A garden path sentence is a sentence with an ambiguous part, that leads the reader to initially assume a certain interpretation for the sentence, until they reach a point where the ambiguity is resolved and this initial interpretation is shown to be wrong.
Essentially, when you read a garden path sentence, you encounter an ambiguous part that has multiple possible interpretations, one of which is significantly more likely to be true than the others, which causes you to select that interpretation for the information that you’ve read so far. However, as you continue reading, you suddenly realize that this initial interpretation isn’t valid, since it would cause the sentence to be ungrammatical. This forces you to re-process the sentence, in order to identify its correct interpretation.
“The horse raced past the barn fell” is an example of a garden path sentence, whose meaning can be more clearly described when phrased as “the horse which was raced past the barn fell”.
This sentence is a garden path sentence because, when a reader begins reading it, they generally start by assuming that “raced” is an active verb. However, once the reader reaches the word “fell”, they realize that “raced” cannot be active, otherwise the sentence would be ungrammatical (since the verb “fell” wouldn’t have a subject). The reader then has to reprocess the sentence, before they are able to identify the correct interpretation for it, where the verb “raced” is passive.
People sometimes use garden path sentences in their writing without being aware that they’re doing so, which can lead to issues for readers. As such, in the following article you will learn more about garden path sentences, and see how you can avoid them in your writing.
Explanation of garden path sentences
Garden path sentences contain an initial ambiguity, in the form of a word or group of words that can be interpreted in more than one way.
This ambiguity is called syntactic ambiguity, since it’s based on the syntax of the sentence, which can be thought of as its grammatical structure. In particular, the ambiguity in garden path sentences is a local ambiguity (also known as a temporary ambiguity), since it’s constrained to a specific part of the sentence, and ends up being resolved at some point of the reading; this is contrasted with a global ambiguity, which is ambiguity that applies to the sentence as a whole.
Accordingly, from a psycholinguistic perspective, garden path sentences are sentences in which a certain syntactic structure is initially assigned to an ambiguous portion of a sentence, but is eventually discovered to be syntactically inconsistent with later parts of the sentence. This issue occurs because readers generally attempt to understand sentences as they read them, rather than waiting until the end, and it means that, once the initial interpretation is shown to be wrong, readers must re-process the sentence and assign the less-preferred interpretation to the initially ambiguous portion.
To understand how this works, consider the following example of a garden path sentence:
“After Bill drank the water proved to be poisoned.”
Generally, when people read this sentence, they first analyze “the water” as being the object of “drank”. Accordingly, they assume that the interpretation of the initial portion of the sentence is that “Bill drank the water”.
However, once people reach the word “proved”, they realize that the initial interpretation of the sentence doesn’t make sense (because there would be no subject for “proved”). This leads them to reanalyze the sentence, so that “after Bill drank” became an adjunct of “the water proved to be poisoned”.
Most of this linguistic processing is performed at a subconscious level. That is, while you will generally notice that you got stuck while reading a certain sentence, you often won’t be consciously aware of what the issue is, or of how your brain eventually managed to fix the issue, by reanalyzing the sentence in order to provide you with an appropriate interpretation.
Note: garden path sentences derive their name from the saying “to lead someone down the garden path”, which means to mislead or deceive someone.
Garden path sentences and good-enough parsing
As noted above, when you encounter a garden path sentence, your brain generally reanalyzes the sentence as soon as you reach the part where its initial interpretation is proven to be ungrammatical, in order to help you identify its correct interpretation.
However, in some cases, your brain sometimes goes further in an attempt to resolve garden-path ambiguities, and performs something called good-enough parsing. When this happens, your brain intentionally misinterprets the text, in a way that causes you to select the initial, incorrect interpretation for the sentence, without consciously noticing that this interpretation is ungrammatical. This subconscious process saves you the trouble of getting stuck while trying to interpret the sentence, at the cost of causing you to misunderstand it.
Garden path sentences in speech
In natural settings, garden path sentences appear primarily when it comes to written language, and they almost never appear when it comes to speech.
This is because, when we talk, we generally use language in a way that makes garden path interpretations unlikely. A notable way in which we do this is by including relevant prosodic information, which has to do with the intonation and rhythmic patterns of our speech. This includes, for example, the presence of pauses in places that coincide with syntactic boundaries, in such a way that these prosodic cues can help listeners identify the correct interpretation for the sentence, before they encounter the disambiguating lexical information that confuses them.
Examples of garden path sentences
There are many different types of garden path sentences, as we can see in the following examples:
- “Without her contributions would be impossible”. This garden path sentence is first parsed as [without her contributions], and once the word “would” is reached, the parsing of the sentence changes to [without her][contributions would be impossible]. This sentence can be phrased more clearly as “without her, contributions would be impossible”.
- “The old man the boat”. This garden path sentence is first parsed as [the old man], and once the second “the” is reached, the parsing of the sentence changes to [the old][man the boat], with “old” serving as a noun, rather than an adjective, and “man” serving as a verb, rather than a noun.
- “I convinced her children are noisy”. This garden path sentence is first parsed as [I convinced her children], and once the word “are” is reached, the parsing of the sentence changes to [I convinced her][children are noisy]. This sentence can be phrased more clearly as “I convinced her that children are noisy”.
- “The girl told the story cried”. This garden path sentence is first parsed as so that the phrase “told the story” initially describes an action undertaken by the girl, until the word “cried” is reached, at which point the parsing of the sentence changes to reflect that “told the story” describes something that was done to the girl. This sentence can be phrased more clearly as “The girl who was told the story cried”.
Other examples of garden-path sentences include the following:
- “The florist sent the flowers was pleased”, which means “The florist who was sent the flowers was pleased”.
- “When Fred eats food gets thrown”, which means “When Fred eats, food gets thrown”.
- “The complex houses married and single soldiers and their families”, which means “The complex (apartment complex/housing complex etc.) provides accommodation to married and single soldiers, and to their families”.
- “When John called his old mother was happy”, which means “When John called, his old mother was happy”.
- “While the man hunted the deer ran into the woods”, which means “While the man hunted, the deer ran into the woods”.
- “The prime number few”, which means “The prime (people/animals, etc.) are few in number”.
- “Wherever John walks the dog chases him”, which means “Wherever John walks, the dog chases him”.
- “We painted the wall with cracks”, which means “We painted the walls that had cracks”.
- “Because he always jogs a mile seems a short distance to him”, which means “Because he always jogs, a mile seems like a short distance to him”.
- “After the young Londoner had visited his parents prepared to celebrate their anniversary”, which means “After the young Londoner had visited, his parents prepared to celebrate their anniversary”.
- “I know the words to that song about the queen don’t rhyme”, which means “I know that the words to that song about the queen don’t rhyme”.
- “The man who hunts ducks out on weekends”, which means “The man who hunts (e.g. animals) ducks out (i.e. leaves suddenly) on weekends”.
- “The boat floated down the river sank”, which means “The boat which was floated down the river sank”.
- “The man who whistles tunes pianos”, which means “The man who whistles (in general) tunes pianos(for a job/as a hobby etc.)”.
- “The government plans to raise taxes were defeated”, which means “The government had plans to raise taxes, which were defeated”.
- “That Jill is never here hurts”, which means “The fact that Jill is never here hurts”.
- “The dog that I had really loved bones”, which means “The dog that I had, really loved bones”.
- “While I was surfing the internet went down”, which means “While I was surfing, the internet went down”.
- “While the man was eating the pizza was still being reheated in the oven”, which means “While the man was eating, the pizza was still being reheated in the oven”.
- “The sour drink from the ocean”, which means “The people who are sour drink from the ocean”.
- “The cotton clothing is made of grows in Mississippi”, which means “The cotton that clothing is made of grows in Mississippi”.
- “Time flies like an arrow; fruit flies like a banana”, which means “Time flies similarly to an arrow; fruit flies (the insects) love a banana”.
- “Mary gave the child the dog bit a Band-Aid”, which means “Mary gave the child that the dog bit a Band-Aid”.
- “She told me a little white lie will come back to haunt me”, which means “She told me that a little white lie will come back to haunt me”.
- “Fat people eat accumulates”, which means “The fat that people eat accumulates (e.g. in their bodies)”.
- “While Tom was washing the dishes fell on the floor”, which means “While Tom was washing, the dishes fell on the floor”.
- “Until the police arrest the criminals control the street”, which means “Until the police (make the) arrest, the criminals control the street”.
- “I told the girl the cat scratched Bill would help her”, which means “I told the girl that the cat scratched that Bill would help her”.
Identifying and fixing garden path sentences in your writing
Because garden path sentences are so difficult for readers to process, it’s important to avoid them in your writing.
These sentences can take various forms, so there is no single formula that can be used in order to identify and fix all of them. However, most of these sentences share similar characteristics, so there is a simple process that you can follow in order to ensure that they don’t appear in your writing.
How to identify garden path sentences
Identifying garden path sentences is an intuitive process. Essentially, as you read through the text, try to find places where you get stuck when interpreting a sentence, because you find yourself having to “restart” the processing halfway through. Then, read carefully through it to see if it seems like the “restart” occurs as a result of an initial syntactic ambiguity, as described above.
If it does, then you likely have a garden path sentence, and the next section will show you a few simple ways to resolve the ambiguity. If it doesn’t, you should likely still modify the sentence, since getting stuck is generally indicative of a problem in the phrasing of the text. However, in the latter case, the solutions suggested below might not help, as they’re meant primarily to solve ambiguities that lead to garden path sentences.
Note: it can sometimes be difficult to find problematic phrasing in your writing, since, as we saw above, our brain sometimes conducts a sort of “autocorrect” process that hides errors from you, especially if you’re highly familiar with the text already. As such, if you feel that you need extra tips on how to proofread your texts effectively, read this guide.
How to fix garden path sentences
Since there are different types of garden path sentences, there are also different ways to fix them. Nevertheless, all approaches to fixing garden path sentences revolve around the same key concept: you need to remove the phrasing which leads to the garden-path ambiguity in the first place.
There are a few simple ways to do this, which will work in the majority of cases, and which will save you the trouble of having to completely rephrase the sentence.
First, you can add a comma in an appropriate location. For example, instead of:
Without her contributions would be impossible.
Write:
Without her, contributions would be impossible.
You can also add a complementizer in an appropriate location. Complementizers are words such as which, that, or who, that are used in order to introduce an embedded clause within a sentence. For example, instead of:
I convinced her children are noisy.
Write:
I convinced her that children are noisy.
Sometimes you will also need to include further minor modifications, such as adding an auxiliary verb (e.g. was). For examples, instead of:
The horse raced past the barn fell.
Write:
The horse which was raced past the barn fell.
If you want more examples of different types of garden path sentences and how they can be disambiguated, see the earlier section dedicated to examples of garden path sentences, which contains a large list of such sentences, together with alternative, clearer phrasing for each one.
Summary and conclusions
- A garden path sentence is a sentence with an ambiguous part, that leads the reader to initially assume a certain interpretation for the sentence, until they reach a point where the ambiguity is resolved and this initial interpretation is shown to be wrong.
- For example, in the garden path sentence “the horse raced past the barn fell”, the reader initially assumes that “raced” is an active verb, but once they reach “fell”, they realize that “raced” must be passive, or the verb “fell” wouldn’t have a subject, and the sentence would be ungrammatical.
- Garden path sentences interrupt the reading process and confuse the reader, so it’s important to avoid them in your writing.
- To identify garden path sentences in your writing, try to find places where you get stuck having to re-process a sentence as you’re reading it, because its structure suddenly doesn’t make sense.
- You can fix garden path sentences in various different ways, based on the reason why they’re ambiguous in the first place; common solutions include inserting a comma or a complementizer (e.g. that, which, who) which resolves the problematic ambiguity.