Confusing headlines

[Travis B.]

There's also:

More: show

[Celebrate [Banned Books]] Week

[Salmoneus]

More: show

You should celebrate the Week of Banned Books
You should celebrate the banned Week of Books
It is The Week of Celebrating Banned Books

but also:
"Celebrate" banned the Week of Books
It is the Week of "Celebrate" having banned books
It is the Week of Books Banned by "Celebrate"

I don't know who Celebrate are, but presumably some sort of Christian theocratic group? Hopefully they're pro-abstinence people?

[Travis B.]

Here are some links that popped up when I googled "celebrate", other than links related to some song and word definitions:

Celebrate - Bariatric Vitamins and Nutritional Supplements

Celebrate Recovery Homepage

"Celebrate Recovery is a Christ-centered, 12 step recovery program for anyone struggling with hurt, pain or addiction of any kind."

Celebrate | Portland Catering and Events

"Your event is special, and the
food should be, too! We’ll build you
an original menu with delicious dishes
that reflect your style and vision."

[Raphael]

A tweet from the BBC's breaking news account:

"Man charged with murder of police officer Andrew Harper, killed while investigating a burglary in Berkshire"

[zyxw59]

Sobering report on guns used in crimes

[Salmoneus]

Beeb: Man who stole $50 to be freed after 36 years in US jail

It was honestly not until a moment after I'd clicked on that headline that I realised that this was just another story about the cruelty of US prison sentences, rather than a rather perplexing story about the perverse incentives the US legal system can create. How, I was wondering, could stealing another $50 suddenly bring an end to such a prison term? What the hell loophole, I wondered, was that?

[Salmoneus]

Metro: Cagliari escape sanctions for alleged racist abuse by fans of Inter's Lukaku

Er... those don't sound like they were his fans!

[Raphael]

Not really confusing, but I misread it at first...

BBC News: Thomas Cook told extra funds needed to seal rescue

It took me a moment to parse this correctly - at first I thought "Why is a travel agency involved in rescuing endangered species? Are they doing this thing where big corporations take up good causes to improve their image or something?"

[Linguoboy]

Mark Ronson Has Fans Scratching Their Heads After Identifing As ‘Sapiosexual’ (HuffPo)

[Travis B.]

Mark Ronson Has Fans Scratching Their Heads After Identifing As ‘Sapiosexual’ (HuffPo)

My head was scratching when reading that headline too.

[Raphael]

He's sexually attracted to sentient beings? Um, it would be pretty bad if he was sexually attracted to non-sentient beings, right?

[Travis B.]

He's sexually attracted to sentient beings? Um, it would be pretty bad if he was sexually attracted to non-sentient beings, right?

At least he's not objectumsexual! Of course, I've never heard of anyone who's described themselves as that, even though it certainly exists, with the existence of sex dolls and whatnot.

[Raphael]

He's sexually attracted to sentient beings? Um, it would be pretty bad if he was sexually attracted to non-sentient beings, right?

At least he's not objectumsexual! Of course, I've never heard of anyone who's described themselves as that, even though it certainly exists, with the existence of sex dolls and whatnot.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Object_sexuality

[Salmoneus]

He's sexually attracted to sentient beings? Um, it would be pretty bad if he was sexually attracted to non-sentient beings, right?

The point (well, LB's point, Travis' point is, as always, about newfangled young people their newfangled ideas taking the world to hell in a handbasket) is the syntactic ambiguity of 'after'- does the prepositional clause apply to Ronson (as semantically it presumably does) or to 'fans' (as syntactically it more intuitively ought to).



---------------


This isn't a headline, but something I heard in conversation, that happens to be a delightful parsing ambiguity:

[She already knew she'd be busy on the Sunday] And so it is fortunate she said having the gathering on the Saturday

I heard this as written: 'she' had arranged a gathering on the Saturday. ["she said having the gathering on the saturday" is fortunate] So I was puzzled why this was fortunate, given that she already knew she was busy on the Sunday - someone doing X because they can't do Y isn't exactly fortunate. I mean, assuming they're not an idiot, nor prone to arranging events through throwing darts at a calendar. It's just common sense.

But what was actually intended was "And so it is fortunate," she said, "having the gathering on the Saturday". That is, someone ELSE arranged the gathering on the Saturday, so it was indeed fortunate for her, as she wouldn't have been able to attend on the Sunday.


Of course, it only works with the colloquial meaning of 'said' as 'suggest' or 'prefer', but even so, I thought it was a nice ambiguity to be caught in the wild.

[Raphael]

He's sexually attracted to sentient beings? Um, it would be pretty bad if he was sexually attracted to non-sentient beings, right?

The point (well, LB's point, Travis' point is, as always, about newfangled young people their newfangled ideas taking the world to hell in a handbasket) is the syntactic ambiguity of 'after'- does the prepositional clause apply to Ronson (as semantically it presumably does) or to 'fans' (as syntactically it more intuitively ought to).

Thank you, I somehow hadn't thought of that.

[Travis B.]

He's sexually attracted to sentient beings? Um, it would be pretty bad if he was sexually attracted to non-sentient beings, right?

The point (well, LB's point, Travis' point is, as always, about newfangled young people their newfangled ideas taking the world to hell in a handbasket) is the syntactic ambiguity of 'after'- does the prepositional clause apply to Ronson (as semantically it presumably does) or to 'fans' (as syntactically it more intuitively ought to.

I had only read the interpretation where Mark Ronson was identifying as sapiosexual; my original comment was about my having to look up what the term meant, as I hadn't heard that one before.

[Pabappa]

this one is debatable:

Trump hasn't grasped enormity of impeachment inquiry, sources say - CNN

Enormity is primarily defined as Deviation from moral normality; extreme wickedness, nefariousness, or cruelty. and secondarily as A breach of law or morality; a transgression, an act of evil or wickedness. (not counting the obsolete definition, which Im not sure why, but wiktionary often seems to put those first).

Presumably CNN meant the other definition, Great size; enormousness, hugeness, immenseness., which is proscribed by some grammarians.

[KathTheDragon]

"Enormousness" is the only meaning I have for "enormity"

[Vijay]

Same

[Raphael]

Frankly, when you've spent years on a linguistics-centered forum, you should really know better than making arguments based on dictionary definitions.