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Is the sentence "He killed his wife of 21 years." ambiguous for native speakers? That is, could some people assume the wife was 21 years old and others think that she was his wife for 21 years?

Source: https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/9663960/peter-chadwick-arrest-mexico-wife-murder-california/

The Sun seems to assume the wife was 21: "for murder of wife, 21,"

But she was 46.

Quora Feans
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    That’s not a possible reading to me, no. The article itself says she was 46 later on, so this seems to be some kind of odd mixup between the one who wrote the headling and the one who wrote the copy. The only ambiguity in the sentence to me is whether ‘he’ killed his own wife or someone else’s wife. – Janus Bahs Jacquet Aug 07 '19 at 11:11
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    X of Y years generally means how long the subject has been X for. – marcellothearcane Aug 07 '19 at 11:31
  • If you were to say something about the age of the person, it would be "killed his 21-year-old wife". Since something else is said, something else is meant. – Mitch Aug 07 '19 at 12:12
  • An Italian speaker might misinterpret the headline because the preposition "di" which is translated "of" in English, is used to express a person's age. Paolo di 21 anni (Paolo, aged 21) literally, "Paolo of 21 years old" – Mari-Lou A Aug 07 '19 at 12:33
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    In English "a woman of 21 years" means someone who's 21 (if you google you'll see many examples), so it is potentially confusing, but as suggested "wife of 21 years" does usually mean how long married for. There's a difference between things which are genuinely ambiguous (with 2 equally likely meanings) and things which may be momentarily confusing but after a moment's thought you can tell what the author meant. – Stuart F Aug 07 '19 at 14:13
  • @Mari-LouA, Stuart: "A woman of 21 years" (in English (it is already English)) by itself probably means that the woman is 21 years old, but it sounds weird (to me; old fashioned or just a strange way to put it). But "a "wife of 21 years" (in English) means that the wife has been a wife for 21 years, which was presumably not from birth, barring some very non-Anglo parental promise. – Mitch Aug 07 '19 at 15:24
  • @Mitch where did I say it wasn't English, I pointed out that an Italian speaker might misinterpret the headline/phrase. – Mari-Lou A Aug 07 '19 at 15:39
  • @Mari-LouA I was more commenting on Stuart, but I also wanted to emphasize that your example of Italian understanding is not how it works in English (in case one might (reasonably) think so). – Mitch Aug 07 '19 at 15:43
  • @StuartF Mitch wants to mention something that you may have missed. – Mari-Lou A Aug 07 '19 at 15:45

1 Answers1

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He killed his wife of 21 years.

It's certainly possible to interpret it as meaning that his wife was 21-years old—although it's unlikely. Most people would not make that assumption.

But compare that sentence to the following:

He killed his underage wife of 15 years.

The overall syntax is the same, as is the use of the preposition of; yet, in this case, we interpret it as meaning that his wife is fifteen-years old. We do so because it wouldn't make sense otherwise.

As such, it's the context that's imparting how we parse and understand what's being conveyed, not, strictly speaking, the grammar itself.

So, in terms of the literal grammar, ambiguity is possible. Although the original sentence is extremely unlikely to be misunderstood, if you want to make the meaning explicitly clear, it would need to be rephrased:

He killed his wife after 21 years of marriage.

As far as headlines are concerned, the common omission of words, historically to preserve space, can often lead to more ambiguity than would otherwise be the case. Double-checking the interpretation of a headline with the body of the story itself is always a good idea.

Jason Bassford
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  • Ah, but he might not have killed her after 21 years of marriage. He might have killed her after 21 years of marriage and 3 years of divorced separation... ;) (I'm just splitting hairs for fun. This is a good answer and I've given it +1) – AndyT Aug 07 '19 at 15:50
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    @AndyT Ha! Quite so. Perhaps that would fall under a separate discussion: How literal is literal enough? – Jason Bassford Aug 07 '19 at 15:51
  • That is really stretching it to the breaking point. There's a .005 percent chance that "wife of 21 years" means she's 21 and not that they've been married 21 years. A good, clear writer would not make that mistake. A "girl of 15 years" means she's 15. But a "wife of x years" can only refer to how long she's been a wife. There's ambiguity in language, but if this was on a test, it would be wrong. – user8356 Aug 08 '19 at 19:18