Garden Path Sentences

Garden Path Sentences

Initial Post

A garden path senesce is one that has a tendency to mislead the reader, meaning that while leading the reader of the sentence down a specific path it makes them believe that the sentence is leading them down a different path. Garden path sentences are meant to confuse the reader and this is clearly indicated in the unique manner in which the sentences are structured so that they have a dual meaning or even more than two meanings at times. In many cases, garden path sentences also reflect the witticism and cleverness of the writer and are a proof of their skill at wordplay. For example, the following sentence will help to illustrate how garden path sentences have a high tendency of forcing the reader to interpret two or more meanings from them:

“Until the police arrest the drug dealers control the street.”

The above mentioned sentence is a prime example of a garden path sentence. This is because it is possible for the reader to derive two totally different meaning from it. The difference in meaning can be obtained by looking at the two different ways in which the word 'arrest' is treated in the sentence. For example, by treating 'arrest' as a verb, it is clear that the sentence becomes an order or an instruction. Therefore, the person making the statement is instructing the listener to 'control the streets until the police arrest the drug dealers'. This way, the statement is clearly meant as an instruction that is probably directed to the law enforcement personnel. It is important to keep in mind that the treatment of the word arrest has helped significantly to turn the statement into a garden path sentence.

However, the sentence has another meaning which is basically why it qualifies as a very good ...