Editing 2793: Garden Path Sentence

{{comic
| number    = 2793
| date      = June 23, 2023
| title     = Garden Path Sentence
| image     = garden_path_sentence.png
| imagesize = 435x435px
| noexpand  = true
| titletext = Arboretum Owner Denied Standing in Garden Path Suit on Grounds Grounds Appealing Appealing
}}
==Explanation==
A {{w|garden-path sentence}} is one in which the first or most obvious attempt at parsing the beginning of a sentence leads to the wrong meaning, causing confusion when the sentence is completed. A classic example of a garden path sentence is "The old man the boat.", leading to an initial incorrect parsing of "the old man" as a noun phrase, and therefore to assuming there is no verb before the noun "the boat". The actual correct way to parse this sentence is to treat "the old" as a noun and "man" as a verb, meaning "to crew", so the sentence means "The old people operate the boat."

Possible grammatically correct interpretations of the sentences in this comic are:

There was a court case regarding green walkways. The case was resolved with a sentence relating to an olive garden path. That sentence was vacated (cancelled) by a judge. That judge was flying an airplane. The airplane struck multiple birds. The plane overturned, but righted (turned right-side-up) and landed safely.

After (bird strikes)<sup>1</sup>, (judge)<sup>2</sup>, (who ordered)<sup>3</sup> (olive garden-path sentence)<sup>4</sup> in (case of green walkways)<sup>5</sup> (vacated)<sup>3</sup>, (overturned but rights and lands safely.)<sup>2</sup>

# "[[wikipedia:bird strike|bird strike]]s": Airplane colliding with birds in flight, or alternatively "bird strikes" could refer to the strikes called by the Bird union that this judge was known for or involved in the ruling of.
# "judge ... overturned but rights and lands safely": The judge (and presumably the plane they were in) flipped over but was able to get right-side up again and land safely
# "who [[wikipedia:Court order|ordered]] [the sentence to be] [[:wikipedia:Vacated judgment|vacated]]": Identifies the judge as one who issued a ruling cancelling an earlier ruling.
# "[[wikipedia:Olive|olive]] garden path [[wikipedia:Sentence (law)|sentence]]": The thing that was cancelled was a punishment related to a path in an olive garden
# "[[wikipedia:Legal case|case]] of [[wikipedia:Greenway (landscape)|green walkways]]": The punishment was in a court case about shared-use walkways (likely the same paths listed above, which may have been placed in an olive garden)

This interpretation is backed by the images below the headline on the depicted newspaper which show an airplane and a map with apparently a flight path with two markings in between.

Another way to break it down is, "After [the] bird strikes, [the] judge... [is] overturned, but [she] rights and lands safely."  And she was "[the] judge who ordered [that the] olive garden-path sentence" (the legal sentence concerning a path in an olive garden) "in" (what is known as) "[the] Case of [the] Green Walkways [be] vacated."

This comic also pokes fun at newspaper headlines, which typically have minimal punctuation or articles and use only capital letters, leading to such ambiguities.

For another valid parsing of the sentence, here are some explanatory notes that aid in understanding:
* A criminal court case occurred involving green-colored walkways.
* The sentence handed down in the case involved a specific walkway (a garden path) and a specific shade of green (olive).
* A certain judge had ordered that the sentence be vacated (a legal term meaning undone or expunged).
* That judge was recently piloting a plane which, due to being struck by birds, overturned.  
* The judge righted the plane (turned it right-side-up) and landed safely.

A mostly similar, but slightly more comical interpretation (though less likely for a newspaper headline) can be:
After (a) bird strikes, (the) judge ... (as above) (is) overturned, but rights and lands safely. In this case, the judge is standing, a bird strikes her and she is overturned, but she manages to right herself and land safely on the ground (not banging her head, for instance).

Another way of diagramming this (where noun phrases are in parenthesis and verbal clauses in brackets) would be:
  [ after
    (bird strikes)
  ],
  [ ( the judge 
      [ who ordered
        ( ( ( olive garden path)
            sentence
          )
          [ in case of
            (green walkways)
          ]
        ) be vacated
      ]
    ) 
    is overturned, but
    [ (she) rights (herself) and
      [lands safely]
    ]
  ].

Certain combinations of words in the sentence are particularly easy to parse incorrectly.  For example:
* "bird" the headline is in all caps so this could be an avian but could also mean a person with the name of Bird such as Larry Bird the basketball player.
* "bird strikes judge" can be interpreted to mean that a bird deliberately hit the judge with an appendage or weapon. If bird is a person or other worker, the phrase might mean a labour dispute in which Bird is withdrawing services
* "Olive Garden" is the name of a restaurant chain, and "ordered Olive Garden" could mean "placed an order for food from Olive Garden"
* Olive Garden could be a person who was the subject of the case in question
* "Garden path sentence" is a type of (written language) sentence
* "Green" could be referring to "green" initiatives, environmentally-friendly practices being used or to the color green, rather than to a park area
* "in case of" can mean "in the event of" (e.g. "in case of emergency, break glass")
* "vacated" and "overturned" can both mean "undone" in a legal context, and "rights" can refer to legal or constitutional rights

Ignoring the pictures showing a plane and flight path and only focusing on the headline, it could also be interpreted this way:
* "After bird strikes judge", "overturned but rights and lands safely": an avian creature flew into the judge, and as it bounced off it was upside-down, but it managed to recover in time to go right-side-up to land nearby.
* "case of green walkways",  "olive garden path sentence": There was a case about green walkways, and the ruling was for an olive garden path (or it is dubbed the "Olive Garden path sentence" for the restaurant chain, because it is strongly linked to the chain - either they wanted this sentence as it benefits them or the chain is notorious for it).
* "judge who ordered", "vacated": The aforementioned judge is known to people for ordering that the sentence be vacated (perhaps this was highly controversial), thus making this event significant enough to warrant a headline.

If one focuses on the word "judge", many of the phrases relate to legal proceedings, making the parsing of the sentence especially difficult:
* "strike": to remove or delete from a legal document and especially from the record of a trial
* "order": a direction issued by a court or a judge requiring a person to do or not do something
* "sentence": punishment assigned to a defendant found guilty by a court
* "case": a civil or criminal proceeding at law or in equity
* "vacate": to legally annul, set aside, or render void
* "overturn": to disagree with a decision made earlier by a lower court
* "rights": powers or privileges held by the general public as the result of a constitution, statute, regulation, judicial precedent, or other type of law

Furthermore, the word "lands" can have two meanings:
* The present simple variation of "to land": in the context of an airplane, to come down through the air and alight on the ground
* The plural of "land", a common issue in legal proceedings

The title text is also an example of a garden path sentence. The meaning is probably the following: Arboretum owner, [who was] denied [legal] standing in [the] garden-path [law]suit on grounds (the reason) [that the garden] grounds [are] appealing, [is] appealing [the ruling]. Alternatively: Arboretum owner, [who was] denied [legal] standing in [the] garden-path [law]suit on grounds (reasoning) grounds (why it was denied), [is] appealing appealing [the ruling].

==Transcript==
:[A newspaper titled ''News'' with two pictures on the front page: one showing a judge with an airplane in the background, and the other displaying a map depicting the airplane's route. Above the pictures there is the following headline, displayed in all capital letters:]
:AFTER BIRD STRIKES JUDGE WHO ORDERED OLIVE GARDEN PATH SENTENCE IN CASE OF GREEN WALKWAYS VACATED OVERTURNED BUT RIGHTS AND LANDS SAFELY

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Language]]
[[Category:Aviation]]
[[Category:Animals]]