User:Luccamagalhaes/Garden-path sentence

Brazilian Portuguese
"Mãe suspeita da morte do filho e foge. "

This example makes use of the ambiguity between the verb suspeita and the adjective suspeita, which is also captured by the English word suspect. It also makes use of a misreading in which the word e is passed over by the parser, which lends to two different meanings.


 * In a first parse, the sentence might be read as "[A] mother [which is] suspect of son's death runs away." In this sentence, the suspeita serves as an adjective for the mother which runs away due to the fact that e is easily overlooked.
 * A second parse, however, reveals the true reading of the sentence to be "[A] mother suspects son's death and runs away." Suspeita now serves as a verb and reveals that a mother suspects that her son might be dead.