grammar - BBC: "Man convicted of murdering his girlfriend and their 10-month-old daughter at Winchester Crown Court"


What do you make of the following BBC News headline:



Man convicted of murdering his girlfriend and their 10-month-old daughter at Winchester Crown Court



Is it just me, or does this read as if the murders were committed at the court?



Answer



Yes. The meaning is understood, but a decent editor would have dropped the place reference from the headline. It adds nothing and introduces ambiguity.


To recast the sentence for clarity, I would suggest:



Man convicted at Winchester Crown Court of murdering his girlfriend and their 10-month-old daughter



That puts the money words ("murdering" "girlfriend" "daughter") at too far a remove from the beginning of the headline, however, so it is easy to see why the editor chose to put the place reference at the end. As I say, however, this information seems to belong more in body copy than in a headline.


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