James while John had had had had had had had had had had had a better effect on the teacher
"James while John had had had had had had had had had had had a better effect on the teacher"は、多義語の語彙的曖昧性を巧みに表現した英文である。適切な句読点の位置を探し当て、文の意味を通らせる言葉遊びに使われる[1]。
哲学者のハンス・ライヘンバッハは、1947年、対象言語とメタ言語という異なるレベルの言語を説明するために "John where Jack …" の形でこの文を使っている[2]。
解釈[編集]
引用符と句読点を打つことにより、この文の理解は次のように簡単になる。
James, while John had had "had," had had "had had." "Had had" had had a better effect on the teacher.[3]
（ジェームズは、ジョンが "had" を使ったのに対し、"had had" を使った。"had had" は先生にとってより好印象だった。）
語順や単語を少し変えると、意味はさらに捉えやすくなる。
While John had used "had", James had used "had had." The teacher had preferred "had had."
（ジョンは "had" を使ったが、ジェームズは "had had" を使った。先生は "had had" の方を好んだ。）
同じようなことは"Fish and chips"(フィッシュ・アンド・チップス)の単語同士が等間隔に置かれていないと指摘するときにもいえる。
The gaps between 'Fish' and 'and' and 'and' and 'chips' are unequal.
（[Fishとand]と[andとchips]の間隔は等しくない。）
脚注[編集]
- ^ 3802 - Operator Jumble
- ^ Reichenbach, Hans (1947) Elements of symbolic logic. London: Collier-MacMillan. Exercise 3-4, p.405; solution p.417.
- ^ "Problem C: Operator Jumble". 31st ACM International Collegiate Programming Conference, 2006-2007.