"House Murders Accused Mother in Court"

If only you could use parentheses in English the way you can in math or computer programming.

Mark Liberman (Language Log) spots this odd headline at the BBC News.

Comments

[DRM]

As the BBC is not space-limited by the technology of paper publishing in any edition, it has no excuse for this sort of headline idiocy. It's barely longer and far clearer to say:

Sheffield deaths: Mother accused in 'house murders' in court.

[Andrew Dhuey]

Great re-write. By my count yours is 38 spaces; 36 in the original. BBC headline writer needs a talking-to.

[Naaman Brown]

He should be encouraged to read George Orwell's "Politics and the English Language" as a quarterly ritual.

[Rossami]

You assume that the ambiguity is unintentional. I assume clickbait.

[MatthewSlyfield]

Still problematic. A house is an inanimate object. It's not alive, therefore, it can't be murdered.

[Á àß äẞç ãþÇđ âÞ¢Đæ ǎB€Ðëf ảhf]

Here's somethingbernard11 can sink his statist teeth into!

[Naaman Brown]

House Murders Accused Mother in Court

There is a film franchise based on a villainous house.

But I think the meaning is Mother Accused [of] House Murders [appeared] in Court.

That's the problem with reading foreign news sources: different languages do have different word orders.

[Naaman Brown]

One the one hand, the headline does keep it short and simple (sort of KISS principle as applied to writing) but the headline does murder clarity.

[Rossami]

I wasn't aware that what they speak in Sheffield (UK) counted as a different language.

[Naaman Brown]

Cliche: America and Britain, divided by a "common" language.
To Anglophiles, American English is a different dialect.

In the classic Haynes auto manuals discussing parts cleaning, "paraffin" is British English for what is called "kerosene" in American English. Most American English users equate paraffin to the wax used in canning.

[Rossami]

In a sense, true. But I'm not aware of any significant deviations in the rules for word orders - which was your original point.

[great Unknown]

A simple hyphen? As in "House-Murders Accused Mother in Court".

[Andrew Dhuey]

Better, but still confusing. I think "House-murders" (with or without the hyphen) in quotes is key. That alerts the reader to how these ordinary words have special meaning when used together in this context.

[TwelveInchPianist]

Naomi Wolf has found the topic for her next book!

[Zennyfan]

As an erstwhile headline writer, I say drum that editor out of the guild! Yikes.

[PoxOnBothYourHouses]

"Pardon My Blooper" can never die.

[santamonica811]

If a house were tried for murder, would it be represented by Attic-us Finch?

[A nerdy Fred]

"Objection! No foundation!"

[santamonica811]

Damn...that's funnier than mine. 🙁

[Eddy]

These were represented to me as actual headlines:

"Defendant's speech ends with long sentence"

"Woman off to prison for sex with boys"

[Eddy]

And "Defendant receives cruel punishment: Lawyer"

[A nerdy Fred]

Another delightful one I ran across not long ago was "Felon Hunting Rights in the State of Oregon?"

[A nerdy Fred]

"France Wants Iraq to Control Its Security" is another.

[TwelveInchPianist]

Students get first hand job experience.

[markm23]

There have long been whole collections of these ambiguous headlines.

One that seems to be real (and I suspect the editors of a small town newspaper had been waiting for the chance to print it):
"Manly Man Marries Fertile Woman,"
referring to a wedding between residents of Manly, Iowa and Fertile, Iowa.

[Krayt]

"House Murders Accused Mother in Court"

I missed that episode. What season was it?

[Naaman Brown]

I dunno. I missed it. I am glad that my late wife (a fan of Gregory House) missed it too.

[Harvey Mosley]

Are you sure House murdered her? Maybe she died of lupus.

[MatthewSlyfield]

It would have to be the final episode (and not just for the current season) if he murdered her in court.

[Andrew H.]

I took a screenshot (can't add to this comment, but I double checked it) of a link for a related story with the title "Entebbe pilot 'saw hostage murdered'" with a photo of a grinning older man next to (& part of) the link...not the best photo for that story link.

"China may be using sea to hide its submarines" was written by Captain Obvious. https://twitter.com/GerardAraud/status/637730414732427264?s=19

[Naaman Brown]

... “Entebbe pilot ‘saw hostage murdered'” with a photo of a grinning older man ...

Ever realize that often in click-bait news, the image of a politician or celebrity is not them in the actual event but a stock photo of them reacting to something else entirely?