this post was submitted on 14 Mar 2025
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Dad Jokes
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Sorry to bring linguistics in to this, but this is why irratates me about the English language. This joke would not work in Chinese.
我在上班的路上看到一只狐狸。
Which is literally: I, on the way to work, saw a fox
You cannot rephrase it like the Dad Joke above:
我看到一只狐狸在上班的路上。
This would be: I saw a fox on the way to work
But it would not contain the double meaning of the "I" being the one going to work.
But, somehow, in English, you could just move the words around and make it very confusing.
Ugh 🤦♂️
(Sorry about the rant)
I love a linguistics lesson, but this sentence is not actually that ambiguous.
If the sentence was unclear, the speaker would likely clarify:
Oh well, I guess its not for that market. I got it and that is really all that matters to me. I've heard quite a few jokes that translate badly in to English I just can accept that sometimes a joke can't be readily translated without getting excited.
You couldn't construct a Chinese sentence with dual meanings? Maybe not this one, but any? I know literally no Chinese, so I can't cite an example; but I thought completely unambiguous communication was why constructed languages like lojban exist.
edit: In a question about grammar, I used redundant words, but I can't think of a better replacement for "construct" in either case. I tried, though.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tetraphobia
I often see in manga Chinese/Korean/Japan jokes explained, because they don't work in english. Don't be butthurt.