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."