Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1 6/24/83; site pucc-i Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!floyd!harpo!ihnp4!inuxc!pur-ee!CS-Mordred!Pucc-H:Pucc-I:ags From: ags@pucc-i (Seaman) Newsgroups: net.jokes Subject: Re: Play on words Message-ID: <233@pucc-i> Date: Mon, 12-Mar-84 14:23:50 EST Article-I.D.: pucc-i.233 Posted: Mon Mar 12 14:23:50 1984 Date-Received: Wed, 14-Mar-84 08:04:51 EST References: <655@eosp1.UUCP> <659@seismo.UUCP> Organization: Purdue University Computing Center Lines: 50 I came up with 11 possible meanings for the sentence Time flies like an arrow. This sentence was originally thought up as a test for a computer program which tries to understand sentences in English. Some of these interpretations have been mentioned before. 1. (The obvious meaning) Time passes quickly. 2. (A literal meaning) Time is a physical object which flies through the air quickly and/or straight as an arrow. 3. (An even more literal meaning) Time looks like an arrow while flying through the air. 4. (Using transitive verb) Time has a pilot's license and flies planes quickly and straight. 5. Time has a pilot's license and thinks he is an arrow (much as Snoopy thinks he's a World War I Flying Ace). This version also could be taken as stereotypical, possibly offensive to arrows: "You arrows all fly alike." 6. (Even more offensive to arrows?) "Time Flies" are strange insects which congregate around arrows. 7. (A sentence fragment, meaning:) Those "Time Flies" remind me of an arrow. Maybe it's the formation they are in. The remaining interpretations are all commands of the form: "Get out your stopwatch and time flies according to these instructions." 8. Time those flies as you would time an arrow. 9. Time only those flies which resemble an arrow (or which behave like arrows). 10. Time those flies quickly. Hurry! 11. Put on your arrow suit and pointy hat and start timing flies. Expecting flames from arrows. -- Dave Seaman ..!pur-ee!pucc-i:ags "Against people who give vent to their loquacity by extraneous bombastic circumlocution."