Fun with the English language
- 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? (Via Schmack.)
- Can you parse this English sentence? Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo. The answer. (Via Stephanie Harves.)
- "You shanked my jengaship!" I think it's interesting that "shank", a mispronounciation of the past tense of "sink", gained an extra past-tense marker to become "shanked".
- Time flies like an arrow. Fruit flies like a banana. (Via Schmack.)
- Actual newspaper headlines (collected from several sources)
- Capitol Steps: Al-Jazeera [Alouette?]
- Capitol Steps: Look Away (Rush Limbaugh's statement) [Dixie]
- Capitol Steps: Lirty Dies: Kobe Bryant (spoonerisms)
- Mountain Liquor?! I hardly know 'er!
November 23rd, 2003 at 4:22 am
Another one, courtesy of my colleague Lila Gleitman: An eggplant is a fruit that looks like an egg (I assume). An eggplant plant is a plant on which eggplants grow. An eggplant plant plant is a factory for processing eggplant plants. And an eggplant plant plant plant is a spy in a factory …
November 28th, 2003 at 11:01 pm
nice link to the linguistlist
December 6th, 2003 at 11:38 pm
Five prepositions in a row: “What did you bring that book I didn’t want to be read to out of up for?” (From the Merriam-Webster Dictionary of English Usage, under “preposition”.)