Alfredo Deambrosi

Today, I saw a newspaper headline that one can easily misinterpret.  The headline appears in a major West-coast newspaper that published the article today.

“Palin Smears Hurt McCain”

When I first saw this article, I thought, “Why is John McCain feeling hurt, and why is Sarah Palin smearing him?” The four words for that kind of interpretation would be noun, verb, adjective, and noun.

It turns out that the article asserts that smears against Sarah Palin are hurting John McCain. Thus, the four words are adjective, noun, verb, noun.

Someone once sent me a list of several newspaper headlines that one could easily misinterpret. (I cannot verify whether these were actual headlines, though.) Misplaced modifiers cause possible confusion in these two headlines:

“L.A. Voters Approve Urban Renewal By Landslide”

“Killer Sentenced to Die for Second Time in 10 Years”

The confusion of gerunds and participles (Is the -ing word a noun or an adjective?) can cause confusion in these two headlines:

“Juvenile Court to Try Shooting Defendant”

“Fund Set Up for Beating Victim’s Kin”

Writers of newspaper headlines need to be especially careful about clear wording since headlines often omit determiners. But who knows? Maybe newspapers can boost their sales through unintended humor.