Gardening on the path

The most recent xkcd:

Mouseover title: "Arboretum Owner Denied Standing in Garden Path Suit on Grounds Grounds Appealing Appealing"

What the Berkeley Neural Parser thinks:

(S (PP (IN After) (NP (NN bird) (VBZ strikes))) (NP (NP (NN judge)) (SBAR (WHNP (WP who)) (S (VP (VBD ordered) (NP (NNP olive) (NNP garden) (NNP path) (NN sentence)) (PP (IN in) (NP (NP (NN case)) (PP (IN of) (NP (NP (JJ green) (NNS walkways)) (VP (VP (VP (VBN vacated) (VP (VBN overturned))) (CC but) (VP (NNS rights))) (CC and) (VP (VBZ lands) (ADVP (RB safely)))))))))))) (. .))

What Bard thinks:

Me: Please rephrase: "After bird strikes judge who ordered olive garden path sentence in case of green walkways vacated overturned but rights and lands safely."

Bard: Sure, here is the rephrased sentence:

A bird struck a judge who had ordered a sentence of walking the Olive Garden path in a case where green walkways had been vacated. The sentence was overturned, but the judge recovered and landed safely.

The original sentence is a garden path sentence, which means that it is grammatically correct but difficult to parse. The first part of the sentence, "After bird strikes judge," leads the reader to expect that the bird will strike the judge and cause harm. However, the second part of the sentence, "who ordered olive garden path sentence," reveals that the bird actually struck the judge's ruling, not the judge himself.

The rephrased sentence breaks up the garden path by making it clear that the bird struck the judge's ruling, not the judge himself. It also clarifies the meaning of the sentence by adding the phrase "in a case where green walkways had been vacated." This phrase explains why the judge had ordered the sentence of walking the Olive Garden path.

I hope this is helpful!

What Bing Chat thinks:

Me: Please rephrase: "After bird strikes judge who ordered olive garden path sentence in case of green walkways vacated overturned but rights and lands safely."

Bing: The sentence you provided is an example of a garden-path sentence. It is grammatically correct but it is structured in such a way that the reader’s most likely interpretation will be incorrect. The reader is lured into a parse that turns out to be a dead end or yields a clearly unintended meaning¹²

Would you like me to explain more about garden-path sentences?

Me: What is the correct interpretation of that sentence?

Bing: The sentence you provided is an example of a garden-path sentence. It is structured in such a way that the reader’s most likely interpretation will be incorrect. The sentence is not meant to have a correct interpretation.

Would you like me to provide another example?

Me: No thanks. Please explain the sentence "The horse raced past the barn fell."

Bing: “The horse raced past the barn fell” is another example of a garden-path sentence. It is structured in such a way that the reader’s most likely interpretation will be incorrect. The sentence is not meant to have a correct interpretation.

Would you like me to provide more examples?

FWIW, the un-garden-pathed sentence (I think) is supposed to be

After bird strikes (on their aircraft), the judge who vacated the olive-garden-path sentence in the the green-walkways case overturned (or their aircraft did) but rights (i.e. turned right-side up) and lands safely.