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aswegs8yesterday at 6:09 PM7 repliesview on HN

Am I dumb or does that sentence "Analysis finds anytime electricity from solar available as battery costs plummet" make no sense grammatically?


Replies

FfejLyesterday at 6:11 PM

The actual headline is:

Analysis finds "anytime electricity" from solar available as battery costs plummet.

Those missing quotes go a long way to making the headline make sense.

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ttulyesterday at 6:48 PM

If they were going for maximum confusion, why not write, “Solar battery costs plummet analysis findings back anytime electricity availability”?

Subject (((((Solar battery) costs) plummet) analysis) findings)

Verb [back]

Object (anytime (electricity availability))

Garden path sentence structure trap creation relies on initial word parse error encouragement. Brain pattern recognition system default subject-verb-object order preference exploitation causes early stop interpretation failure.

Solar battery costs plummet phrase acting as complex noun modifier group creates false sentence finish illusion. Real subject findings arrival delay forces mental backtrack restart necessity.

Noun adjunct modifier stack length excess impacts processing speed negatively. Back word function switch from direction noun to support verb finalizes reader confusion state.

We write to be understood. Short sentences and simple words make the truth easy to see.

show 1 reply
pqdbryesterday at 6:33 PM

Came in the comment section looking to see if it was just me. Had to read it 4 times

jt2190yesterday at 6:59 PM

The source report

“How cheap is battery storage?“ https://ember-energy.org/latest-insights/how-cheap-is-batter...

In short: Cheaper batteries plus already cheap solar means that solar is now a cheap source of “anytime electricity”.

neomyesterday at 7:15 PM

To me the context string is just a bit...lumpy or something, I don't think it's directly about the grammar. I would have written something more like: a battery costs plummet, analasis finds "anytime electricity" is now available from solar.

Etheryteyesterday at 6:54 PM

Falling battery prices make storing solar electricity for later use economically viable. This means we can use electricity from solar anytime around the clock. Even accounting for the cost of batteries, it's still competitive with other sources of electricity.

fweimeryesterday at 6:39 PM

I think “anytime electricity” is a noun phrase, and the rest is just the usual headline shortening. So something like this:

(Analysis finds ((anytime electricity) from solar) available) (as (battery costs) plummet)

In the unsuccessful parse, “anytime“ introduces a relative clause.

(Analysis finds [that] (anytime ((electricity from solar) [is] available))) ???