"A man who authorities say is a prison escapee claims he is a Virginia man who died 27 years ago"

-- by JLS
----- for the GC

--- CLUMSY REFERENCE. I am informed that there will be, end of this month, a symposium in Washington State on 'reference. This reminds me of Strawson and this bit from Quinion's World Wide Words, below. Strawson, in "Synthese" ('Quantification and Reference') refers to a Grice-type of clumsiness ("be good at referring").

Quinion reports:

"Phil Clutts found a sentence in Monday's Charlotte Observer that he
had to read twice: "A man who authorities say is a prison escapee
claims he is a Virginia man who died 27 years ago.""

Let's analyse it, by making sense of what Phil Clutts, who obviously never read Strawson, Kant:

i. A man who authorities say is a prison escapee
claims he is a Virginia man who died 27 years ago.

In symbols:

???

OK. I guess I have to read it, twice, too.