Professor Ernest Brennecke of Columbia 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."
ONLY I hit him in the eye yesterday. (No one else did.)
I ONLY hit him in the eye yesterday. (Did not slap him.)
I hit ONLY him in the eye yesterday. (I did not hit others.)
I hit him ONLY in the eye yesterday. (I did not hit outside the eye.)
I hit him in ONLY the eye yesterday. (Not other organs.)
I hit him in the ONLY eye yesterday. (He doesn't have another eye..)
I hit him in the eye ONLY yesterday. (Not today.)
I hit him in the eye yesterday ONLY. (Did not wait for today.)
2 comments:
The last one interestingly enough, I think, is a very Indian usage :)
Lol, you are so right!
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