Professor Ernest Brennecke of Columbia is credited with inventing a sentence that can be made to have eight different meaning by placing ONE WORD in all possible positions in the sentence:
“I hit him in the eye yesterday”.
The word is “Only”.
The Message:
1. Only I hit him in the eye yesterday. (No one else did)
2. I only hit him in the eye yesterday. (Did not slap him)
3. I hit only him in the eye yesterday. (I did not hit others)
4. I hit him only in the eye yesterday. (I did not hit outside the eye)
5. I hit him in only the eye yesterday. (Not other organs)
6. I hit him in the only eye yesterday. (He doesn’t have another eye)
7. I hit him in the eye only yesterday. (Not today)
8. I hit him in the eye yesterday only. (Did not wait for today)
This is the beauty and complexity of the English language.
