LINGUIST List 3.194

Thu 27 Feb 1992

Disc: Parsing Problems

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1. "LLOYD HOLLIDAY, LA TROBE UNIV, EDUCATIOEDULHlure.latrobe.edu.au, Re: 3.181 Parsers
2. , Parsing challenges

Message 1: Re: 3.181 Parsers

Can someone parse "The player kicked the ball kicked him"? I feel idiotic
but to me the sentence is not even ambiguous but bad. It has not been
parsed on the list since first mention, or maybe I missed it. Thanks.
edulhlure.latrobe.edu.au

Enjoyed the French "Si six scies ..." challenge from Martin Haase. How
about the Chinese tongue-twister:

Si shi si, shi shi shi, shisi shi shisi, sishi shi sishi, sishisi shi
sishisi.
(4 is 4, 10 is 10, 14 is 14, 40 is 40, 44 is 44).

In many dialects there is no s/sh distinction, so it becomes:

Si si si, si si si, sisi si sisi, sisi si sisi, sisisi si sisisi.

Of course, to be fair, there are tone distinctions between si ("4") and
shi or si ("10"). With the tones marked, it would be:

Si4 si4 si4, si2 si4 si2, si2si4 si4 si2si4, si4si2 si4 si4si2, si4si2si4
si4 si4si2si4.

As in the French sentence, Chinese orthography makes it all clear.

 --David Bedell, U. of Alabama (dbedell3ua1vm.ua.edu)