Newpaper Double Entendre of the Day

[debka_notion]

I saw this ad in the local paper, and was quite puzzled for a while as to why that would be good incentive:

"Advertise your car till it sells for only $20"

I'd put the much needed comma after "car", rather than before "for". Oops. But it was funny- and quite handy when I realized what it really was trying to say.

Comments

[nuqotw.livejournal.com]

Odd. I made the same comma error. Do we naturally parse at the first available opportunity?

[debka-notion.livejournal.com]

It's more that we connect any snetence bit to the closest thing that it can be attached to most easily. tirerim below has a good explanation, actually having real instruction in these things, versus my one intro class, from which I'm forgetting the appropriate terminology right now.

[tirerim.livejournal.com]

I think the problem is that it really doesn't need a comma for the first interpretation, in which "for only $20" is modifying "sells" rather than "advertise". It's a genuine ambiguity, but we naturally tend to parse it as attaching at the closest place, rather than farther up the tree.

[debka-notion.livejournal.com]

THanks- I didn't know how else to explain it understandably. ALthough darn it, I took intro linguistics this last term, and we talked about this, and I knew the terminology then...

[thevortex.livejournal.com]

Actually, I do not see where a comma would fit into the sentence at all. I would recommend the edit to replace "for" with an em-dash (en-dash? -- I always mix them up).

And, tirerim, is not the English language designed that way (e.g. antecedents)?

The Vortex

[shirei-shibolim.livejournal.com]

I'M HUNGRY LET'S EAT GRANDMA

[nuqotw.livejournal.com]

Yum!!!