Zompist Bboard Again

An example of ambiguity in English. Is it an eater of one eyed one horned flying purple people, a people eater with those characteristics, or something in between?

It is a flying one-eyed, one-horned creature that eats the colour purple.

Is it supposed to be "purple people eater"? Because otherwise I only get mèþru's reading. (I have to treat "purple" as a noun, but not so much that I'll allow it to be modified by "flying" or "one horned flying" and so on.)

Space60 wrote: ↑Wed Oct 31, 2018 12:48 pmAn example of ambiguity in English. Is it an eater of one eyed one horned flying purple people, a people eater with those characteristics, or something in between?

Space60, please allow me to draw your attention to the existence of this thread: viewtopic.php?f=4&t=36.

mèþru wrote: ↑Wed Oct 31, 2018 1:09 pm It is a flying one-eyed, one-horned creature that eats the colour purple.

+1

akamchinjir wrote: ↑Wed Oct 31, 2018 2:07 pm Is it supposed to be "purple people eater"? Because otherwise I only get mèþru's reading. (I have to treat "purple" as a noun, but not so much that I'll allow it to be modified by "flying" or "one horned flying" and so on.)

Yes. I left out the word people by mistake.

The lyrics includes:

I said, "Mr. Purple People Eater, what's your line?"
He said, "Eatin' purple people and it sure is fine

Which would heavily imply that it's a creature that eats purple people, and has one eye, one horn, and flies.

Yeah but Im pretty sure teh songwriters knew what they were doing and that it was going to be talked about like this. The artwork often shows the creature as purple himself. Also, why stop there? you can put the clause division almost anyw,ere. Maybe it;s a cyclops that eats flying purple rhino-human hybrids. or a creature that has six eyes, but there's only one of him.