Have you heard the one about the man who rushes into a doctor’s office and shouts, “Doc!  I think I’m shrinking!”  To which the doctor calmly responds, “Settle down.  You’ll just have to be a little patient.” What makes that joke funny is grammatical ambiguity, a literary device that can be either cute or annoying, depending on the context.  BYU professor of linguistics, Dallin D. Oaks joins us to talk about it.—Original airdate: 2/11/2010



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