A rumor's not a rumor that doesn't die.

[navi tasan]

1) A rumor's not a rumor that doesn't die.

That line is from a famous movie called 'The Usual Suspects'.

How would you parse it?

Is 'a rumor that doesn't die' a single noun phrase?

Or, is the sentence actually equivalent to "A rumor that doesn't die is not a rumor'?

In that case, 'that doesn't die' goes with the first 'a rumor' and we have a 'broken noun' phrase, part of which has been postposed.

 

[emsr2d2]

1) A rumor's not a rumor that doesn't die.

That line is from a famous movie called Source: 'The Usual Suspects', 1995 movie.

How would you parse it? Is 'a rumor that doesn't die' a single noun phrase no question mark here or no comma here is the sentence actually equivalent to "A rumor that doesn't die is not a rumor'?

In that case, If it's the latter, 'that doesn't die' goes with the first 'a rumor' and we have a 'broken noun' phrase, part of which has been postposed.

Note my corrections and comments above.

As far as I'm aware, and also based on this rather similar quote from Elton John, it means that if a rumour doesn't die, it can't continue to be considered a rumour. A rumour is generally short-lived. I don't think the movie quote is very well worded, to be honest. It would make more sense as "A rumour's not a rumour if it doesn't die".

 

[Tarheel]

A rumour is almost always something that can be either proved or disproved.

 

[Annabel Lee]

1) A rumor's not a rumor that doesn't die.

That line is from a famous movie called 'The Usual Suspects'.

How would you parse it?

Is 'a rumor that doesn't die' a single noun phrase?

Or, is the sentence actually equivalent to "A rumor that doesn't die is not a rumor'?

In that case, 'that doesn't die' goes with the first 'a rumor' and we have a 'broken noun' phrase, part of which has been postposed.

Your second parsing is the correct one, if we are to be guided by the intended (conditional) meaning, even though the first parsing is technically possible. On the second parsing, the relative clause ("that doesn't die") has been extraposed (moved) to the end of the main clause. There would be no difficulty in seeing this if the the main clause didn't end in a noun phrase -- e.g.:

A rumor's not short-lived that doesn't die.​

​

Here's another example with an extraposed relative clause, from Shakespeare's Sonnet 6:

That use is not forbidden usury ​

Which happies those that pay the willing loan; . . .​

​

The meaning of "which happies those . . ." is "if it happies those . . . ." The sensitive reader or listener, who is following along and understanding what is being said, would not understand "forbidden usury which happies those that . . ." as a single noun phrase.

 

[jutfrank]

The line is so badly worded that for me it's ungrammatical. As mentioned above, it should be:

A rumor that doesn't die is not a rumor.
A rumor's not a rumour if it doesn't die.

 

[Annabel Lee]

The line is so badly worded that for me it's ungrammatical.

Interesting. To me, it works beautifully. Would you find the extraposed relative ungrammatical if the terms changed?

A man is not a jerk who is kind to everyone he meets.​

 

[emsr2d2]

Interesting. To me, it works beautifully. Would you find the extraposed relative ungrammatical if the terms changed?

A man is not a jerk who is kind to everyone he meets.​

To me, that has the same problem. I'm sure I'd work out what it was supposed to mean after a bit of brain-jiggling but on first reading that means "A man is not something. That something is "a jerk who is kind to everyone he meets"". As I say, I'm sure I'd get it eventually, then I'd very rapidly wonder why the writer didn't use "if he's" instead of "who is".

 

[jutfrank]

Would you find the extraposed relative ungrammatical if the terms changed?

A man is not a jerk who is kind to everyone he meets.​

I find this one perhaps slightly easier to read even though it's structurally similar. With the original sentence in post #1, I had to read it several times before the meaning clicked and I knew how to parse it, which is what I mean by 'ungrammatical'.

As emsr2d2 says above, the ear may mistakenly latch on to the illusory noun phrase 'a jerk who is kind to everyone he meets'.