Even More Meanings:Ambiguity
I saw a man on a hill with a telescope.
It seems like a simple statement, until you begin to unpack the many alternate meanings:
• There’s a man on a hill, and I’m watching him with my telescope.
• There’s a man on a hill, who I’m seeing, and he has a telescope.
• There’s a man, and he’s on a hill that also has a telescope on it.
• I’m on a hill, and I saw a man using a telescope.
• There’s a man on a hill, and I’m
sawing him with a telescope.
See how many meanings your students can catch!
More Examples
Here are some other ambiguous sentences (more at this wikipedia page):
We saw her duck.
1. We looked at a duck that belonged to her.
2. We looked at her quickly squat down to avoid something.
3. We use a saw to cut her duck.
He fed her cat food.
1. He fed a woman’s cat some food.
2. He fed a woman some food that was intended for cats.
3. He somehow encouraged some cat food to eat something.
Look at the dog with one eye.
1. Look at the dog using only one of your eyes.
2. Look at the dog that only has one eye.
I could definitely see these as a daily challenge to uncover as many meanings as possible. And illustrations would be wonderful!
