Confusing headlines

[Man in Space]

From our friends at Reuters:

Kohli record ton in vain as Mumbai pip Bangalore to final IPL playoff spot

[bradrn]

From our friends at Reuters:

Kohli record ton in vain as Mumbai pip Bangalore to final IPL playoff spot

Seems pretty clear to me… unlike this gem I saw in the Daily Maverick:

Minister of defensive — Thandi Modise repeats ‘We put fokol’ on Lady R mantra as MPs demand answers

[hwhatting]

For me the hang-up was right at the start - I assumed "prison ordered" meant a prison (as institution) was ordered to do something, not that someone was sentenced to prison.

[bradrn]

Today in XKCD:



(No, I don’t understand it either.)

[Man in Space]

[After [bird [strikes]]] [judge [who ordered [Olive Garden path [sentence [in case of green walkway]]] vacated] [overturned]]. . .

Put a comma in before “judge” and it’s much easier to parse.

[bradrn]

A different kind of confusing headline:

PA benefits from absent DA to trounce ANC in Joburg ward, but ruling party records crucial win over IFP in KZN

[Raphael]

A different kind of confusing headline:

PA benefits from absent DA to trounce ANC in Joburg ward, but ruling party records crucial win over IFP in KZN

I recognize what all the acronyms mean in that context except for the first one. Is that a new entry?

[bradrn]

A different kind of confusing headline:

PA benefits from absent DA to trounce ANC in Joburg ward, but ruling party records crucial win over IFP in KZN

I recognize what all the acronyms mean in that context except for the first one. Is that a new entry?

It would appear that they date from 2013.

(Incidentally, if anyone is wondering what this means:

More: show

PA = Patriotic Alliance (political party)
DA = Democratic Alliance (another political party)
ANC = African National Congress (yet another political party; you might know of its former president Nelson Mandela)
IFP = Inkatha Freedom Party (yep, South Africa sure has a lot of parties, doesn’t it?)
KZN = KwaZulu–Natal (not a party! this one’s a province)

And also:
Joburg = Johannesburg, South Africa

)

[Raphael]

Thank you!

[Man in Space]

If you hadn’t explained this I would’ve assumed that Pennsylvania had some legal proceedings go their way due to a wayward district attorney.

[Hominid]

Protesters gather in Springfield against the YMCA and others to advocate for LGBTQ rights

The article describes a situation that is completely different from the one I assumed based on the headline.

[zompist]

Not a headline, but this did trip me up a moment:

"is this a you can only fit it on a truck sized desk vs. you can disassemble it and stuff it into a Prius sized desk."

(The context: a post about selling a desk.)

The garden path bit is "Prius sized desk", but I'm more struck by using entire sentences as modifiers. Of course this is part of English, but it's more usual to hyphenate to avoid confusion.

[KathTheDragon]

I've given up on hyphenating sentences-as-modifiers. Having to remember to hit the dash rather than the spacebar seriously slows down my typing, which leads to a desync between the speed of my brain coming up with what to write and my fingers writing it down.

[salem]

I tend to wrap the sentences-as-modifiers in quotes, eg: "you can only fit it on a truck"-sized desk vs "you can disassemble it and stuff it into a Prius"-sized desk. Because yeah, I agree that putting hyphens between every word is annoying to type and annoying to read.

[bradrn]

Australian MP sent ‘hit list’ letter threatening critics of Cambodian leader Hun Sen

Who was the sender? Who was the sendee? Only the article can reveal if the verb is active or passive…

[Travis B.]

Australian MP sent ‘hit list’ letter threatening critics of Cambodian leader Hun Sen

Who was the sender? Who was the sendee? Only the article can reveal if the verb is active or passive…

I thought the very same thing before I read the second line of your post.

[Qwynegold]

I just saw a YouTube video with the following title:

The woman being denied the NHS care
she needs to treat her ME

I was confused for a moment because I read the second line as a separate sentence and ME as 1SG.ACC.

[hwhatting]

Australian MP sent ‘hit list’ letter threatening critics of Cambodian leader Hun Sen

Who was the sender? Who was the sendee? Only the article can reveal if the verb is active or passive…

Or you remember that headlinese most of the time only uses the present tense for active verbs. If the MP was the sender, the headline would be "MP sends".

[Raphael]

OK, in this case, seeing this headline as "confusing" might seem a bit pedantic, but I still think I have a point:

From Roll Call:

Florida judge: Trump documents trial will start in May

What makes this a bit confusing is that I think someone who's familiar with the structure of the courts in the USA might assume that this refers to a Florida state or local judge, when in fact, it refers to a federal judge in Florida.

[Linguoboy]

Birch Tree, Missouri man
drowns in 'Current River'
Saturday afternoon