text:
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 meaning. "Garden path" refers to the saying "to be led down [or up] the garden path", meaning to be deceived, tricked, or seduced. In A Dictionary of Modern English Usage (1926), Fowler describes such sentences as unwittingly laying a "false scent".

Such a sentence leads the reader toward a seemingly familiar meaning that is actually not the one intended. It is a special type of sentence that creates a momentarily ambiguous interpretation because it contains a word or phrase that can be interpreted in multiple ways, causing the reader to begin to believe that a phrase will mean one thing when in reality it means something else. When read, the sentence seems ungrammatical, makes almost no sense, and often requires rereading so that its meaning may be fully understood after careful parsing. Though these sentences are grammatically correct, such sentences are syntactically non-standard (or incorrect) as evidenced by the need for re-reading and careful parsing. Garden path sentences are not usually desirable in writing that intends to communicate clearly.

"The old man the boat."
This is a common example that has been the subject of psycholinguistic research and has been used to test the capabilities of artificial intelligence efforts. The difficulty in correctly parsing the sentence results from the fact that readers tend to interpret old as an adjective. Reading the, they expect a noun or an adjective to follow, and when they then read old followed by man they assume that the phrase the old man is to be interpreted as determiner – adjective – noun. When readers encounter another the following the supposed noun man (rather than the expected verb, as in e.g., The old man washed the boat), they are forced to re-analyze the sentence. As with other examples, one explanation for the initial misunderstanding by the reader is that a sequence of words or phrases tends to be analyzed in terms of a frequent pattern: in this case: determiner – adjective – noun. Rephrased, the sentence could be rewritten as "The old are those who man the boat."

"The complex houses married and single soldiers and their families."
This is another commonly cited example. Like the previous sentence, the initial parse is to read the complex houses as a noun phrase, but the complex houses married does not make semantic sense (only people can marry) and the complex houses married and single makes no sense at all (after married and..., the expectation is another verb to form a compound predicate). The correct parsing is The complex [noun phrase] houses [verb] married and single soldiers [noun phrase] and their families [noun phrase]. Rephrased, the sentence could be rewritten as "The complex provides housing for the soldiers, married or single, as well as their families."

"The horse raced past the barn fell."
This frequently used, classic example of a garden-path sentence is attributed to Thomas Bever. The sentence is hard to parse because raced can be interpreted as a finite verb or as a passive participle. The reader initially interprets raced as the main verb in the simple past, but when the reader encounters fell, they are forced to re-analyze the sentence, concluding that raced is being used as a passive participle and horse is the direct object of the subordinate clause. The sentence could be replaced by "The horse that was raced past the barn fell", where that was raced past the barn tells the reader which horse is under discussion. Such examples of initial ambiguity resulting from a "reduced relative with [a] potentially intransitive verb" ("The horse raced in the barn fell.") can be contrasted with the lack of ambiguity for a non-reduced relative ("The horse that was raced in the barn fell.") or with a reduced relative with an unambiguously transitive verb ("The horse frightened in the barn fell."). As with other examples, one explanation for the initial misunderstanding by the reader is that a sequence of phrases tends to be analyzed in terms of the frequent pattern: agent – action – patient.

German
"Modern bei dieser Bilderausstellung werden vor allem die Rahmen, denn sie sind aus Holz und im feuchten Keller gelagert worden."

This example turns on the two meanings of German modern: the adjective meaning English 'modern', and the verb meaning 'to rot'.

The theme of the "picture exhibition" in the first clause lends itself to interpreting modern as an adjective meaning 'contemporary', until the last two words of the sentence:

 * 'Most of all, it is the picture frames in this exhibition that are becoming modern, because they are made out of wood, and had been stored in the dank cellar.'

This causes dissonance at the end of the sentence, and forces back-tracking to recover the proper usage and sense (and different pronunciation) of the first word of the sentence, not as the adjective meaning "contemporary", but as the verb meaning "going mouldy":

 * 'Most of all, it is the picture frames in this exhibition that are becoming mouldy, because they are made out of wood and had been stored in the dank cellar.'

The ambiguity, however, is only perceived in writing, since the two occurrences of the word modern in the sentence have different pronunciations (for 'going mouldy' it is stressed on the first syllable, while for 'contemporary' on the second one).

Portuguese
"Mãe suspeita da morte do filho e foge."

This example makes use of the ambiguity between the verb suspeita and the adjective suspeita, which is also captured by the English word suspect. It also makes use of a misreading in which the word e is passed over by the parser, which lends to two different meanings.

 * In a first parse, the sentence might be read as '[A] mother [who is the] suspect of son's death runs away.' In this sentence, the suspeita serves as an adjective for the mother who runs away due to the fact that e is easily overlooked.
 * A second parse, however, reveals the true reading of the sentence to be '[A] mother suspects son's death and runs away.' Suspeita now serves as a verb and reveals that a mother suspects that her son might be dead.

Parsing
When reading a sentence, readers will analyze the words and phrases they see and make inferences about the sentence’s grammatical structure and meaning in a process called parsing. Generally, readers will parse the sentence chunks at a time and will try to interpret the meaning of the sentence at each interval. As readers are given more information, they make an assumption of the contents and meaning of the whole sentence. With each new portion of the sentence encountered, they will try to make that part make sense with the sentence structures that they have already interpreted and their assumption about the rest of the sentence. The garden-path sentence effect occurs when the sentence has a phrase or word with an ambiguous meaning that the reader interprets in a certain way and, when they read the whole sentence, there is a difference in what has been read and what was expected. The reader must then read and evaluate the sentence again to understand its meaning. The sentence may be parsed and interpreted in different ways due to the influence of pragmatics, semantics, or other factors describing the extralinguistic context.

Parsing strategies
Various strategies can be used when parsing a sentence, and there is much debate over which parsing strategy humans use. Differences in parsing strategies can be seen from the effects of a reader attempting to parse a part of a sentence that is ambiguous in its syntax or meaning. For this reason, garden-path sentences are often studied as a way to test which strategy humans use. Two debated parsing strategies that humans are thought to use are serial and parallel parsing.

Serial parsing is where the reader makes one interpretation of the ambiguity and continues to parse the sentence in the context of that interpretation. The reader will continue to use the initial interpretation as reference for future parsing until disambiguating information is given.

Parallel parsing is where the reader recognizes and generates multiple interpretations of the sentence and stores them until disambiguating information is given, at which point only the correct interpretation is maintained.

Reanalysis of a garden-path sentence
When ambiguous nouns appear, they can function as both the object of the first item or the subject of the second item. In that case, the former use is preferred. It is also found that the reanalysis of a garden-path sentence gets more and more difficult with the length of the ambiguous phrase.

Recovery strategies
A research paper published by Meseguer, Carreiras and Clifton (2002) stated that intensive eye movements are observed when people are recovering from a mild garden-path sentence. They proposed that people use two strategies, both of which are consistent with the selective reanalysis process described by Frazier and Rayner in 1982. According to them, the readers predominantly use two alternative strategies to recover from mild garden-path sentences.
 * The more common one includes the regression of eyes from the first disambiguation directly to the main verb of the sentence. Then the readers reread the remainder of the sentence, fixating their eyes to the next region and the adverb (the beginning of the ambiguous part of the sentence).
 * The lesser-used strategy includes the regression from the first disambiguation directly to the adverb.

Partial re-analysis
Partial re-analysis occurs when analysis is not complete. Frequently, when people can make even a little bit of sense of the later sentence, they stop analysing further so the former part of the sentence still remains in memory and does not get discarded from it.

Therefore, the original misinterpretation of the sentence remains even after the re-analysis is done; hence participants' final interpretations are often incorrect.

Difficulties in revision
Recent research on garden-path sentences has utilized adult second language learners, or L2 learners, to study difficulties in revision of the initial parsing of garden-path sentences. During the processing of garden-path sentences, the reader has an initial parse of the sentence, but often has to revise their parse because it is incorrect. Unlike adult native speakers, children tend to have difficulty revising their first parsing of the sentence. This difficulty in revision is attributed to the underdeveloped executive functioning of children. Executive functioning skills are utilized when the initial parsing of a sentence needs to be discarded for a revised parsing, and underdeveloped or damaged executive functioning impairs this ability. As the child ages and their executive functioning completes development, they gain the ability to revise the initial incorrect parsing. However, difficulties in revision are not unique to children. Adult L2 learners also exhibit difficulty in revisions, but the difficulties cannot be attributed to underdeveloped executive functioning like in children.

In a 2015 study, adult L2 learners were compared to adult native speakers and native speaking children in revision and processing of garden-path sentences using act-out errors and eye movement. Adult native English speakers, English speaking children, and adult English L2 learners were shown garden-path sentences or disambiguated garden-path sentences that either had reference information or no reference information and then asked to act out the sentence. Adult L2 speakers had fewer act-out errors than native speaking children when the garden-path sentence was presented with referential information, similarly to the adult native speakers that present less act-out errors than both the adult L2 learners and native speaking children. Adult L2 speakers and native adult speakers were able to use discourse and referential information to aid in their processing of the garden-path sentences. This ability could be due to the adults’ developed executive functioning allowing them more cognitive resources, discourse and referential information, to aid in parsing and revision. Additionally, the use of discourse and referential information could be due to L1-transfer because Italian and English share the same sentence structure. However, when the garden-path sentences are disambiguated and then presented, the adult L2 speakers had the highest act-out error rate followed by native speaking children and then by adult native speakers. The results of this study indicate that difficulties in parsing revision are more common than originally thought and are not just confined to children or individuals with reduced executive functioning. Adults, both native speakers and L2 learners, use discourse and referential information in parsing and sentence processing. But adult L2 learners and native speaking children had similar error rates for garden-path sentences with no reference information, indicating systematic revision failure.

Similar phenomena

 * Antanaclasis, a literary trope in which a single word or phrase is repeated, but in two different senses.
 * Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo, complexity and linguistic ambiguity in a grammatical sentence
 * Comparative illusion, ungrammatical sentences which often are perceived to be acceptable
 * Dangling else, a similarly ambiguous parsing issue in computer-programming.
 * Dangling modifier
 * Donkey sentence, a sentence that contains a pronoun whose reference is clear to the reader (it is bound semantically) but which is much more complex to technically classify.
 * Paraprosdokian
 * Syntactic ambiguity
 * Synchysis

Other

 * Backtracking
 * Branch predictor
 * List of linguistic example sentences
 * Natural language processing
 * Transderivational search
 * Winograd schema challenge

title: Garden-path sentence


text:
Alfred Vail

Alfred Lewis Vail (September 25, 1807 – January 18, 1859) was an American machinist and inventor. Along with Samuel Morse, Vail was central in developing and commercializing American telegraphy between 1837 and 1844.

Vail and Morse were the first two telegraph operators on Morse's first experimental line between Washington, D.C., and Baltimore, and Vail took charge of building and managing several early telegraph lines between 1845 and 1848. He was also responsible for several technical innovations of Morse's system, particularly the sending key and improved recording registers and relay magnets. Vail left the telegraph industry in 1848 because he believed that the managers of Morse's lines did not fully value his contributions.

His last assignment, superintendent of the Washington and New Orleans Telegraph Company, paid him only $900 a year, leading Vail to write to Morse,
 * "I have made up my mind to leave the Telegraph to take care of itself, since it cannot take care of me. I shall, in a few months, leave Washington for New Jersey, ... and bid adieu to the subject of the Telegraph for some more profitable business."

Early life
Vail's parents were Bethiah Youngs (1778–1847) and Stephen Vail (1780–1864). Vail was born in Morristown, New Jersey, where his father was an entrepreneur and industrialist who built the Speedwell Ironworks into one of the most innovative iron works of its time. Their other son George Vail, Alfred's brother, was a noted politician.

Alfred attended public schools before taking a job as a machinist at the iron works. He enrolled in New York University to study theology in 1832, where he was an active and successful student and a member of the Eucleian Society, graduating in 1836.

Involvement with Morse's telegraph
Visiting his alma mater on September 2, 1837, Vail happened to witness one of Samuel Morse's early telegraph experiments. He became fascinated by the technology and negotiated an arrangement with Morse to develop the technology at Speedwell Ironworks, at his own expense, in return for 25% of the proceeds. Alfred split his share with his brother George Vail. After having secured his father's financial backing, and being a skilled machinist, Vail refined Morse's crude prototype telegraph to make it suitable for public demonstration and commercial operation.

The first successful completion of a transmission with this system was at the Speedwell Iron Works on January 6, 1838, across two miles (3 km) of wire. The message read "A patient waiter is no loser." Over the next few months Morse and Vail demonstrated the telegraph to Philadelphia's Franklin Institute, members of Congress, and President Martin Van Buren and his cabinet. Demonstrations such as these were crucial to Morse's obtaining a Congressional appropriation of $30,000 to build his first line in 1844 from Washington to Baltimore.

Retirement from telegraphy
When Morse took on an influential congressman as a partner, Morse cut the Vail brothers' share to one-eighth, although the other partners' shares were not reduced. Morse retained patent rights to all the apparatus and the alphabetic code-system that Vail had developed.

Vail retired from the telegraph operations in 1848 and moved back to Morristown, where he spent his last ten years researching genealogy. Since Alfred and his brother George shared a one-eighth interest in Morse's telegraph patents, Vail realized far less financial gain from his work on the telegraph than Morse and others.

His papers and equipment were subsequently donated by his son Stephen to the Smithsonian Institution and New Jersey Historical Society.

Alfred Vail's cousin, Theodore N. Vail, became the first president of American Telephone & Telegraph.

Morse code
Alfred Vail and Samuel Morse collaborated in the invention of Morse code.

The "Morse code" that went into operational use after Vail had become involved was very different from Morse's original plan. A controversy exists over the role of each in the invention. The argument for Vail being the original inventor is laid out by several scholars.

The argument offered by supporters of Morse claims that Morse originally devised a cipher code similar to that used in existing semaphore line telegraphs, by which words were assigned three- or four-digit numbers and entered into a code book. The sending operator converted words to these number groups and the receiving operator converted them back to words through the same code book.

Morse spent several months compiling this code dictionary. It is said by Morse supporters that Vail, in public and private writings, never claimed the code for himself. According to one researcher, in a February 1838 letter to his father, Judge Stephen Vail, Alfred wrote,
 * "Professor Morse has invented a new plan of an alphabet, and has thrown aside the Dictionaries."

In an 1845 book Vail wrote describing Morse's telegraph, he also attributed the code to Morse.

Honors
A U.S. Army base was named in Vail's honor: Camp Vail in Eatontown, New Jersey, later temporarily renamed Fort Monmouth, was an Army housing complex.

After World War II the families of servicemen and civilian Army employees negotiated with the Army to purchase the development, which they incorporated as the "Alfred Vail Mutual Association". Due to the diligent efforts of the town clerk, the rights of the charter of the original Shrewsbury Township (est. 1693) were transferred to the residents. The housing development exists under that name to this day.

An elementary school in Morristown, New Jersey, near the site of the Speedwell Iron Works, is named Alfred Vail Elementary School in his honor.

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: Alfred Vail


text:
Zelman Cowen

Sir Zelman Cowen, (7 October 1919 – 8 December 2011) was an Australian legal scholar and university administrator who served as the 19th Governor-General of Australia, in office from 1977 to 1982.

Cowen was born in Melbourne, and attended Scotch College before going on to the University of Melbourne where he was resident at Ormond College. His studies were interrupted by World War II, during which he served in the Royal Australian Navy. After the war's end, Cowen attended New College, Oxford, on a Rhodes Scholarship. He subsequently won the prestigious Vinerian Scholarship as the best student in the Bachelor of Civil Law degree. He remained at Oxford after graduating, serving as a fellow of Oriel College from 1947 to 1950.

In 1951, Cowen returned to Australia to become dean of the law faculty at the University of Melbourne. In 1953, still while at the University of Melbourne, he was awarded a Fulbright Senior Scholarship in Law to Harvard University. He became known as an expert on constitutional law, and was a visiting professor at a number of overseas institutions. He later served as vice-chancellor of the University of New England (1966–1970) and the University of Queensland (1970–1977). In 1977, Malcolm Fraser appointed Cowen to succeed John Kerr as governor-general. He was an uncontroversial choice, and became the second Jewish holder of the position, after Sir Isaac Isaacs. After leaving office, Cowen returned to academia, serving as provost of Oriel College, Oxford, from 1982 to 1990.

Early life
Cowen was born in Melbourne in 1919 into a Jewish family named Cohen, the son of Bernard Cohen (1892–1975), from Belarus and Sara Cohen (née Granat; 1893–1989), born in Australia. His paternal grandparents were Jewish immigrants from Belarus in the Russian Empire. The name was formally changed to Cowen when he was a young boy. He was educated at St Kilda Park State School, Scotch College and the University of Melbourne. He served in the Royal Australian Navy during the Second World War, and was in Darwin during the bombing raid of 1942, before being transferred to Brisbane to work in the cipher unit of General MacArthur's office. He married Anna Wittner in 1945. Cowen then went as a Rhodes Scholar to New College, Oxford, where he completed a Bachelor of Civil Law degree and jointly won the Vinerian Scholarship. From 1947 to 1950 he was a fellow of Oriel College, Oxford, and was also a consultant on legal matters to the British Military Government in Allied-occupied Germany.

Zelman Cowen was a 1953 Fulbright Senior Scholar in Law from the University of Melbourne to Harvard University.

Educational career
In 1951 Cowen returned to Australia and became dean of the law faculty at the University of Melbourne, a post he held until 1966 where he appointed, and worked with Francis Patrick Donovan. During these years he was frequently a visiting professor at American universities, including the University of Chicago, the University of Illinois and the University of Washington. He also advised the British Colonial Office on constitutional matters and advised the governments of Ghana and Hong Kong on legal issues. Among many other works, he published a biography of Sir Isaac Isaacs, the first Australian-born and first Jewish Governor-General of Australia.

Cowen was appointed Vice-Chancellor of the University of New England in Armidale, New South Wales, in 1966. The following year, he produced for ABC television the "Yes" case for the Australian referendum, 1967 (Aboriginals). From 1970 to 1977 he was Vice-Chancellor of the University of Queensland in Brisbane, during the difficult years of the Vietnam War and Springbok tour student protests. In 1977 Ray Crooke painted Portrait of Professor Emeritus Sir Zelman Cowen which is part of the University of Queensland collection. By this time he was regarded as one of the leading constitutional lawyers in the English-speaking world. He was Emeritus Professor of Law at Melbourne and the Tagore Professor of Law at the University of Calcutta. During his time in Queensland he handled disturbances at the university, resulting from protests against the Vietnam War, with diplomatic skill.

Governor-General
When Sir John Kerr's turbulent period of office as Governor-General ended with his early resignation in 1977, the Prime Minister, Malcolm Fraser, offered Cowen the post. He was in some ways a perfect choice. He was a distinguished Australian with an international reputation, his knowledge of the Constitution and the law were beyond dispute, and his political views were unknown. The fact that Cowen was Jewish gave his appointment a multicultural aspect in keeping with contemporary Australian sentiment. He served four and a half years as Governor-General, from December 1977 to July 1982.

Post vice-regal career
From 1982 to 1990 Cowen was Provost of Oriel College, Oxford. After his retirement he returned to Australia and became active in Jewish community affairs in Melbourne. He also pursued a range of other interests, including serving for five years on the board of Fairfax Newspapers (three of them as Chairman) during a turbulent period for the company; and being patron of St Kilda Football Club. During the lead-up to the 1999 Australian republic referendum, he supported a moderate republican position.

Personal life
On 7 June 1945, Cowen married Anna Wittner (5 July 1925 – 10 June 2022)  and had four children, Shimon, Yosef, Kate and Ben. His son, Rabbi Shimon Cowen, is Director of the Institute for Judaism and Civilization in Melbourne.

Death
Cowen suffered from Parkinson's disease for at least the last 15 years of his life. He died on 8 December 2011, at the age of 92, at his home in Toorak, Victoria. It was the 34th anniversary of his swearing-in as Governor-General in 1977.

His state funeral at Melbourne's Temple Beth Israel in St Kilda was attended by the Governor-General, Dame Quentin Bryce, the Prime Minister, Julia Gillard, the Opposition Leader, Tony Abbott, and former Prime Ministers Malcolm Fraser, Bob Hawke and John Howard.

Honours
Cowen's first honour was a Knight Bachelor in 1976. When appointed Governor-General he was made a Knight Grand Cross of the Order of St Michael and St George (GCMG) and Knight of the Order of Australia (AK) in 1977, and sworn into the Privy Council in 1977 (Rt Hon). When Queen Elizabeth II visited Australia in 1980 she appointed Cowen a Knight Grand Cross of the Royal Victorian Order (GCVO).

He was an Honorary Fellow of the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering (FTSE).

In 1985, he was made an honorary fellow of Trinity College Dublin.

Named Awards
In 1981, the Royal Australian Institute of Architects (RAIA) established the Sir Zelman Cowen Award for Public Architecture which is widely recognised as Australia's leading award for public buildings.

Melbourne Law School awards the Zelman Cowen Scholarship to incoming Juris Doctor students. Awarded purely on the basis of academic merit, it is the law school's most prestigious scholarship. A special issue of the "Melbourne University Law Review" in 2015 published papers from a 2014 conference on legal, international, liberty, literary, university, and other public issues of significance in Cowen's life and work; contributors included Glyn Davis, Justice Susan Kenny, Michael Crommelin, Donald Markwell, Cheryl Saunders, and Sir Frank Berman.

title: Zelman Cowen


text:
Talk:Garden-path sentence

Headline usage
I wonder if there are any studies that have looked at newspaper headlines, or tv news summary crawls, which use abbreviated language that are conducive to G-p s'es. A lot of times they are so abbreviated (like no verb) that they are not sentences at all, so not applicable here; but sometimes they are. In the Russian invasion of Ukraine currently in the news, CNN had the following headline-style large subtitle on screen before anyone spoke it, and when reading it, I had that "back-tracking moment" so characteristic of G-p s: This is actually a grammatical sentence, and does have characteristics of a G-p s; the problem is, we can't add it without a secondary source that talks about it. But that's what I'm wondering about, if there are such sources. Anyway, I'll be keeping a lookout for it now. Mathglot (talk) 17:38, 28 February 2022 (UTC)
 * "Rocket strikes rock Kharkiv."

 * We have some discussion at Headline, but the constraints and artificiality of the specialized headline format make it almost trivial to produce quasi-garden-path effects. If that headline were a sentence of ordinary prose, it would more likely be phrased as "Rocket strikes are rocking Kharkiv"... AnonMoos (talk) 18:10, 11 June 2022 (UTC)

Is this headline even defensible? I came to this article trying to understand its origin. An accepted authority (Fowler) is cited calling it a "False Trail" sentence not the chosen headline. Why is it not called that? Why are there zero cites / references for "Garden Path Sentence"? It comes across as a pet phrase being used at the expense of the much clearer and accepted standard phrase. -- Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.224.227.214 (talk) 13:06, 26 June 2023 (UTC)

The old are those who man the boat
Wouldn't the following be clearer? The old people/sailors are those who man the boat --Backinstadiums (talk) 15:13, 11 June 2022 (UTC)

 * The main interest of Garden-path sentences is not really how to rephrase them so as to be more unambiguous or stylistically-acceptable, but what they may reveal about human language processing... AnonMoos (talk) 18:13, 11 June 2022 (UTC)

Context stacking
Though not an example of a garden-path sentence, the sentence "The girl the boy the dog bit hit cried" illustrates a similar language parsing problem. The sentence, which can be rewritten (awkwardly) as "The girl hit by the boy who was bitten by the dog cried", creates a parsing problem that requires the reader to keep track of multiple verb/object pairs. This is similar to the way a computer compiler program keeps track of context as it parses a program text, typically using an internal stack to keep track of the individual grammar constructs as they are recognized. The problem with this particular sentence is that most people are not used to keeping track of more than two verb/object constructs at a time (a stacking depth of two), while this sentence contains three nested levels of pairs.

Similarly, parsing a garden-path sentence requires keeping track of the grammatical constructs as they are recognized in a left-to-right parsing scan, the difference here being that one of recognized constructs is based on a misinterpretation of a word, such as taking a word to be a noun when it is actually a verb, leading to an incorrectly recognized construct. At some point further along in the parse, the error become apparent, which requires backtracking the parse, popping the stack one or more levels, and restarting the scan using a different interpretation for the problem word. — Loadmaster (talk) 15:58, 22 October 2023 (UTC)

 * Illustrating the difficulty, your paraphrase forgot a verb. —Tamfang (talk) 04:39, 29 October 2023 (UTC)

 * Corrected (above). — Loadmaster (talk) 23:04, 12 July 2024 (UTC)

German example
I'm German and your interpretation of the sentence is wrong. "vor allem" is "especially", but that has nothing to do with the meaning of "werden", which is indicating the future. You could interpret that as an exhibition in the future, but then you would say "Modern bei dieser Bilderausstellung werden vor allem die Rahmen sein", which doesn't work with the garden-path sentence idea any more. As written and if we read "Modern" as "modern" then the first part of the sentence tells us that the frames are becoming modern, just like it's actually telling us that they are becoming mouldy. --mfb (talk) 08:17, 6 March 2024 (UTC)
 * Far be it from me to argue with a native speaker, but your quibble isn't with me, it's with the German editors who added it to Holzwegeffekt in 2016; or maybe better said, with the authors of the 2008 article in Die Presse. If you find a source that debunks Die Presse, or if you take it up with editors at de-wiki and get consensus there that your interpretation is correct, I won't object to you or anyone making the change; but until then, it's just your original interpretation and cannot overturn sourced content. mfG, Mathglot (talk) 08:34, 6 March 2024 (UTC)
 * The source doesn't provide any interpretation of the discussed part of the sentence, neither does the German article in its 2016 edit or today (I didn't check every version in between). The incorrect interpretation of the sentence was added by you, without any prior work to rely on. So currently it's your original interpretation vs. the original interpretation of a native speaker. --mfb (talk) 08:51, 6 March 2024 (UTC)
 * Your original interpretation is that it makes no sense, but Die Presse raised it, and German editors took the example so they both thought it made sense as a garden-path sentence. The translation (by this native speaker of English) renders the sense of it as best as one can in English; translation is not an exact science (traduttore, traditore). In my opinion, adding "becoming" to it doesn't render the original intent at all and as you pointed out in your edit summary, would render the example absurd. Yet it was real enough for a German article to cover it. If you think you can do better in the English, go for it; but if you add becoming to your version of it, then I would agree with your original comment that it is absurd, and perhaps it would be better to remove the German example entirely in that case rather than leave nonsensical content in the article. Would be a shame, as it seems to have a reliable enough source, and I fail to see the problem with it that you do. Mathglot (talk) 09:26, 6 March 2024 (UTC)
 * Please don't misrepresent my comments. The sentence in German is fine as an example because you start interpreting "Modern" with the wrong meaning. I never wanted to change anything there. I want to fix a mistake in your translation. If you prefer removing the translations completely over fixing that mistake, then maybe you should remove them. --mfb (talk) 11:39, 6 March 2024 (UTC)
 * WP:SOFIXIT. Maybe I did misunderstand your comment, and if you think "making the first interpretation even more absurd" is an improvement then go for it. Or take it out completely. Mathglot (talk) 17:04, 6 March 2024 (UTC)
 * I fixed it but then you reverted me. --mfb (talk) 17:21, 6 March 2024 (UTC)

title: Talk:Garden-path sentence


text:
Talk:Double entendre

Son of Boss - reference to tax evasion scheme or to the sibling created by BOSS
In the world of finance and taxation, "BOSS" is an acronym for "bond and option sales strategy" which is a tax scheme. The Son of BOSS is the common label used to describe iterations of BOSS by some. I suggest that it might in fact be a double entendre where the secondary, perhaps less flattering, would be a moniker for a person who popularizes the use of the BOSS strategies. In the Son of BOSS article, Mitt Romney has been cited as noted purveyor of BOSS techniques. So, My question, could or would, Son of BOSS be considered as a contender for a double entendre with a double meaning? Wikipietime (talk) 22:32, 17 August 2012 (UTC)

 * Answer, I'm not sure, but there may be some technical term for when an acronym ITSELF, starts to convey a meaning, (in the Euro-zone, in recent years the most seriously indebted nations are frequently referred to by the acronym PIGS, Portugal, Ireland, Greece & Spain), the subliminal message is clear, but I'm not sure whether this makes it a double entendre.Pincrete (talk) 12:42, 29 August 2014 (UTC)

First picture
I believe the picture at the top with the quote "My sweet honey, I hope you are to be let with the Lodgins!" She: "No, sir, I am to be let alone."" is irrelevant because i googled the word Lodgins and found nothing relavent. :( I have no idea what Lodgins means and dont know how to fix this. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 64.107.40.34 (talk) 18:37, 19 August 2013 (UTC)

To "let" is to lease. The gentleman in the illustration is enquiring whether she is included with the lease, yet not directly implying so.. She says she wishes to be "let alone" which could also mean one of two things. Hence the double entendre. This is probably not a good example of double entendre, yet I thought I'd explain it because it wasn't obvious to me at first either. 220.233.13.3 (talk) 13:47, 6 December 2013 (UTC)

I understand that he's trying to determine if he's rented her with his payment for lodgings. Do you mean "let alone" as a double entendre of "to be free of harassment" and also "her price is not included with that of the room"?DILNN1 (talk) 05:29, 20 February 2014 (UTC)

 * Oh dear, in case it isn't obvious lodgins=lodgings (furnished rented rooms, often with food and other services, should really be rendered 'lodgin's', to show he is mis-pronouncing it). His question COULD be rendered do I get a lovely girl like you to look after my needs if I rent here? … … her response is rather more 'knowing', mindful perhaps of her being only too aware of how an elderly gentleman might interpret looking after his needs, the drawing suggests that she is probably right, though there is a second meaning in her reply I hope that I am to be paid extra for whatever I might do for you. The ambiguities are probably intentional.Pincrete (talk) 13:07, 29 August 2014 (UTC)

Not clear to me what the grammatical rule states for "lodgins": Apostrophes are normally to be inserted whenever letters are dropped, at the dropped location. So without the final -s, there should be an apostrophe after the "n" to mark the dropping of the -g. However, inserting the apostrophe at that point causes the result here to look possessive to some. Can anyone cite an authority for a rule for this case? Jmacwiki (talk) 05:43, 4 June 2018 (UTC)

 * I see you (Pincrete) have apparently changed your mind about the apostrophe in the intervening 4 years. No problem either way. Jmacwiki (talk) 05:47, 4 June 2018 (UTC)
 * The logic was that this is a quote of the actual text on the picture (ie we can't alter quotes). The apostrophe seems anyway to not help those who don't recognise this common mis-pronounciation of a fairly UK specific term. Pincrete (talk) 07:57, 4 June 2018 (UTC)

 * Ah: I did not perceive that it was on the original picture. (The type was small enough that I overlooked it.)  BTW, "lodgings" is a familiar enough term in the US as well, and pronouncing "-ing" as "-in" is also well recognized in informal speech. Jmacwiki (talk) 04:51, 8 June 2018 (UTC)

Movie references
The movie section needs references. These should be trivial to provide (cite the movies!), but I do not know how to cite a movie. (It's published, and ultimate authority on its own content.) E.g., Myra Breckinridge reference inserted, but only inline. Jmacwiki (talk) 04:03, 3 June 2018 (UTC)
 * Jmacwiki, properly speaking, we should be reffing not only the presence of these quotes, but also that they are double entendres. I'm not personally convinced that all are, rather than simply 'saucy speech'. As long as examples don't multiply excessively I tend not to worry, since the article is on my watchlist more by accident than design. Pincrete (talk) 19:39, 3 June 2018 (UTC)

 * Agreed that some of the given Bond quotes are not, though the Bond movies are noted for their double entendres. Both West quotes are double entendres.  I'm not sure what is meant by "[reffing] that they are double entendres", since this is the article's focus...? Jmacwiki (talk) 05:38, 4 June 2018 (UTC)

 * That someone (other than ourselves) has called it a d-e. This is the logic employed on some other 'word type' articles. As I said though, I'm too lazy to impose such a regime on a relatively harmless article, which hasn't so far become saturated with dubious examples. Pincrete (talk) 08:03, 4 June 2018 (UTC)

 * Got it. Probably a good policy.  I suppose I'm of the mind that applying a definition doesn't constitute [original] research, whether in linguistics or in algebra, though others might differ. Jmacwiki (talk) 04:55, 8 June 2018 (UTC)

Ungrammatical or Corruption
The reference provided doesn't claim that the phrase is ungrammatical or a corruption, but merely shows the modern French version of the phrase. Lexico (Oxford English Dictionary) says that was from late 17th Century French (obsolete). Is it possible that this phrase just came over from an earlier era in the French language and now sounds strange to modern speakers? This seems to be what happens when French speakers encounter other French phrases in English that don't match the modern version.

In any case, since the sources don't indicate that this is ungrammatical or corrupted, I would suggest changing how this is worded or finding new sources. I'll make changes if I don't get any feedback here. But I wanted to hear other opinions first. -- Kraftlos  (Talk | Contrib) 03:16, 4 June 2020 (UTC)

 * Use your judgement, my French isn't good enough to help. Pincrete (talk) 07:04, 4 June 2020 (UTC)

title: Talk:Double entendre


text:
Talk:Mokutaro Kinoshita

Untitled
Anyone care to translate the Japanese titles, or at least give a transliteration? Kokiri

on Masao Ota
Mokutaro Kinoshita is also called Masao Ota, which is his real name. He is very famous in Japan, both by the name of Mokutaro Kinoshita, as a man of letters, and by the name of Masao Ota in his profession, which is dermatology. I want to write on Masao Ota. Should I separate Masao Ota from Mokutaro Kinoshita ? Some Japanese do not know if they are the same person. Please help. (Ichiro Kikuchi (talk) 10:52, 30 October 2009 (UTC)--

on Mokutaro Kinoshita
Profile was translated from the Japanese version. (Ichiro Kikuchi (talk) 00:43, 31 October 2009 (UTC))

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title: Talk:Mokutaro Kinoshita


text:
Talk:No War but the Class War

originally claimed
This article originally claimed that 'no war but the class war' was a parody of the Muslim saying 'there is no God but God', which is almost certainly untrue.

whilst it may appear from the point of view of the above writer that the above claim is "almost uncertainly untrue" this reveals yhe ignorance of the writer rather than a state of affairs which is the case Harry Potter 17:27, 16 Nov 2003 (UTC)

The claim is clearly not "common knowledge" nor has any source or citation been given for this supposed relationship. 24.22.58.51 10:17, 7 February 2006 (UTC)

empty links
lots of empty links. more articles need to be written. i'll do some research, but i don't know enough to write those articles myself right now. Gringo300 08:15, 12 January 2006 (UTC)

This saying actually relates to the Leninist concept of social-chauvinism, whereby the ruling bourgeois deflects attention and sentiments from economic hardship to foreign 'enemies', so it also relates to petitebourgeois nationalism, which seeks to divide workers based on nationality, race, religion etc. Social-chauvinists in Lenin's case were 'socialists' (social-democrats etc) who sided with the ruling bourgeois in the event of war, and advocated that workers kill workers from other countries 'for the fatherland'. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 144.131.35.5 (talk) 09:13, 17 August 2008 (UTC)

corrections
the list on this page was an internet hoax

Phoneyname (talk)

title: Talk:No War but the Class War


text:
Victor Rothschild, 3rd Baron Rothschild

Nathaniel Mayer Victor Rothschild, 3rd Baron Rothschild, (31 October 1910 – 20 March 1990 ), was a British scientist, intelligence officer during World War II, and later a senior executive with Royal Dutch Shell and N M Rothschild & Sons, and an advisor to the Edward Heath and Margaret Thatcher governments of the UK. He was a member of the prominent Rothschild family.

Early life
Rothschild was born in Kensington, London, the only son of Charles Rothschild and Rózsika Rothschild (née Baroness Edle von Wertheimstein). Both parents were Jewish, his father a member of the Rothschild banking family and his mother the daughter of the first titled Jew in Austria. He grew up in Waddesdon Manor and Tring Park Mansion, among other family homes. He had three sisters, including Pannonica de Koenigswarter (who would become known as the "Jazz Baroness") and Dame Miriam Louisa Rothschild. His father died by suicide when Rothschild was 13 years old. He was educated at Stanmore Park preparatory school (which he later dubbed a "hell hole") and Harrow School, where the combination of archaic privileges and pointless rituals served only to annoy and bore him.

Cambridge and London
At Trinity College, Cambridge, Rothschild read physiology, French, and English, and was considered impressive enough an undergraduate to be spared the rigours of sitting the Natural Sciences Tripos, thus allowing him to embark immediately on a career in scientific research. Working in the Zoology Department, he was awarded a fellowship by Trinity in 1935 and a PhD two years later. He played first-class cricket for the University and Northamptonshire, where his experience of batting against the Nottinghamshire pair of Harold Larwood and Bill Voce he was later to describe as the most alarming of his life. At Cambridge he was known for his playboy lifestyle, driving a Bugatti and collecting art and rare books.

Rothschild joined the Cambridge Apostles, a secret society, which at that time was predominantly Marxist, though he stated himself that he "was mildly left-wing but never a Marxist". He became friends with Guy Burgess, Anthony Blunt and Kim Philby, members of the Cambridge Spy Ring. His flat in London was shared with Burgess and Blunt; this later aroused suspicion that he was the so-called Fifth Man in the Spy Ring. In 1933, Rothschild gave Blunt £100 to purchase "Eliezer and Rebecca" by Nicolas Poussin. The painting was sold by Blunt's executors in 1985 for £100,000 and is now in the Fitzwilliam Museum.

Rothschild inherited his title at the age of 26 following the death of his uncle Walter Rothschild, 2nd Baron Rothschild on 27 August 1937. He sat as a peer in the House of Lords, but spoke only twice there during his life (both speeches were in 1946, one about the pasteurization of milk, and another about the situation in Palestine). In November 1945 he joined the Labour Party.

World War II
Rothschild was recruited to work for MI5 during World War II in roles including bomb disposal, disinformation and espionage, winning the George Medal for "dangerous work in hazardous circumstances". He was the head of B1C, the "explosives and sabotage section", and worked on identifying where Britain's war effort was vulnerable to sabotage and counter German sabotage attempts. This included personally dismantling examples of German booby traps and disguised explosives.

With his assistant Theresa Clay, he ran the "Fifth Column" operation, that saw MI5 officer Eric Roberts masquerade as the Gestapo's man in London in order to identify hundreds of Nazi sympathizers.

Cold War, Shell and Think Tank
In Who Paid the Piper? (1999), an account of CIA propaganda during the Cold War, author Frances Stonor Saunders alleges that Rothschild channelled funds to Encounter, an intellectual magazine founded in 1953 to support the "non-Stalinist left" to advance US foreign policy goals.

After the war, he joined the zoology department at Cambridge University from 1950 to 1970. He served as chairman of the Agricultural Research Council from 1948 to 1958 and as worldwide head of research at Royal Dutch/Shell from 1963 to 1970.

Flora Solomon claims in her autobiography that in August 1962, during a reception at the Weizmann Institute, she told Rothschild that she thought that Tomás Harris and Kim Philby were Soviet spies.

When Anthony Blunt was unmasked as a member of the Cambridge Spy ring in 1964, Rothschild was questioned by Special Branch (though Blunt was not publicly identified as a Soviet agent until 1979 in the House of Commons by Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher). Rothschild was cleared, and continued working on projects for the British government.

Rothschild was head of the Central Policy Review Staff from 1971 to 1974 (known popularly as "The Think Tank") a staff which researched policy specifically for the Government until Margaret Thatcher abolished it.

In 1971 Rothschild was awarded an honorary degree from Tel Aviv University for the advancement of science, education and the economy of Israel. It was followed in 1975 by an honorary degree from Jerusalem' s Hebrew University. The annual "Victor Rothschild Memorial Symposia" is named after Rothschild.

Thatcher years and Spycatcher
In the 1980s, Rothschild joined the family bank as chairman in an effort to quell the feuding between factions led by Evelyn Rothschild and Victor's son, Jacob Rothschild. In this he was unsuccessful as Jacob resigned from the bank to found J. Rothschild Assurance Group (a separate entity, now St. James's Place plc).

In 1982 he published An Enquiry into the Social Science Research Council at the behest of Sir Keith Joseph, a Conservative minister and mentor of Margaret Thatcher.

He continued to work in security as an adviser to Margaret Thatcher.

He appears several times in the book Spycatcher, which he hoped would clear the air over suspicions about his wartime role and the possibility he was involved in the Cambridge spy ring. In early 1987 Tam Dalyell MP used parliamentary privilege to suggest Rothschild should be prosecuted for a chain of events he had "set in train, with Peter Wright and Harry Chapman Pincher" which had led to a "breach of confidence in relation to information on matters of state security given to authors".

He was still able to enter the premises of MI5 as a former employee and was aware of suspicions there was a "mole" in MI5, but felt himself above suspicion. While Edward Heath was Prime Minister, Rothschild was a frequent visitor to Chequers, the Prime Minister's country residence. Throughout Rothschild's life, he was a valued adviser on intelligence and science to both Conservative and Labour Governments.

In his 1994 book The Fifth Man, Australian author Roland Perry asserted that in 1993, after the dissolution of the Soviet Union, six retired KGB colonels, including Yuri Modin, the spy ring's handler, alleged Rothschild was the so-called "Fifth Man": "Rothschild was the key to most of the Cambridge ring's penetration of British intelligence. "He had the contacts", Modin noted. "He was able to introduce Burgess, Blunt and others to important figures in Intelligence such as Stewart Menzies, Dick White and Robert Vansittart in the Foreign Office ... who controlled MI6." However this suggestion is rebutted by other researchers; commentator Sheila Kerr pointed out that as soon as the book came out, Modin denied Perry's version of their discussions (having already stated that the fifth man was Cairncross), and concluded that "Perry's case against Rothschild is unconvincing because of dubious sources and slack methods". Noel Annan, who was criticised by the author Perry for a negative view of the latter's book and claims, writes: "Amid clouds of misstatements he [Perry] relies almost wholly on insinuation and bluster. ... when Andrew Boyle published his book and exposed Blunt, why did Margaret Thatcher acknowledge in the House of Commons the truth about Blunt, but later, in the case of Rothschild, clear him? Mr. Perry is saying she lied to the House. He tries to make much of her curt statement, "I am advised that we have no evidence that he was ever a Soviet spy." It is the only official reply she could have made. In MI5 jargon there was "No Trace" against his name". Christopher Andrew and Vasili Mitrokhin, in The Mitrokhin Archives, make no mention of Rothschild as a Soviet agent and instead identify John Cairncross as the Fifth Man.

Former KGB controller Yuri Modin denied ever having named Rothschild as "any kind of Soviet agent". "Because he was in MI5 they learned things from him. This doesn't make him the fifth man, and he wasn't," Modin wrote. His own book's title clarifies the name of all five of the Cambridge spy group: My Five Cambridge Friends: Burgess, Maclean, Philby, Blunt, and Cairncross by Their KGB Controller. Since Rothschild had died prior to publication of the Perry book, the family was unable to start a libel action.

Rothschild published two volumes of memoirs, Meditations of a Broomstick (1977) and Random Variables (1984).

Despite being an opposition Labour party peer, in 1987, during the Thatcher Government, Rothschild played a role in the sacking of Director-General of the BBC Alasdair Milne, who had backed the programmes Secret Society, Real Lives, and Panorama: "Maggie's Militant Tendency" which had angered the Thatcher government. Marmaduke Hussey, who was Chairman of the BBC Board of Governors at the time, implied Rothschild initiated the Milne sacking in his autobiography Chance Governs All.

Rothschild took the step of publishing a letter in British newspapers on 3 December 1986 to state "I am not, and never have been, a Soviet agent".

He was an advisor to William Waldegrave during the design of the Community Charge, which led to the Poll Tax Riots.

Family
In 1933, he married Barbara Judith Hutchinson (1911–1989). They had three children.
 * Sarah Rothschild (born 1934)
 * Jacob Rothschild (1936–2024), later 4th Baron Rothschild
 * Miranda Rothschild (born 1940)

In 1946, he married Teresa Georgina Mayor (1915–1996), who had worked as his assistant at MI5. Mayor's maternal grandfather was Robert John Grote Mayor, the brother of English novelist F. M. Mayor and a great-nephew of philosopher and clergyman John Grote. Her maternal grandmother, Katherine Beatrice Meinertzhagen, was the sister of soldier Richard Meinertzhagen and the niece of author Beatrice Webb. They had four children:
 * Emma Rothschild (born 1948), married the Bengali Hindu economist Amartya Kumar Sen (b. 1933) in 1991.
 * Benjamin Mayer Rothschild (born and died 1952).
 * Victoria Katherine Rothschild (born 1953), an academic lecturer at Queen Mary, University of London, and the second wife and widow of English writer Simon Gray (1936–2008).
 * Amschel Rothschild (1955–1996), married to Anita Patience Guinness of the Anglo-Irish Protestant Guinness family. He died by suicide in 1996. They had three children; Kate Emma Rothschild Goldsmith (b. 1982), Alice Miranda Rothschild (b. 1983) and James Amschel Victor Rothschild (b. 1985)

Born into a nominally Jewish family, in adult life Rothschild declared himself to be an atheist. However, after his death, from a heart attack in London on 20 March 1990, his body was interred in the historic Jewish Brady Street Cemetery, which remarkably saved that cemetery from proposed redevelopment for 100 years. His sister Miriam Louisa Rothschild was a distinguished entomologist, and his sister Nica de Koenigswarter was a bebop jazz enthusiast and patron of Thelonious Monk and Charlie Parker.

Titles

 * 3rd Baron Rothschild, of Tring, co. Hertford [U.K., 1885], 27 August 1937.
 * 4th Baronet Rothschild [U.K., 1847], 27 August 1937.
 * Knight Grand Cross, Order of the British Empire (G.B.E.), 1975.
 * Knight, Most Venerable Order of the Hospital of St. John of Jerusalem (K.St.J.).
 * Fellow, Royal Society (F.R.S.), 1953.
 * Major, Intelligence Corps.

Decorations

 * George Medal (G.M.) (United Kingdom), 1944.
 * Legion of Merit (United States), 1946.
 * Bronze Star Medal (United States), 1948.

title: Victor Rothschild, 3rd Baron Rothschild


text:
Purple finch

The purple finch (Haemorhous purpureus) is a bird in the finch family, Fringillidae. It breeds in the northern United States, southern Canada, and the west coast of North America.

Taxonomy
The purple finch was formally described in 1789 by the German naturalist Johann Friedrich Gmelin in his revised and expanded edition of Carl Linnaeus's Systema Naturae. He placed it with the finches in the genus Fringilla and coined the binomial name Fringilla purpurea. Gmelin specified the locality as Carolina. Gmelin based his account on the "purple finch" that had been described and illustrated by the English naturalist Mark Catesby in his book The Natural History of Carolina, Florida and the Bahama Islands. The purple finch is now one of three finches placed in the genus Haemorhous that was introduced in 1837 by the English naturalist William Swainson.

Two subspecies are recognised:
 * H. p. purpureus (Gmelin, JF, 1789) – central south, southeast Canada and northeast USA
 * H. p. californicus (Baird, SF, 1858) – southwest Canada and west USA

This species and the other "American rosefinches" were formerly included with the rosefinches of Eurasia in the genus Carpodacus; however, the three North American species are not closely related to the rosefinches of the Old World, and have thus been moved to the genus Haemorhous.

Description
The purple finch is 12 – in overall length and weighs a mean 23.3 g (0.82 oz), ranging from 19.8–28.4 g (0.7 - 1.0 oz). It has a short forked brown tail and brown wings. Adult males are raspberry red on the head, breast, back and rump; their back is streaked. Adult females have light brown upperparts and white underparts with dark brown streaks throughout; they have a white line on the face above the eye.

The subspecies H. p. californicus differs from the nominate in having a longer tail and shorter wings. The plumage of both males and females is darker, and the coloration of the females is more greenish. It also has a longer bill.

Distribution and habitat
Their breeding habitat is coniferous and mixed forest in Canada and the northeastern United States, as well as various wooded areas along the U.S. Pacific coast.

Birds from northern Canada migrate to the southern United States; other birds are permanent residents.

The purple finch population has been displaced from some breeding season habitats in the Eastern United States following the introduction of the house finch, which is native to the western U.S. and Mexico. The two species share a similar niche, with the house finch often outcompeting the purple finch during the summer.

Food and feeding
These birds forage in trees and bushes, sometimes in ground vegetation. They mainly eat seeds, berries, and insects. They are fond of sunflower seeds, millet, and thistle.

Breeding
The purple finch prefers nesting in lowland coniferous and mixed forests, avoiding more heavily populated urban areas, but sometimes found in rural residential areas. The female Purple Finch usually builds her nest on horizontal branches of coniferous trees, away from the trunk, but occasionally in tree forks. The nest is shaped like an open cup, made up of rootlets, twigs, and weeds, and lined with grass, hair, and moss.

Cultural depictions
The purple finch was designated the state bird of New Hampshire in 1957. The New Hampshire red hen (breed of domestic chicken) was also proposed, but was not chosen in favor of the purple finch. In 1763, Richard Brookes made the description of the female purple finch in Mexico with the name of "chiantototl" (chia seed bird).

title: Purple finch


text:
South Shields

South Shields is a coastal town in South Tyneside, Tyne and Wear, England; it is on the south bank of the mouth of the River Tyne. The town was once known in Roman times as Arbeia and as Caer Urfa by the Early Middle Ages. It is the fourth largest settlement in Tyne and Wear, after Newcastle upon Tyne, Sunderland and Gateshead.

Historically within the county of Durham, South Shields is south of North Shields and Tynemouth across the River Tyne; and east of Newcastle upon Tyne and Jarrow.

History

Evidence of human inhabitation at South Shields dates from the Late Mesolithic. The first evidence of a settlement within what is now the town of South Shields dates from pre-historic times. Stone Age arrow heads and an Iron Age round house have been discovered on the site of Arbeia Roman Fort. The Roman garrison built a fort here around AD 160 and expanded it around AD 208 to help supply their soldiers along Hadrian's Wall as they campaigned north beyond the Antonine Wall. Divisions living at the fort included Tigris bargemen (from Persia and modern day Iraq), infantry from Iberia and Gaul, and Syrian archers and spearmen. The fort was abandoned as the Roman Empire declined in the fourth century AD. Many ruins still exist today and some structures have been rebuilt as part of a modern museum and popular tourist attraction.

There is evidence that the site was used in the early post-Roman period as a British settlement. It is believed it became a royal residence of King Osric of Deira; records show that his son Oswin was born within 'Caer Urfa', by which name the fort is thought to be known after the Romans left. Furthermore, Bede records Oswin giving a parcel of land to St Hilda for the foundation of a monastery here in c. 647; the present-day church of St Hilda, by the Market Place, is said to stand on the monastic site.

In the ninth century, Scandinavian peoples made Viking raids on monasteries and settlements all along the coast, and later conquered the Anglian Kingdoms of Northumbria, Mercia and East Anglia, who hailed from Angelnen in Denmark (modern day Germany). It is said in local folklore that a Viking ship was wrecked at Herd Sands in South Shields in its attempts to disembark at a cove nearby. Other Viking ships were uncovered in South Shields Denmark Centre and nearby Jarrow.

The current town was founded in 1245 and developed as a fishing port. The name South Shields developed from the 'Schele' or 'Shield', which was a small dwelling used by fishermen. Another industry that was introduced, was that of salt-panning, later expanded upon in the 15th century, polluting the air and surrounding land. In 1864, a Tyne Commissioners dredger brought up a nine-pounder breech-loading cannon; more cannonballs have been found in the sands beside the Lawe; these artifacts belonged to the English civil war. At the outbreak of the war in 1642, the North, West and Ireland supported the King; the South East and Presbyterian Scotland supported Parliament. In 1644 Parliament's Scottish Covenanter allies, in a lengthy battle, seized the town and its Royalist fortification, the fortification was close to the site of the original Roman fort. They also seized the town of Newburn. These raids were done to aid their ongoing siege of the heavily fortified Newcastle upon Tyne, and in a bid to control the River Tyne, and the North, and the Shields siege helped cause their battalions to maneuver south to York; this may have also led to a brief winter skirmish on the outskirts of Boldon, though the topography is not favourable for a battle.

In the 19th century, coal mining, alkaline production and glass making led to a boom in the town. The population increased from 12,000 in 1801 to 75,000 by the 1860s, bolstered by economic migration from Ireland, Scotland and other parts of England. These industries played a fundamental part in creating wealth both regionally and nationally. In 1832, with the Great Reform Act, South Shields and Gateshead were each given their own Member of Parliament and became boroughs, resulting in taxes being paid to the Government instead of the Bishops of Durham. However, the rapid growth in population brought on by the expansion of industry made sanitation a problem, as evident by Cholera outbreaks and the building of the now-listed Cleadon Water Tower to combat the problem. In the 1850s 'The Tyne Improvement Commission' began to develop the river, dredging it to make it deeper and building the large, impressive North and South Piers to help prevent silt build up within the channel. Shipbuilding (along with coal mining), previously a monopoly of the Freemen of Newcastle, became another prominent industry in the town, with John Readhead & Sons Shipyard the largest.

During World War I, German Zeppelin airships bombed South Shields in 1916. Later during World War II, the German Luftwaffe repeatedly attacked the town and caused massive damage to industries which supported the war effort, killing many innocent residents. Particularly, a bomb shelter in the market place of South Shields, where the deceased were commemorated in a cobblestone of the British flag. Later controversially removed and the bodies interred elsewhere. Gradually throughout the late 20th century, the coal and shipbuilding industries were closed, due to competitive pressures from more cost-effective sources of energy (including workers) and more efficient shipbuilding elsewhere in Eastern Europe (e.g. Poland) and in South East Asia. In the 21st century, the local economy primarily includes port-related, ship repair and offshore industries, manufacturing, retail (nearby Newcastle, Durham, Washington and Sunderland), the public sector and the ever-increasing role of tourism. This is illustrated by the new multi-million Haven centre, Dunes centre and seaside improvements in the coastal area and a new multimillion-pound library The Word.

Geography
South Shields is situated in a peninsula setting, where the River Tyne meets the North Sea. It has six miles of coastline and three miles of river frontage, dominated by the massive North and South Piers at the mouth of the Tyne. These are best viewed from the Lawe Top, which also houses two replicas of cannon captured from the Russians during the Crimean War, the originals having been melted down during World War II.

The town slopes gently from Cleadon Hills down to the river. Cleadon Hills are made conspicuous by the Victorian Cleadon Water Tower and pumping station (opened in 1860 to improve sanitation) and a now derelict windmill, both of which are listed and can be seen from many miles away and also out at sea.

South Shields boasts extensive beaches, sand dunes and coves, as well as dramatic Magnesian Limestone cliffs with grassy areas above known as The Leas, which cover three miles of the coastline and are a National Trust protected area. Marsden Bay, with its famous Marsden Rock and historic Grotto public house and restaurant set in the cliffs, is home to one of the largest seabird colonies in Britain.

One of the most historic parts of the town is the quaint and beautiful Westoe village, which consists of a quiet street of first grade and second grade Georgian and Victorian houses, many of which had been built by business leaders from the coal and shipping industries in the town. Given its beautiful setting, parks and trees, this street was often the setting for a number of books by the novelist Catherine Cookson. Westoe village was once a separate village about a mile from South Shields, but urban sprawl has now consumed it, along with the village of Harton to the south on the main route towards Cleadon and Sunderland.

Climate
Climate in this area has mild differences between highs and lows, and there is adequate rainfall year-round. The Köppen Climate Classification subtype for this climate is "Cfb" (Marine West Coast Climate/Oceanic climate).

Demographics
Before 1820, South Shields was a predominantly sparse hamlet and village based rural economy with some small-scale shipbuilding, glass making and salt processing along the riverside. Beyond 1820 and into the Industrial Revolution, South Shields expanded into an Urban settlement built around shipbuilding and coal mining. Migration came from up the River Tyne, with other migrants from rural County Durham, Northumberland, Scotland and Ireland. The majority of the people living in South Shields are descendants of those who migrated and settled in the area during the Industrial Revolution in order to work in expanding coalmines and shipyards. Towards the end of the 19th century, with the British Navy needing seamen, Yemeni British sailors settled in the town, this resulted in the first roots of the Yemeni British community in the town.

In South Shields, 6.7% of the population are from an ethnic minority (non white British), compared with 5.0% in the surrounding borough of South Tyneside. Most of the Asians in South Shields are Bangladeshi, with the Beacon and Bents ward that covers South Shields town centre, had 9.9% of the population registering as that ethnicity. The Bangladeshi community is the third largest in Tyne and Wear, after Newcastle upon Tyne and Sunderland with 1.7% of the town's population being Bangladeshi or 1300 people. Nearly all of the ethnic minority population in South Tyneside is concentrated in South Shields town centre and suburban areas immediately to the south such as Rekendyke and Westoe. There are hardly any in Jarrow, Hebburn which are the other two major areas in the borough. The population of the South Tyneside Metropolitan borough had decreased from 152,785 in 2001, to 148,127 in 2011. In 2001, the population of South Shields was 82,854. Population data from the 2011 United Kingdom Census return classifies South Shields as a medium-sized coastal town.

Yemeni community
South Shields has been home to a Yemeni British community since the 1890s. The main reason for the Yemeni arrival was the supply of seamen, such as engine room firemen, to British merchant vessels. Similar communities were founded in Hull, Liverpool and Cardiff. In 1909, the first Arab Seamen's Boarding House opened in the Holborn riverside district of the town. At the time of the First World War there was a shortage of crews due to the demands of the fighting and many Yemenis were recruited to serve on British ships at the port of Aden, then under British protection. At the end of the war, the Yemeni population of South Shields had swelled to well over 3,000. Shields lost one of the largest proportions of Merchant Navy sailors. Approximately 1 in 4 of these men was of Yemeni background. The port in South Shields employed men of Yemen, Aden, Somalia, African, Indian and Malaysian nationalities.

Disputes over jobs led to race riots – also called the Arab Riots – in 1919 and 1930. However, over time, attitudes to Yemenis in the town were softened and there was no significant recurrence of this violence.

After World War II, the Yemeni population declined, partly due to migrations to other industrial areas such as Birmingham, Liverpool and Sheffield. However, the main reason for the reduction in numbers was the end of the shipping industry and the need for sailors as coal-burning ships decreased in numbers. Today, the Yemeni population of South Shields numbers around 1,000. Many Yemeni sailors married local women and became integrated with the wider community, resulting with a migrant population less distinct than in other mixed communities across the UK. The Yemeni are the first, settled Muslim community in Britain and have been used to justify multiculturalism.

There is a mosque at Laygate, including the Yemeni School, which was visited by American boxer Muhammad Ali in 1977. He had his marriage blessed at the Al-Azhar Mosque, one of the earliest mosques in UK. It is often noted that Al-Azhar in South Shields is the first purpose-built mosque in the UK, however, this is the Shah Jahan Mosque in Woking. This story is covered in a documentary film, The King of South Shields. Throughout April and early May 2008, the BALTIC Arts Centre in Gateshead chronicled the Yemeni community of South Shields, including interviews with the last remaining survivors of the first Yemeni generation. The exhibition depicted the Yemeni story as an example of early successful multi-cultural integration in Britain, as well as showcasing the high-profile 1977 visit by Muhammad Ali.

In 2005, the Customs House commissioned author Peter Mortimer to write a play on the subject of the 1930 Yemeni Riot. The resultant play RIOT was staged at the venue in 2005 and 2008.

In 2008, South Shields resident and filmmaker Tina Gharavi unveiled plans for a plaque to mark Ali's visit.

In 2008, a critically acclaimed exhibition about the South Shields Yemeni community was held entitled The Last of the Dictionary Men – Stories from South Shields' Yemeni Sailors, was held at the Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art, Gateshead.

In 2009, the detective series George Gently, based on the novels by Alan Hunter, portrayed the Yemeni integration in a 1960s setting.

Bangladeshi community
The Bangladeshi community is actually larger than the Yemeni community. However, Yemenis have been in South Shields a lot longer. The Bangladeshi community is the third largest in the North East of England.

In 2008, the Bangladesh Welfare Association was opened in South Shields.

Economy
The last shipbuilder, John Readhead & Sons, closed in 1984 and the last pit, Westoe Colliery, closed in 1993. Today, the town relies largely on service industries, whilst many residents commute to work in nearby Newcastle, Gateshead, North Tyneside and Sunderland.

Despite a skilled local workforce, for many years South Tyneside had the highest unemployment rate in mainland Britain, although between December 2002 and December 2008 unemployment in South Shields fell by 17.8%, and that of South Tyneside by 17.7%, the best performance in the North East region over that time period.

In January 2011, the Guardian reported the unemployment rate at 6.5%, and at 7.5% in October 2011.

The Port of Tyne is one of the UK's most important and is further developing its freight and passenger activities. In 2007, it imported two million tonnes of coal. Manufacturing and ship repair/engineering are other significant sectors.

South Shields benefits from significant public and private sector investment. More recently this has included primarily the town centre, riverside and foreshore areas, given the decline of once-traditional heavy industries with the town's growing importance as a major commercial centre and tourist destination.

Tourism
The town is a popular seaside resort with multiple landmarks and tourist attractions. As with other resorts tourism is a large part of the town's economy: to attract tourists the town has an extensive network of cycle paths and walking trails; a promenade; parks-and-gardens; fairground rides; amusement arcades, crazy golf, laser tag, a miniature steam railway; boating lake; a ten-pin bowling centre and an amphitheatre.

Leisure and entertainment
There is a good choice of restaurants, cafes, public houses and nightlife as well as hotels, guest houses and caravan parks in and around the town.

South Shields plays host to an annual free summer festival and each autumn the town is the seaside finish to the week as well as public gala shows at the Customs House. During the week is the Magic Convention – 3 days of lectures and shows by the world's best magicians.

Landmark
A notable landmark in the town is the reconstructed Roman fort and excavations of the ancient Arbeia Roman Castra. This form part of the Hadrian's Wall World Heritage Site. South Shields is also home of the oldest provincial newspaper in the UK, the Shields Gazette.

The town's museum & art gallery, includes a permanent exhibition dedicated to the life and times of Catherine Cookson. From 1985 to 2009 the area marketed itself as "Catherine Cookson Country", which attracted many visitors. They are a number of trade related landmarks: this includes the headquarters, warehouse and factory of the fashion company Barbour; the Customs House theatre and arts venue and the historic Mill Dam riverside. The town hosts traditional, continental and farmers' markets and has high street of shops.

Geographical landmarks include The Leas cliff tops and Haven Point as well as the bays of Littlehaven, Sandhaven and Marsden. Notable buildings in and around the town include:
 * St Hilda's Church, thought to be built on the site of Hilda's seventh-century chapel
 * The combined Jubilee Clocktower and Wouldhave Memorial, which stands on Pier Parade alongside "Tyne", Britain's second-oldest preserved lifeboat.
 * the National Trust-owned Souter Lighthouse.

Lighthouses and pier
Work on the North and South Tyne Piers was begun in 1854 by the newly formed Tyne Improvement Commission, for the protection of shipping entering and leaving the river. The principal architect and engineer was James Walker, until his death in 1862 (whereupon John F. Ure took over). Construction was delayed by storm damage in 1862, which led to parts of the foundations having to be rebuilt. The South Pier was finished in 1895 and its lighthouse was operational that same year (it was equipped with a third-order fixed optic and a clockwork occulting mechanism, by Chance Brothers & Co.). The lighthouse currently displays an occulting sector light with white, red and green sectors; the green sector is used to indicate safe waters near the coast to the north of Tynemouth, while red indicates an area with numerous wrecks to the east and south of the lighthouse. The pier is 5150 ft long (accessible from South Shields seafront, it is open to the public except in bad weather).

It was originally intended that the North (Tynemouth) Pier and lighthouse would mirror their South Shields counterparts, but a series of breaches and collapses meant that the North Pier was completed much later and to a different design. Following completion of the North Pier, in January 1908 the South Pier Lighthouse was provided with a bell, which sounded once every thirty seconds during foggy weather (in contrast to the reed fog horn sounded from the North Pier light).

On 20 October 2023, Storm Babet hit the North East Coast with high winds. The South Pier Lighthouse lost its dome due to waves breaching the pier wall.

There is a third lighthouse, just upstream of the pier, on the Herd Groyne at South Shields (which was constructed in 1861–67 to preserve Littlehaven Beach, then known as Herd Sands, which had begun to be washed away by the change of currents caused by the new piers). This very unusual lighthouse resembling a 1940s sci-fi movie space craft was built by Newcastle-upon-Tyne Trinity House in 1882 (ownership was passed to the Tyne Improvement Commission the following year). It consists of an upper hexagonal part (including the lantern) of wood and corrugated iron construction, sitting on twelve cylindrical steel legs. The whole structure is painted red and stands 49 ft in height. The Groyne shows an occulting light which marks a safe entrance course between the piers, showing white to a vessel approaching from seaward on the correct course, green to a vessel off-course to the north, and red to one off-course to the south.

In 1928, both the South Pier and the Groyne lights were converted from incandescent gas to automatic electric operation. They were run off mains electricity (the gas lights being retained as an emergency standby). At the same time each lighthouse was equipped with an electrically activated fog bell; these were switched on and off remotely from a control hut in the pier blockyard. In the event of a power cut, each bell was designed to keep ringing for a further six hours. In 1961 the Commissioners installed a groundbreaking system by which the two fog bells would be switched on and off by the keepers on duty in the Tynemouth Pier lighthouse, using an 'infra-red ray' beamed across the river. This was in turn replaced by a radio link to an automatic fog detector when the latter lighthouse was automated in 1967. At the same time the South Shields lights were themselves fully automated, with the addition of standby diesel alternators and automatic lamp changers.

In 1999, the white sector of the light was intensified by the addition of a PEL sector light above the optic, with the same occulting characteristic but a range of 19 nautical miles (rather than 13, as previously). The installation of this powerful light (which is visible during the day as well as by night), rendered the High and Low Lights of North Shields redundant, and they were therefore decommissioned at the same time. The Herd Groyne lighthouse was refurbished and repainted in 2014, and still acts as a navigational aid to ships entering the River Tyne. In 2015 it was stated that the fog bells on the two lighthouses were no longer operational.

Town halls
A prominent landmark is South Shields Town Hall, built 1905–1910, a sumptuous building "the most convincing expression in the county of Edwardian prosperity". The architect was E. E. Fetch of London. Ornamentation includes several references to the town's nautical heritage: Britannia and other sculpted figures in the pediment above the front entrance, a figure of Mercury atop a globe on the dome of the Council chamber, fountains and nymph lampholders in the forecourt alongside a statue of Queen Victoria. The 145-foot clock tower contains a Potts chiming clock and five bells, and is topped by a weathervane in the shape of a galleon.

The Old Town Hall, a square building of 1768, provides the centrepiece of the Market Place and closes the vista along King Street. The ground floor is open with arches on each side (and a central pillar which predates the rest of the structure); the enclosed first floor has pitched roof, topped by a wooden bell turret. Originally built and used by the Dean and Chapter of Durham, it was sold by them to the town Corporation in 1855.

Education
South Shields is home to South Tyneside College, one of the two leading maritime training centres in the UK, with facilities including a marine safety training centre and a simulated ship's bridge for the training of deck officers. The college was also home to the only planetarium in the region, and to an observatory; and in its time was a popular visitor attraction for local schools and visitors in general. The observatory was used for 20 years and in 2008 it was deemed redundant to the future curriculum needs of the college. The domed room that housed the planetarium is now a mosque. The college provides a wide range of other flexible vocational and training courses.

Local schooling is generally regarded as being very good, which is reflected in continuing improvements to school results and independent inspections.

In 2007, Brinkburn Comprehensive and King George V Comprehensive merged forming South Shields Community School. The new school was built at a cost of £19 million on the King George V School site and was opened in September 2011. However this school closed in 2020.

St Mary's C of E Primary School was a Christian voluntary aided school educating children aged 3–11 located in South Shields. The school was founded in 1867 to provide education for the children of the labouring and manufacturing and poorer classes, with regard to the principles of the established church of the same name which was affiliated with the school. This school closed July 2008. Demolition of the school began early October 2016 and was finalised late November 2016.

Regional identity

People born in South Shields are considered to be Geordies, a term commonly associated with all residents of Tyneside.

A less commonly used colloquial term is Sandancer. It is presumed to originate from the town's beach and history.

Notable people

A number of notable people have been associated with South Shields. They include:
 * Angelic Upstarts - punk band formed in South Shields in 1977.
 * Michael Algar, a.k.a. Olga – guitarist, singer and songwriter with band The Toy Dolls
 * Kane Avellano – long-distance motorcycle rider with Guinness World Record for youngest person to circumnavigate the world by motorcycle (solo and unsupported) at the age of 23 in 2017
 * William Reid Blyton – Labour MP and member of the House of Lords
 * Elinor Brent-Dyer – children's author
 * Phil Brown – former manager of Preston North End F.C.
 * Jack Brymer – clarinettist
 * Catherine Cookson – author
 * Josef Craig – paralympic swimmer and gold medal winner at the 2012 Summer Paralympics
 * Tom Curry – former Newcastle United player and Munich air disaster victim
 * Dorfy – dialect author and journalist
 * Martin Durkin – director
 * Perrie Edwards and Jade Thirlwall - singers and performers - members of record-setting girl group Little Mix, winner of the eighth series of The X Factor; Thirlwall originates from the Yemeni community in Laygate
 * Christie Elliott, professional footballer for Partick Thistle.
 * Eva Elwes (1876–1950), actor, playwright and manager of Alexandra Theatre, South Shields
 * John Erickson – historian and UN advisor
 * Sir William Fox – politician who was Prime Minister of New Zealand four times in the 1800s
 * Steve Furst – comedian
 * Professor John Gray – philosopher
 * Eric Idle – comedian actor and songwriter
 * Lulu James – singer
 * John Simpson Kirkpatrick – ANZAC war hero
 * Joe McElderry – singer and X Factor winner
 * Sarah Millican – comedian
 * Tish Murtha – photographer
 * Robert Olley – artist and sculptor, creator of the painting "The Westoe Netty"
 * David Phillips – chemist
 * Chris Ramsey – comedian
 * Flora Robson – Oscar-nominated actress
 * Claire Rutter – leading operatic soprano
 * Ridley Scott − film director
 * Sermstyle – remixer
 * Demi Stokes - Footballer, won the 2022 women's euros as part of the Lionesses
 * Ernest Thompson Seton - author and wildlife artist
 * Martyn Waghorn – professional footballer, currently playing for Derby County
 * Ginger Wildheart – Wildhearts singer and guitar
 * Frank Williams – founder and manager of Williams F1 Formula One team
 * Dave Wilson – England rugby union international
 * Edward Wilson - Stage and screen actor, and second Artistic Director of the National Youth Theatre
 * John Woodvine – stage, screen and radio actor
 * William Wouldhave – creator of the lifeboat
 * Gary Young – screenwriter and director of Harry Brown.
 * Eileen O'Shaughnessy – wife of George Orwell.

Football
South Shields F.C. is the town's main football team. Originally formed during the first decade of the 20th century, the team played in the Football League during the 1920s. The club recently shot to fame with a run to win the FA Vase in 2017. The side currently play in the National League North after winning promotion to it in 2023, the sixth tier of English Football. They also have a women's team who play in the fifth tier of the Women's pyramid, the North East Regional Women's League Premier Division.

Recently, the town were also represented by Harton & Westoe C.W. They played their games at the Harton & Westoe Miners Welfare near Whiteleas and spent the majority of their existence in the Wearside League before going out of existence in 2019.

Rugby
South Shields is the home of two rugby union clubs, South Shields RFC and Westoe RFC.

South Shields RFC have been playing at Grosvenor Road, South Tyneside College since they were formed in 1956. They currently play in the Durham & Northumberland 3rd Division, the ninth tier of the English rugby union pyramid

Westoe RFC (now called South Shields Westoe), formed in 1875, still play at their original ground, Wood Terrace. In 2005 they had an Intermediate Cup run and got to Twickenham but were beaten by Morley R.F.C. from Yorkshire. They rose to the fourth tier National League Two. They now play in rugby's seventh Tier, the Durham & Northumberland 1st Division.

For two seasons 1902–03 and 1903–04 the town also had a semi-professional rugby league club, South Shields who played at Horsley Hill while the club competed on the second division of the Northern Union. The club was voted out of the league at the end of their second season and the club disbanded shortly afterwards.

Politics
South Shields is a safe Labour Party Parliamentary seat, the only constituency in existence since the Great Reform Act of 1832 never to have elected a Conservative MP. It is currently held by Emma Lewell-Buck, who won the seat in a by-election held on 3 May 2013 which had been triggered by the retirement from politics of the previous incumbent David Miliband, who had served as Foreign Secretary in the government of Gordon Brown. Previous incumbents of the constituency's seat include former cabinet ministers David Clark and Chuter Ede; the latter was Home Secretary in Clement Attlee's post-war government for 6 years.

The local authority, South Tyneside Metropolitan Borough Council, is also controlled by Labour.

The town has a local independent political party, the Progressive Party. This broadly centre-right party was formed in the 1950s to address hostility towards the Conservative Party. The Progressives have no representation beyond South Shields. The party controlled the old County borough of South Shields council until 1974.

Transport
South Shields is bounded by the A19 trunk road to the West and situated close to the Tyne Tunnel at Jarrow. The town is well connected to other areas of Tyne & Wear and to the strategic road network – the A194(M) motorway provides a direct link between the Borough and the A1/A1(M). The Tyne and Wear Metro light rail system was introduced in the 1980s and replaced British Rail services over the same route. The Metro network serves South Tyneside, Gateshead, Newcastle, North Tyneside, Sunderland and Newcastle Airport. The platform at the former South Shields Metro station is situated on a bridge directly above King Street – the town's main shopping area. When Metro services were introduced, the railway line at the former High Shields LNER station at Laygate was re-routed eastwards to the then-new Chichester Metro and bus interchange. The former South Shields LNER station was also closed and the Victorian buildings survived as a secondary entrance to the Metro station until they were demolished in 1998. As well as in South Shields town centre and in Chichester, there are other Metro stations at Tyne Dock, Simonside and Brockley Whins. Long-term plans by Nexus to re-open the former Sunderland to South Shields line between Tyne Dock, Brockley Whins and East Boldon would create a direct rail service between South Shields and Sunderland, without the need for passengers to change trains at Pelaw in Gateshead. Nexus also plans to open two new stations at Harton and Cleadon, raising the number of metro stations within the town from four to six. There are no railway stations within the town (stations operated by National Rail) or in the surrounding borough. The new integrated bus and Metro interchange opened on 4 August 2019 on Keppel Street - across the road from the original Metro station at King Street - on the site of the former head post office and Royal Mail delivery office. There is a frequent pedestrian ferry service to North Shields on the opposite bank of the Tyne. The Shields Ferry carries tens of thousands of commuters and pleasure trippers each year. There has been a cross-river ferry service between the two towns since 1377.

The Port of Tyne headquarters and international freight terminal are located at Tyne Dock in South Shields. The Port has a freight rail connection.

Local bus routes are operated by Stagecoach North East and Go North East, which are planned to integrate with Metro services.

There is a National Express coach service direct to London.

The town's extensive network of strategic footpaths and cycle routes includes the Sea to Sea Cycle Route and National Cycle Route 1.

title: South Shields