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"Time flies like an arrow; fruit flies like a banana" is a
humorous Humour (Commonwealth English) or humor (American English) is the tendency of experiences to provoke laughter and provide amusement. The term derives from the humoral medicine of the ancient Greeks, which taught that the balance of fluids in t ...
saying A saying is any concise expression that is especially memorable because of its meaning or style. A saying often shows a wisdom or cultural standard, having different meanings than just the words themselves. Sayings are categorized as follows: * ...
that is used in
linguistics Linguistics is the scientific study of language. The areas of linguistic analysis are syntax (rules governing the structure of sentences), semantics (meaning), Morphology (linguistics), morphology (structure of words), phonetics (speech sounds ...
as an example of a
garden path sentence A garden-path sentence is a grammatically correct sentence that starts in such a way that a reader's most likely interpretation will be incorrect; the reader is lured into a parse that turns out to be a dead end or yields a clearly unintended mea ...
or
syntactic ambiguity Syntactic ambiguity, also known as structural ambiguity, amphiboly, or amphibology, is characterized by the potential for a sentence to yield multiple interpretations due to its ambiguous syntax. This form of ambiguity is not derived from the va ...
, and in
word play Word play or wordplay (also: play-on-words) is a literary technique and a form of wit in which words used become the main subject of the work, primarily for the purpose of intended effect or amusement. Examples of word play include puns, ph ...
as an example of
pun A pun, also known as a paronomasia in the context of linguistics, is a form of word play that exploits multiple meanings of a term, or of similar-sounding words, for an intended humorous or rhetorical effect. These ambiguities can arise from t ...
ning,
double entendre A double entendre (plural double entendres) is a figure of speech or a particular way of wording that is devised to have a double meaning, one of which is typically obvious, and the other often conveys a message that would be too socially unacc ...
, and
antanaclasis In rhetoric, antanaclasis (; from the , ''antanáklasis'', meaning "reflection", from ἀντί ''anti'', "against", ἀνά ''ana'', "up" and κλάσις ''klásis'' "breaking") is the literary trope in which a single word or phrase is repeate ...
.


Analysis of the basic ambiguities

The point of the example is that the correct parsing of the second sentence, "fruit flies like a banana", is not the one that the reader starts to build, by assuming that "fruit" is a
noun In grammar, a noun is a word that represents a concrete or abstract thing, like living creatures, places, actions, qualities, states of existence, and ideas. A noun may serve as an Object (grammar), object or Subject (grammar), subject within a p ...
(the
subject Subject ( "lying beneath") may refer to: Philosophy *''Hypokeimenon'', or ''subiectum'', in metaphysics, the "internal", non-objective being of a thing **Subject (philosophy), a being that has subjective experiences, subjective consciousness, or ...
), "flies" is the main
verb A verb is a word that generally conveys an action (''bring'', ''read'', ''walk'', ''run'', ''learn''), an occurrence (''happen'', ''become''), or a state of being (''be'', ''exist'', ''stand''). In the usual description of English, the basic f ...
, and "like" as a
preposition Adpositions are a part of speech, class of words used to express spatial or temporal relations (''in, under, towards, behind, ago'', etc.) or mark various thematic relations, semantic roles (''of, for''). The most common adpositions are prepositi ...
. The reader only discovers that the parsing is incorrect when it gets to the "banana". At that point, in order to make sense of the sentence, the reader is forced to reparse it, with " fruit flies" as the subject and "like" as the main verb. The first sentence predisposes the reader towards the incorrect parsing of the second. After reparsing the second, it becomes clear that the first sentence could be re-parsed in the same way. The sentence "time flies like an arrow" is in fact often used to illustrate
syntactic ambiguity Syntactic ambiguity, also known as structural ambiguity, amphiboly, or amphibology, is characterized by the potential for a sentence to yield multiple interpretations due to its ambiguous syntax. This form of ambiguity is not derived from the va ...
. Marc de Mey(1982),
The cognitive paradigm: an integrated understanding of scientific development"> The cognitive paradigm: an integrated understanding of scientific development
' D. Reidel (1992), University of Chicago Press (1992).
Modern English speakers understand the sentence to unambiguously mean "Time passes fast, as fast as an arrow travels". But the sentence is syntactically ambiguous and alternatively could be interpreted as meaning, for example: * (as an '' imperative'') Measure the speed of flies like you would measure the speed of an arrow—i.e. (You should) time flies as you would time an arrow. * (''imperative'') Measure the speed of flies using methods that an arrow would use—i.e. (You should) time flies in the same manner that an arrow would time them. * (''imperative'') Measure the speed of flies with qualities resembling those of arrows—i.e. (You should) time those flies that are like an arrow. * (''
declarative Declarative may refer to: * Declarative learning, acquiring information that one can speak about * Declarative memory, one of two types of long term human memory * Declarative programming, a computer programming paradigm * Declarative sentence, a t ...
'') Time moves through the air in a way an arrow would. * (''declarative'', i.e. neutrally stating a
proposition A proposition is a statement that can be either true or false. It is a central concept in the philosophy of language, semantics, logic, and related fields. Propositions are the object s denoted by declarative sentences; for example, "The sky ...
) Certain flying insects, called "time flies", enjoy an arrow. In addition, the sentence contains
semantic ambiguity In linguistics, an expression is semantically ambiguous when it can have multiple meanings. The higher the number of synonyms a word has, the higher the degree of ambiguity. Like other kinds of ambiguity, semantic ambiguities are often clarified by ...
. For instance, the noun phrase "Time flies" could refer to all time flies or particular time flies, and "an arrow" to all arrows, a particular arrow, or different arrows for different flies; compare "Fruit flies like a banana", "Fruit flies ate a banana", "Fruit flies live on a banana". Moreover, "Time flies" could refer to "flies of the ''
Time Time is the continuous progression of existence that occurs in an apparently irreversible process, irreversible succession from the past, through the present, and into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequ ...
'' magazine", or "flies of the Pink Floyd song ''
Time Time is the continuous progression of existence that occurs in an apparently irreversible process, irreversible succession from the past, through the present, and into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequ ...
''". Indeed, a copy of the magazine or the song could also be the subject doing the flying. Furthermore, "like" as a verb could either signify general enjoyment, or the usage of a
like button A like button, like option, or recommend button is a feature in communication software such as social networking services, Internet forums, news websites and blogs where the user can express that they like or support certain content. Interne ...
.


History

The expression is based on the proverb: "Time flies", a translation of the Latin ''
Tempus fugit ''Tempus fugit'' () is a Latin phrase, usually translated into English as "time flies". The expression comes from line 284 of book 3 of Virgil's ''Georgics'', Vergilius Maro, Publius. ''Georgicon'', III. c. 29 BC. Hosted at Wikisource ...
'', where "fly" is to be taken in the sense of ''flee''. An early example of a pun with the expression "Time flies" may be found in a 1930 issue of ''
Boys' Life ''Scout Life'' (formerly ''Boys' Life'') is the monthly magazine of the Boy Scouts of America (BSA). Its target readers are children between the ages of 6 and 18. The magazine‘s headquarters are in Irving, Texas. ''Scout Life'' is published ...
'':
;Flies Around :''Scoutmaster'': Time flies. :''Smart Tenderfoot'': You can't. They go too fast.
Anthony Oettinger Anthony "Tony" Gervin Oettinger (March 29, 1929 in Nuremberg, Germany – July 26, 2022) was a German-born American linguist and computer scientist best known for his work on information resources policy. Oettinger coined the term “compunicatio ...
gives "fruit flies like bananas" as contrasted with "time flies like an arrow" as an example of the difficulty of handling ambiguous syntactic structures as early as 1963, although his formal publications with
Susumu Kuno is a Japanese linguist and author. He is Professor Emeritus of Linguistics at Harvard University, where he received his Ph.D. degree in 1964 and spent his entire career. Early life Kuno received his A.B. and A.M. from Tokyo University where ...
do not use that example. This is quoted by later authors. A fuller exposition with the banana example appeared in a 1966 article by Oettinger. This article prompted the following response in a letter:
Time Flies Like an Arrow ''An Ode to Oettinger'' Now, thin fruit flies like thunderstorms, And thin farm boys like farm girls narrow; And tax firm men like fat tax forms – But time flies like an arrow. When tax forms tax all firm men's souls, While farm girls slim their boyfriends' flanks; That's when the murd'rous thunder rolls – And thins the fruit flies' ranks. Like tossed bananas in the skies, The thin fruit flies like common yarrow; Then's the time to time the time flies – Like the time flies like an arrow. — Edison B. Schroeder (1966)
The verse is popular as a specimen of didactic humor trading on
syntactic ambiguity Syntactic ambiguity, also known as structural ambiguity, amphiboly, or amphibology, is characterized by the potential for a sentence to yield multiple interpretations due to its ambiguous syntax. This form of ambiguity is not derived from the va ...
. Like the poem " The Chaos" by
Gerard Nolst Trenité Gerard Nolst Trenité (; 20 July 18709 October 1946), publishing under the pseudonym Charivarius, was a Dutch writer, teacher, and observer of the English language. Nolst Trenité is best known in the English-speaking world for his poem ''The C ...
, its themes are popular among practitioners and students in fields such as
natural language processing Natural language processing (NLP) is a subfield of computer science and especially artificial intelligence. It is primarily concerned with providing computers with the ability to process data encoded in natural language and is thus closely related ...
and
linguistics Linguistics is the scientific study of language. The areas of linguistic analysis are syntax (rules governing the structure of sentences), semantics (meaning), Morphology (linguistics), morphology (structure of words), phonetics (speech sounds ...
.


Other attributions

The saying is sometimes attributed to
Groucho Marx Julius Henry "Groucho" Marx (; October 2, 1890 – August 19, 1977) was an American comedian, actor, writer, and singer who performed in films and vaudeville on television, radio, and the stage. He is considered one of America's greatest comed ...
, but according to ''
The Yale Book of Quotations ''The Yale Book of Quotations'' is a quotations collection focusing on modern and American quotations. Edited by Fred R. Shapiro, it was published by Yale University Press in 2006 with a foreword by Joseph Epstein, . Prior to publication it was ...
'', there is no reason to believe Marx actually said this. Instead, it traces the Marx attribution to a post from July 9, 1982 on the Usenet group net.jokes; however, the closest match in the Google Groups archives is really dated to September 8, and does not mention Marx.


Use in linguistics

The saying is used as a linguistic example of
antanaclasis In rhetoric, antanaclasis (; from the , ''antanáklasis'', meaning "reflection", from ἀντί ''anti'', "against", ἀνά ''ana'', "up" and κλάσις ''klásis'' "breaking") is the literary trope in which a single word or phrase is repeate ...
, the stylistic
trope Trope or tropes may refer to: Arts and entertainment * Trope (cinema), a cinematic convention for conveying a concept * Trope (literature), a figure of speech or common literary device * Trope (music), any of a variety of different things in medi ...
of repeating a single word, but with a different meaning each time. It is also used as an example of
pun A pun, also known as a paronomasia in the context of linguistics, is a form of word play that exploits multiple meanings of a term, or of similar-sounding words, for an intended humorous or rhetorical effect. These ambiguities can arise from t ...
ning. The wordplay is based on the distinct meanings of the two occurrences of the word ''flies'' (the verb " travel through the air" and the noun for certain insects), and of the word ''like'' (the
preposition Adpositions are a part of speech, class of words used to express spatial or temporal relations (''in, under, towards, behind, ago'', etc.) or mark various thematic relations, semantic roles (''of, for''). The most common adpositions are prepositi ...
"similarly to" and the verb "enjoy"). For example, the second clause can be read as "fruit travels through the air similar to a banana" or as "certain insects enjoy a banana". This is an example of a
garden-path sentence A garden-path sentence is a grammatically correct sentence that starts in such a way that a reader's most likely interpretation will be incorrect; the reader is lured into a parse that turns out to be a dead end or yields a clearly unintended mea ...
, a phrase that the reader or listener normally begins to
parse Parsing, syntax analysis, or syntactic analysis is a process of analyzing a string of symbols, either in natural language, computer languages or data structures, conforming to the rules of a formal grammar by breaking it into parts. The term ''pa ...
according to one grammatical structure, and is then forced to back up and reparse when the sentence ends in an unexpected way.


See also

*
List of linguistic example sentences The following is a partial list of linguistic example sentences illustrating various linguistic phenomena. Ambiguity Different types of ambiguity which are possible in language. Lexical ambiguity Demonstrations of words which have multipl ...
* Amphibology *
Antanaclasis In rhetoric, antanaclasis (; from the , ''antanáklasis'', meaning "reflection", from ἀντί ''anti'', "against", ἀνά ''ana'', "up" and κλάσις ''klásis'' "breaking") is the literary trope in which a single word or phrase is repeate ...
*
Arrow of time An arrow is a fin-stabilized projectile launched by a bow. A typical arrow usually consists of a long, stiff, straight shaft with a weighty (and usually sharp and pointed) arrowhead attached to the front end, multiple fin-like stabilizers ca ...
*
Paraprosdokian A paraprosdokian (), or par'hyponoian, is a figure of speech in which the latter part of a sentence, phrase, or larger discourse is surprising or unexpected in a way that causes the reader or listener to reframe or reinterpret the first part. It ...
*
Perverb An anti-proverb or a perverb is the transformation of a standard proverb for humorous effect. Paremiologist Wolfgang Mieder defines them as "parodied, twisted, or fractured proverbs that reveal humorous or satirical speech play with tradition ...
*
Sentence processing Sentence processing takes place whenever a reader or listener processes a language utterance, either in isolation or in the context of a conversation or a text. Many studies of the human language comprehension process have focused on reading of ...
*
Syntactic ambiguity Syntactic ambiguity, also known as structural ambiguity, amphiboly, or amphibology, is characterized by the potential for a sentence to yield multiple interpretations due to its ambiguous syntax. This form of ambiguity is not derived from the va ...


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Time Flies Like An Arrow English phrases Ambiguity Linguistic example sentences