Thursday May 26, 2011

Moving only

READER Tam Yong Yuee sent in this snippet about Professor Ernest Brennecke of Columbia who is credited with inventing a sentence that can be made to have eight different meanings by placing one word in all possible positions in the sentence, “I hit him in the eye yesterday.” The word is “only”.

1. ONLY I hit him in the eye yesterday. (No one else did.)

2. I ONLY hit him in the eye yesterday. (Did not slap him.)

3. I hit ONLY him in the eye yesterday. (I did not hit others.)

4. I hit him ONLY in the eye yesterday. (I did not hit outside the eye.)

5. I hit him in ONLY the eye yesterday. (Not other organs.)

6. I hit him in the ONLY eye yesterday. (He doesn’t have another eye.)

7. I hit him in the eye ONLY yesterday. (Not today.)

8. I hit him in the eye yesterday ONLY. (Did not wait for today.)