Chapter 4. Grammars and Parsing Exercises

1. While ambiguity is avoided in programming languages, (some) humor can be derived from ambiguity in natural languages. For each of the following English sentences, explain why it is ambiguous. First try to determine multiple grammar diagrams for the sentence. If only one such diagram exists, explain why the meaning of the words makes the sentence ambiguous.

(a) I saw an elephant in my pajamas.

(b) I cannot recommend this student too highly.

(c) I saw her duck.

(d) Students avoid boring professors.

e) Milk drinkers turn to powder