I'm declaring myself forum necromancer

[Princess Flufflebutt]

*necros all the threads*

[Perrydotto]

do necro'd threads do anything cool, like serve you or murder everyone

[diribigal]

do necro'd threads do anything cool, like serve you or murder everyone

That was one heck of a garden path sentence, especially without a question mark. I first read it as a list of commands:

1. "Do necro'd threads." (weird grammar but ok)
2. "Do anything cool." (Reasonable)
3. "Like serve you." (I'm not sure what this means...)
4. "Murder everyone." (That really doesn't sound like something Perry would say. Maybe I should reread the sentence...)

[Mechanical Ape]

I use the chicken thread to work my fields

[Bigdog]

That was one heck of a garden path sentence, especially without a question mark. I first read it as a list of commands:

1. "Do necro'd threads." (weird grammar but ok)
2. "Do anything cool." (Reasonable)
3. "Like serve you." (I'm not sure what this means...)
4. "Murder everyone." (That really doesn't sound like something Perry would say. Maybe I should reread the sentence...)

I didn't read it as a garden path sentence at all Probably because "Do [plural noun] ..." is much more likely to be the (perfectly grammatical, incidentally) start of a question like Perry ended up writing, such as "Do popes shit in the woods?"

There are obviously cases where "Do..." leads someone to assume a command/suggestion, like "Do cardio" or "Do cocaine" or indeed "Do thread necromancy" (less common but still intelligible as a suggestion to perform an activity), but this isn't one of them.

Same with "Like serve you"-- unless someone is a self-appointed language maven getting hung up on "like" as a replacement for "such as" (and I doubt you are), it's perfectly coherent as an example of the aforementioned cool things that necro'd threads could be doing, especially if one is already aware of the context that necromancers are typically surrounded by undead servants.

This has been your Bigdog language sperg for the day or will it be??? stay tuned

[Bigdog]

Oh hey, if you want a situation where "Do ______" could potentially form a very brief garden path, here's one:

"Do crimes lead to prison sentences?" - A very naive potential criminal asking for legal advice.

"Do crimes." - Mae responding to Gregg's question about what they should do that day.

Obviously this case arises due to the use of slang, and an astute communicator will typically be able to judge from the context and quickly adjust, but it could form a very brief garden path, as I said. The more problematic garden paths tend to be the ones that lead a typical reader several words deep before fucking them up, as in the archetypal "The horse raced past the barn..."

[diribigal]

I basically agree with everything you said. Instead of "garden path sentence" I probably should have simply said "I misread that at first".

[The Ghost of Ember]

____necro
necro is serve and murder
_____do
_____any
____thing
_____has
_____cool

[Perrydotto]

thank you for this legit interesting grammar discussion and also now I'm wondering if popes DO shit in the woods

[Bigdog]

thank you for this legit interesting grammar discussion and also now I'm wondering if popes DO shit in the woods

I legit think Francis wouldn't consider it beneath his dignity if he had to, which is cool.

Heck, the historical Franciscans (I'm aware Pope Francis is actually a Jesuit) would've been all about that since they tended to be itinerant mendicants, if you will. No rest stops on the roads in 13th century Europe, even the second-rate ones with the chemical pit toilets