Poll: He put a bullet through his head.

Silvia Plath

Wouldn't suicide be 'he put a bullet through his own head'?

alexander

His is possessive. One only has one head, one's own. Of course it's suicide.

RonBee

Alexander is right.

Chunky

It could be either though. Depends on the context :s

Jack

It's murder to me.

Jotter Scalems

But what if the shot isn't lethal? ;-)

Jenny

If it was 'her' head it would be murder but this could be either

Vidableek

Since this is using pronouns which are very indirect, it could be either. But what I first think of when I read the sentence is suicide.

Connan

There are no antecedents given for the two pronouns, so there is no way of knowing if "he" and "his" refers to the same person. Since this is unknown, suicide could be an incorrect answer if the pronouns refer to two different people. Murder is correct in either case because suicide is just a specific form of murder.

Helmaron

This sentence is a bit ambiguous as there could be two people involved in the situation. He, the murderer, put a bullet through his, the victems, head. I chose the suicide option because it was the most appropriate one with the information given

Janefroy

We don't have enough information to know for sure, but as written it sggests suicide.

Norasan

For goodness sake! It could be either. It's just that most of us who see the two "he's" outside of any context immediately think suicide.