Many modern theories in cognitive science posit that the brain's objective is to be a kind of "prediction machine" to predict the incoming stream of sensory information from the top down, as well as processing it from the bottom up. This is sometimes referred to through the aphorism "perception is controlled hallucination".
See, I thought it was mildly infuriating because the images aren’t “many types of airplanes”, they’re only a few types of airplanes repeated at different sizes or different angles.
My brain autocorrected this for me, and I was confused why you were posting it at first.
This reminds me, there is a thing that the human mind can read horribly spelled words — as long as the general idea of it is the same (most of the time the end and beginning). I would try to find an example, but it’s late and my ability to form proper search queries os diminished.
Just invret two letters in a wrod that are not the first or the last. You will read just fine and prboably not even notice. Like this cmoment you just read
Disregarding the bad grammar, the picture shows a terrible variety of airplanes. They're all some sort of commercial passenger jet.
It's like saying, "there's so many kinds of motorcycles!" while showing only various Harleys. Let's just ignore the dirt bikes, sport bikes, and everything in between.
Using "they" when you haven't yet established the group you are referring to in context feels weird and kinda wrong, especially if it's about a group of inanimate objects. It really looks like the word should have been "there", but they just mistyped and then didn't catch the error in the editing process or didn't bother to correct it.
That's what I think is wrong here. I'm not 100% sure that this grammatically wrong, but it sure feels like it. Might depend on what the page before this one said.
This is the only post in the entire thread attempting to parse the grammar.
It feels wrong because as you pointed out, as text, the pronoun "they" has no antecedent. Who are they?
But there is a picture, too. That's them!
It's not just type, it's typography. You have to analyze the grammar of something like one page of a picture book or a movie poster or advert in its context.
This ladies and gentlemen is an example of people using ai to make kid books. It's a big thing right now and easy money but could have consequence if kids start reading these at a young age.
No. AI wouldn't mess up like that. It could spew other kinds of shit, but with excellent syntax. It's far more likely for humans to make mistakes like that.
This ladies and gentlemen is an example of people using ai to make kid books. It's a big thing right now and easy money but could have consequence if kids start reading thesethey at a young age.
The good thing is: This type of book is read by parents to their 1-3 year old kids. You show the pictures and can filter weird sentences. This is not a book a 9 year old is going to read 😉
Funny that as a non-native I’m less likely to make such a mistake than natives. At some point I had to learn the basics or something. Not that I don’t make mistakes
I've always been a native English speaker, but my first 11 years of education weren't in the U.S. I also don't have an issue with: their, there, and they're.
Affect and effect were tough for me, though. I still have to think about it for a moment
And slightly off topic, I still can't tell the difference between pansexual and bisexual. Each time I feel like I have a decent internal definition someone comes along to inform me that I've got it wrong
I guess the problem is that, while technically accurate English, it's a pretty non-standard usage. One sees a page full of a variety of planes and it's expected that the following text will make a general statement on planes as an idea: There are so many kinds of planes!
To refer to a group as the book does, it's just kind of clunky and awkward, and on top of that so many kinds is, in my experience, just an unusual adjective form. Teaching children how to read isn't just about learning how to sound out words: it's also about how to suss out their meaning, and a child at this reading level may have a hard time understanding the more abstract grammatical form that this book decided to take.
I guess there's 2 things. One is people being picky about 'They are' vs. 'There are' and the second is that they've probably not shown a very wide variety
My subconscious autocorrected that the first time I read it. It was only after reading your comment and going back to look again that I realized they had not written "There are".
I see it. "There are" and "they are" are different sentences with slightly different meanings. Writing this way is correct and I think you'll find it's common in older children's books and even adult books. Tolkien wrote often in this way that sounds clunky to the modern ear. I read a lot of older writing so to me it sounds more familiar and correct even.
Depending on context, this might not be wrong. It could be part of an "it is an airplane" -> "they are a few airplanes" -> "they are so many airplanes!" progression.