{lang|nl|Als achter vliegen vliegen vliegen, vliegen vliegen vliegen achterna.}}''"

=== [[Dutch language|Dutch]] ===
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* [[Kees Torn]] expanded on the example given in the German section ("''{{lang|nl|Als achter vliegen vliegen vliegen, vliegen vliegen vliegen achterna.}}''"), from which he created: "''{{lang|nl|Als, in de plaats waar van de makkelijk te zeven zeven zeven zeven zeven zeven zeven, Zeven, zeven zeven zeven zeven zeven, zeven zeven zeven zeven zeven.}}''"<ref>{{cite web |title=Neerlandia/Nederlands van Nu. Jaargang 114 |url=https://www.dbnl.org/tekst/_nee003201001_01/_nee003201001_01_0087.php |website=De digitale bibliotheek |access-date=3 January 2020}}</ref> which uses the fact that zeven has multiple roles: it is a number (seven), a verb (to sieve), a plural noun (sieves) and the name of a German town ([[Zeven]]). As such the translation is: "If, in the town where the easy to sieve sieves seven sieves sieve seven sieves, Zeven, seven sieves sieve seven sieves, seven sieves sieve seven sieves".

=== [[Persian language|Persian]] ===
A famous example for lexical ambiguity in Persian is the following sentence:<ref>{{Cite web |last=YJC |first=خبرگزاری باشگاه خبرنگاران {{!}} آخرین اخبار ایران و جهان {{!}} |date=May 2, 2020 |title=اصول استفاده از علائم نگارشی با مثال‌های کاربردی |url=http://www.yjc.news/fa/news/7333305 |access-date=2022-07-14 |website=fa |language=fa}}</ref>

{{lang|fa|بخشش لازم نیست اعدامش کنید}}

It can be read either as:

* {{lang|fa|بخشش! لازم نیست اعدامش کنید}} 
which means "Forgiveness! no need to execute him/her"

Or as:

* {{lang|fa|بخشش لازم نیست! اعدامش کنید}} 
which means "Forgiveness not needed! execute her/him"

=== [[Polish language|Polish]] ===
*{{lang|pl|Wydrze wydrzę wydrze wydrze wydrze wydrzę}} which means "The young otter of the otter will steal the young otter from otter"
*{{lang|pl|Dział dział dział}} which means "The artillery department was knitting"
*{{lang|pl|Palmy palmy Palmy}} which means "Let's burn the palm trees in [[Palma de Mallorca|Palma]]"

=== [[Finnish language|Finnish]] ===

*The phrase {{lang|fi|Kuusi palaa.}} is frequently used as an example of [[polysemy]] in Finnish.  It has up to 9 meanings, since each word can be individually interpreted in three ways: ''kuusi'' can be "six", "spruce" or "your moon", while ''palaa'' can be "returns", "burns" or "pieces".<ref>{{cite journal | url=https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/13670069221110398 | doi=10.1177/13670069221110398 | title=Analogy and similarity as a resource in new speaker styles of Basque | date=2022 | last1=Lantto | first1=Hanna | journal=International Journal of Bilingualism | volume=26 | issue=5 | pages=639–655 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.theseus.fi/handle/10024/748343 | title=Tekoäly ja luonnollisen kielen käsittelyn mikropalvelut NLP Cloud API:a hyödyntäen | date=2022 }}</ref>

=== [[Indonesian language|Indonesian]] ===
*The sentence {{lang|id|kuku-kuku kakiku kok kek kaku, kakak-kakakku?}} means "why are my toenails look a bit rigid, my sisters/brothers?". Note that {{lang|id|kek}} in Indonesian is an informal form of {{lang|id|seperti}} means "look like" or "kind of".
*The sentence {{lang|id|pukul pemukul pemukul yang memukul pemukul secara pukul-pukulan dan pukul pemukul dengan pemukul pukul dua agar pemukul terpukul karena dipukul dengan pemukul}} means "hit the hammer beater that hit the hammer 'riotly' and hit the beater with [a] hammer at 2 o'clock so the beater feel depressed because he was beaten by hammer".

== See also ==
* [[Garden-path sentence]], sentences that illustrate that humans process language one word at a time
* [[Gradient well-formedness]]
* [[Grammaticality]]
* [[One-syllable article]], Chinese phonological ambiguity
* [[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

== References ==
{{reflist|30em}}

== External links ==
* {{cite journal|url=http://specgram.com/CLIII.4/08.phlogiston.cartoon.zhe.html |series=Cartoon Theories of Linguistics |title=The Trouble with NLP |journal=Speculative Grammarian |date=2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150913082703/http://specgram.com/CLIII.4/08.phlogiston.cartoon.zhe.html |archive-date=13 September 2015 |url-status=live |issn=1938-0720 |oclc=227210202 |volume=153 |issue=4}} Demonstrations of why these and similar examples are hard for computers to deal with when attempting [[natural language processing]].

{{DEFAULTSORT:Linguistic example sentences}}
[[Category:Linguistics lists|Example sentences]]
[[Category:Grammar]]
[[Category:Word play]]
[[Category:Linguistic example sentences| ]]