The parse tree shown figure
3.2 Phrase Structure 107
ADJUNCTION
SYNTACTIC
AMBIGUITY
Different attachments have different meanings. The ‘high’ attachment to the verb phrase makes a statement about the instrument that the chil-dren used while eating the cake. The ‘low’ attachment to the noun phrase tells us which cake was eaten (the cake with a spoon, and not, say, the
108 3 Linguistic Essentials
| AT | VBD | IN | AT | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| The | children | |||||
| ate AT NN with | ||||||
the cake |
I spoon |
|||||
the cake with AT NN
a spoon
(3.66) The horse raced past the barn fell.
Sentence (3.66) from (Bever 1970) is probably the most famous example
