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Re: Confusing headlines
Posted: Sun Jan 17, 2021 12:07 pm
by Pabappa
wikipedia wrote:The 1,336 lb (606 kg) urea nitrate–hydrogen gas enhanced device was intended to send the North Tower (Tower 1) crashing into the South Tower (Tower 2), bringing both towers down and killing tens of thousands of people. It failed to do so, but killed six people, one of whom was pregnant and injured over one thousand.
From the lede paragraph of the 1993 WTC bombings article on Wikipedia.
I changed it just now to clarify that the woman was not the one who injured thousands of other people.
Re: Confusing headlines
Posted: Tue Jan 19, 2021 10:17 am
by zyxw59
From twitter's "what's happening" sidebar:
Biden Cabinet picks face confirmation hearings ahead of the inauguration
I initially parsed "picks" as the verb, and was curious about what a "face confirmation hearing" was
Re: Confusing headlines
Posted: Tue Jan 19, 2021 12:07 pm
by alynnidalar
That's a textbook garden path right there!
From ABC: Trump clemency list expected to include Lil Wayne, once powerful New York politician
Tell me more about Lil Wayne's political career...
(sadly it appears they've since updated the headline to replace the comma with "and")
Re: Confusing headlines
Posted: Sat Jan 23, 2021 11:47 am
by Linguoboy
Straying into the old under-/overnegation beat trod by Language Log:
NBC 5's Storm Team is tracking the developing storm, though there remains plenty of certainty surrounding the path this system will take.
It’s pretty clear from the remainder of the article that they mean “uncertainty”.
Re: Confusing headlines
Posted: Wed Jan 27, 2021 11:52 pm
by Linguoboy
Josh Hawley Draws Fire From GOP Ex-Missouri Senator as Approval Rating Slides (Newsweek)
Re: Confusing headlines
Posted: Tue Feb 09, 2021 8:57 am
by Linguoboy
Dr. Tyler Black is a psychiatrist who specializes in the study of suicide at the University of British Columbia. (CBC)
Re: Confusing headlines
Posted: Sat Mar 20, 2021 10:56 am
by MacAnDàil
https://www.thenational.scot/news/19174 ... lking-ban/
EDL founder Tommy Robinson handed journalist stalking ban
Could have been Tommy Robinson handing a stalking ban to a journalist, turned out to be Tommy Robinson being handed the ban on him stalking journalists.
Re: Confusing headlines
Posted: Thu Apr 15, 2021 10:42 am
by Ares Land
Dévastée par un incendie il y a 2 ans, Roselyne Bachelot annonce une réouverture de Notre-Dame de Paris en 2024.
"Devastated in a fire two years ago, Roselyne Bachelot announces Notre-Dame de Paris will reopen in 2024."
(Mrs Bachelot is fine and thankfully exempt of third degree burns.)
Re: Confusing headlines
Posted: Sat Apr 17, 2021 7:31 pm
by Rounin Ryuuji
Hahahahaha. Amusing.
Re: Confusing headlines
Posted: Sat Apr 17, 2021 10:59 pm
by zompist
Ares Land wrote: ↑Thu Apr 15, 2021 10:42 am
Dévastée par un incendie il y a 2 ans, Roselyne Bachelot annonce une réouverture de Notre-Dame de Paris en 2024.
"Devastated in a fire two years ago, Roselyne Bachelot announces Notre-Dame de Paris will reopen in 2024."
(Mrs Bachelot is fine and thankfully exempt of third degree burns.)
This is pretty neat, because the genders line up. I'd expect French would have fewer sentences of this type because of gender-- e.g. it wouldn't be ambiguous if it was the archbishop announcing this. Would it be bad style though? (English teachers will tell you never to do this in English.)
Re: Confusing headlines
Posted: Sun Apr 18, 2021 2:08 am
by Ares Land
True on both counts: ambiguous sentences of this type are pretty rare, and this is very bad style, if not in fact ungrammatical.
Re: Confusing headlines
Posted: Sun Apr 18, 2021 7:31 am
by Linguoboy
In English, they’re common enough to be designated with a term of art (“misplaced modifier”) and to be regularly covered in writing courses as something to avoid.
Re: Confusing headlines
Posted: Sun Apr 18, 2021 10:47 am
by Ares Land
This falls in French under the general umbrella of solécisme. I don't know if solecism has quite the same meaning in English though?
Re: Confusing headlines
Posted: Mon Apr 19, 2021 7:11 am
by Raphael
From the BBC:
Inside the chemist made entirely out of felt
now apparently corrected to
Inside the chemist's made entirely out of felt
Ah yes - a person made entirely out of felt would have seemed a bit odd.
Re: Confusing headlines
Posted: Mon Apr 19, 2021 4:28 pm
by doctor shark
Raphael wrote: ↑Mon Apr 19, 2021 7:11 am
From the BBC:
Inside the chemist made entirely out of felt
now apparently corrected to
Inside the chemist's made entirely out of felt
Ah yes - a person made entirely out of felt would have seemed a bit odd.
Bonus points is that, for a lot of people from a US, a chemist is a chemistry researcher, while a chemist in the more British sense is what I'd call a pharmacist.
Re: Confusing headlines
Posted: Wed Apr 21, 2021 4:32 am
by quinterbeck
doctor shark wrote: ↑Mon Apr 19, 2021 4:28 pm
Raphael wrote: ↑Mon Apr 19, 2021 7:11 am
From the BBC:
Inside the chemist made entirely out of felt
now apparently corrected to
Inside the chemist's made entirely out of felt
Ah yes - a person made entirely out of felt would have seemed a bit odd.
Bonus points is that, for a lot of people from a US, a chemist is a chemistry researcher, while a chemist in the more British sense is what I'd call a pharmacist.
I know very few Brits who still use the term "chemist('s)" for the local dispenser/ary. They're nearly always called pharmacies nowadays.
Re: Confusing headlines
Posted: Wed Apr 21, 2021 5:28 pm
by Travis B.
quinterbeck wrote: ↑Wed Apr 21, 2021 4:32 am
I know very few Brits who still use the term "chemist('s)" for the local dispenser/ary. They're nearly always called pharmacies nowadays.
Of course, here
dispensary commonly refers to someplace one can legally get marijuana and marijuana products.
Re: Confusing headlines
Posted: Thu Apr 22, 2021 5:13 am
by quinterbeck
Travis B. wrote: ↑Wed Apr 21, 2021 5:28 pm
Of course, here
dispensary common refers to someplace one can legally get marijuana and marijuana products.
Now
that, I didn't know.
Re: Confusing headlines
Posted: Sat Apr 24, 2021 4:05 pm
by Linguoboy
Democrats warn Waters censure move opens floodgates (The Hill)
It’s Waters being censured, not warned.
Re: Confusing headlines
Posted: Sun Apr 25, 2021 3:31 am
by alice
Not a head line as such, but yesterday Boris was described as a "vacuum of integrity". The first thing which came to my mind was a well-constructed hoover.